Chapter 6 "Running Life" - 5 Running Starts

5 starts What You Need to Know When You Start Running Running will likely be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.But running doesn't always seem like fun when you first try it.First of all, maybe your health is not good.It's not irreparable, but if you're past your teenage years, you're probably not at your best.Your muscles are slack; your joints are stiff; your heart and lungs are not accustomed to exertion.As a result, you feel sluggish and clumsy when you run, and a little sore all over after you run.But even if your body is severely debilitated, it just means it takes a little longer for you to recover.

please believe me.I can assure you that this goal is worth fighting for.In just a few weeks, you can run a mile or two at a time.After a run, you'll feel refreshed.You will have more energy and greater enthusiasm.You will have more fun both at work and at play.You'll sleep more soundly, lose weight if you need it, and feel happier than you have in years. You won't get these results the first day, but take your time.Running is not something you do only for a while in the spring to look good in your bathing suit.It is at its best when it melts into your life and becomes an integral part of everyday life.So start slowly.If you read a lot about running, you'll often come across sentences like this: "Exercise, but don't overdo it." This is probably the most important piece of advice in this book.If you take it easy rather than force yourself to run farther and faster, you will improve just as quickly.And you won't get hurt as often.This is important because the fewer days you have between running, the easier it will be for you to stay fit.

before running First, take a few minutes to double-check how healthy you are.People who are new to running often have accidents if they are extremely weak or try to run too much or too fast.Don't let subjective wishes cloud correct judgment. Dr. Leroy Getschel of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, gave a popular course on maintaining physical fitness for adults.Here's his advice on how to start running: "If you're overweight, or prone to high blood pressure, or have a family history of heart disease, get a doctor to check you out. But if you can walk a couple of minutes miles without feeling uncomfortable or dizzy, and then jogging for a minute every thirty seconds, and if you still have no problem, you may pass. If you have the slightest doubt about your health, I suggest You do a cardio stress test. If people don't go through a cardio stress test, I don't put them in my training classes and I don't let them start exercising. But if anyone who wants to start exercising and running has to do a cardio stress test Many people wouldn't start running if they tried it. Generally, people under the age of 35 only need to have a check-up, or get the approval of their family doctor.

“Most people start running with a little movement. Build up gradually. If there’s a problem, they’ll have some signs—chest pain or dizziness or whatever.* But they shouldn’t be back after an hour of exercising. Feeling fatigued. If they still feel fatigued, it’s a sign that the workout was too intense for their body condition, and they should change their workout the next day to a less intense one.” Note: *Some situations may require a complete cessation of exercise, even temporarily.These include: having an infectious disease, recent surgery, kidney disease, a broken bone, certain EKG abnormalities, and very high blood pressure.

Some doctors are more cautious than Getschel, insisting that anyone over forty should have a cardiac stress test before embarking on a running program.Most people are familiar with an EKG.Because it records changes in the electrical current that occurs with each beat of the heart, it can be used to see how the heart is functioning.If an ECG is done while the patient is at rest, it will not reveal changes in cardiac function that may be caused by exercise.Therefore, the cardiac stress test is carried out by doing an electrocardiogram while the patient is exercising.Doctors watch the ECG, looking for changes in the electrical current curve that might indicate a potential illness.

A cardiac stress test costs about a hundred dollars.If you want to be prudent, you'll want to take one of these tests for reassurance (some health insurance plans cover them).Some doctors (but by no means all) do cardiac stress tests right in their offices.You can also go to a specialized measuring institution like the Heart Energy Measurement Institute at 295 Madison Avenue in New York City.Not long ago, a middle-aged runner I knew was appraised by the Cardiometry Institute.Although he has been running for three years and has run several marathons, he has never had a cardiac stress test.At the cardiometry facility, he ran on an inclined treadmill under the supervision of a cardiologist, and was examined by other doctors.After an hour of intensive and thorough examination, the doctor told him that he was in excellent health and that there was virtually no danger of any trouble with his heart.As a result, he became more interested in running than in the past.

If you have no history of poor health and no symptoms that worry you, it's probably safe to immediately start some kind of easy running, but heed Getschel's warning. Cardiac stress testing or not, new runners feel more at ease if they at least have some idea of ​​what their body is doing before they start.One of the quickest ways to learn about your health is to do the Harvard Step Test, which is described in Appendix C.How vigorously you run, especially when you're just starting out, depends on your fitness.If you do not do well on the Harvard ladder test, temporarily limit your activity.Alternate walking and jogging, and only do it for a few minutes.Two or three weeks later, when you do the Harvard ladder test again, your test results will almost certainly improve.Then you can start exercising a little harder.

Incidentally, if you're overweight, your test results probably won't be as good as you hoped to be. A recent report by Dr. Merle Foss and three of his colleagues showed that severely overweight people may need up to eight weeks of exercise just to be able to walk a mile.You probably won't have that much of a struggle when you start running, but keep in mind that being overweight can slow your progress. preparatory activities You put on the clothes you plan to wear on your run and you're ready to go.Wait a minute, don't run yet anyway.Your mind may be ready to run, but your body isn't.Chances are your body hasn't done anything all day, so the last thing it should do is jump into motion. Before you start running, you have to get your body ready, and that's what warming up does.

Some people think that preparation is not important. (When you look more closely at running, people have completely opposite opinions about almost every aspect of it.) Vaughn Thomas writes in Science and Sports that warming up is a A "magic factor"—he meant by implication that it would do some good. It's not as big as it is generally believed to be."Physiologically," he wrote, "the race is won by the increased function of the organs by the warm-up, but more often than not the race is lost by the expenditure of energy in the warm-up." His words may be That's right.But readiness still has something important to do and it should never be overlooked.

Cardiologist Dr. Paul Farday, introduced in Chapter 3, said that warming up can promote blood circulation and increase body temperature, thereby strengthening muscle contraction.He wrote in the "American Journal of Physical Therapy": "For middle-aged and elderly people, strengthening the blood circulation of the coronary arteries is particularly important, because if there is no warm-up activity in advance, it will be difficult at the beginning of strenuous exercise. There will be myocardial ischemia (insufficient blood flow to the heart)." Research by Dr. James Barnard of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine supports Farday's contention.When forty-four healthy men ranging in age from 21 to 50 were asked to run on a fast-rotating treadmill without prior warm-up, more than two-thirds of them developed abnormal electrocardiograms.Conversely, almost all EKG abnormalities disappeared or lessened when they did a two-minute warm-up before running on the treadmill.

Preparation activities for increased flexibility.As discussed in Chapter 3, running is very poor at improving mobility—much worse than swimming, handball, and tennis, for example, and only slightly better than walking, golf, and boules. The muscles of almost all runners are tense, especially the muscles in the calves.The reason is that the range of motion of the muscles used during running is relatively small, and the same action is repeated over and over again.You can increase the range of motion of your muscles a bit by doing different types of running -- fast and jogging, uphill and downhill -- but you'll also need to do exercises that increase flexibility. If you have enough time, it's best to do flexibility-enhancing exercises for about half an hour before each run.But who of us can squeeze out so much time? (I confess that I often neglect to stretch when I'm busy, because I'd rather spend that time running. I hope you are more sensible than me.) Fortunately, you can do a set in ten minutes Simplified Stretching Colloidal Movement - Certainly worth the time. To start, engage your abs and do a few sit-ups with your knees slightly bent to rely as little on your hip muscles as possible.No need to do it fast.Do it fifteen times.But you can do it a few more times if you want to. (When you're starting out, you may find that it's easier to do sit-ups if you stretch your arms over your head. Later, as your abs get stronger, you can do them harder—with the backs of your hands under the Behind the head, fingers interlocked. The next step is to stretch your hamstrings and calves: Lie on your back with your right knee bent, your right foot on the floor, and your left leg straight.Slowly lift your left leg until it forms a right angle with the ground, with your toes straight up.Slowly lower your left leg, then repeat the entire movement with the right leg.This stretches both legs three or four times. Now facing the wall or tree, put your palms on the wall or tree, and then slowly move your feet back, keeping your feet flat on the ground until the back of your legs feel very hard.Hold this position for twenty to thirty seconds to allow the muscles to relax.Repeat this movement two or three times. Finally, lie on your back.Keep your legs together, slowly lift your legs over your head, straighten your knees, and keep your legs parallel to the ground for 20 to 30 seconds.You will feel your hamstrings working hard. Health expert Bob Glover explains: "A flexible and mobile body is more efficient and less tense. Proper stretching before and after strenuous exercise can eliminate excessive stiffness and fatigue. , and it also prevents injury. It also increases your athletic efficiency. It also increases your running stride and makes you run lighter. It also reduces muscle tension and leg cramps.” Stretching is especially important if you're over thirty.Around the age of 30, if you don't do regular stretching activities, the muscles start to contract significantly, and the result is likely to be more prone to injury.Jim Nolan was a marathon runner and was fifty-four years old.He told me, "My daughter came home from college for the break, and I went out for a run with her without stretching first. I was sore. Younger people might be able to run without stretching, but those of us The old guy really needs to do it." Nolan, a writer, has a schedule as flexible as he is, sometimes doing ten short stretches a day. By the way, don't stretch the limbs suddenly and dramatically.When a muscle is pulled suddenly, it snaps back and shortens.Only when it is slowly stretched does it elongate and never retract. In Chapter 15, you'll see some other beneficial exercises.But for now, the four sports mentioned above will suffice. warm-up for running I sometimes run at the West Side YMCA in New York City when the weather gets really cold in the winter.There, there are inexperienced runners who sometimes stand by the side of the track, waiting desperately for their opportunity.As soon as they got a chance, they jumped onto the track, ran at top speed for two or three laps, and then stopped.This is not the right way to run.First, this is far from doing any good.Second, as mentioned, in warming up, you need to increase your body temperature and blood circulation.These changes don't happen in just a minute or two.They take a while—at least six or eight minutes. It's for this reason that it's a good idea to start off with a slow walk.I saw one of our country's best long-distance runners, John Vitale, warming up for the 10,000-meter race in Darian, Connecticut.He was moving so slowly that a toddler would have had no trouble keeping up with him, but then as he ran the six-and-a-half miles of ups and downs and back to a twisty section; five minutes. After a few minutes of easy running, you start to sweat.This shows that your warm-up is working and you are ready to run fast. where to run Finally you're ready for serious running.The important thing is to get out and run, a lot of people think they have to have a special place to run, but really any place that is relatively flat and won't get hit by cars will do.Regarding where to run, let me talk about a few opinions, not all of them are correct: I hate to run on the track because I think the quarter mile is the driest place to be.The main problem is that it's as tedious as running on a treadmill.To run a mile, you have to pass the same spot four times, so even a sprint seems endless. It's more fun to run in the park or on country roads.There is a beautiful little park not far from my house) The park has some wide grassy areas, a creek and a pond, two gazebos, and a flock of Canada geese all year round. If I just go for an easy walk, I'll run around the whole park in about eight minutes; I call it a mile.I've never done a long run in this park - it would be as monotonous as running on the treadmill again.But sometimes I turn a few corners there and change tricks. Or I run on the road, either north to the hills and countryside, or south to the Long Island Sound, where there are forests and beaches along the coast; it depends on what I want to see.If you're not very familiar with the roads and byways in your area, buying a USGS map will help you out. You will find that each route has its own characteristics.Not far from my house is a mile-long sidewalk—it's called Ridings Rock Road.This part of the road is to me what the poppy field is to the cowardly lion.Every time I run there, I feel that I can't run anymore, but after running this place, I feel comfortable right away.There is another path that always makes me feel good.Although it is partly uphill, I can trust that I will feel comfortable there.Why I have these two feelings, I cannot explain. How about just staying home and running in place?If you want to do this for some reason, that's fine.As long as you're getting your heart pumping fast enough, you're going to get a noticeable workout regardless of whether you're going anywhere while you're doing it.But you won't be able to enjoy most of the fun of running—the changing landscapes and seasons, the sun and the wind, the fun of running with friends.You may think running in place is an ideal form of exercise, but I wouldn't do it for your money. talk about how not to feel like a fool Some people feel too conspicuous and stupid the first time they run in their running clothes in full view.I know I have felt this way.I used to wait until I didn't think anyone was around, then sprint out the back door of my house, toward a place where I believed no one would see me. I've now discovered that running secretly is unnecessary.First, most people envy you for running.Second, people generally only care about their own thoughts and don't care when they see someone running.To them, you are just part of the landscape.Also, the longer you run, the more you become a permanent part of your surroundings. Where I live, I'm just part of the neighborhood; kids cheering me on, adults waving at me, and if I don't run at my customary time, they're like, "Hey, you're early! "I smiled and waved, we all got along very well.You will too. Beautiful and easy-to-master running technique Do you remember the first time you tried to play tennis or golf?Isn't it awkward to hold a racquet or bat the way your teacher taught you?Running is not like those sports.Everyone knows how to run.And, the more you run, the more effective your running form will be. The secret to mastering your running form is to run naturally.Your body is a unique biomechanical system. It's different from anyone else.It has its own center of gravity and joint articulation.It is for this reason that imitating anyone else's running form is a mistake.Just keep your body straight, hold your head up, and lean forward slightly.Don't let your hips move too much.Bend your elbows as you run, but not close to your chest.Both hands should be relaxed, not fisted. (Tension in one part of the body causes tension in other parts.) When you run, don't worry about the size of your strides; just run as you feel.Hips, knees and ankles should be relaxed.Each step should involve the heel touching the ground, moving forward, and finally kicking back off the ground with a flick of the toes.If you feel unnatural, try touching the floor with the entire sole of your foot.Don't run on your toes, you'll just make your calves sore and possibly strain your heels. Breathe naturally.If you're running slowly, you don't need to open your mouth very wide; but when you're running fast, don't be afraid to gulp in all the air you can. (For some reason, many first-time runners have the wrong idea that they shouldn't open their mouths.) As you run, keep these principles in mind, but don't let it sway or ruin your run.Remember that you run not only for your health, but also for fun.Running is a break from menial tasks and a special treat for body and mind.If you focus on this pleasure, your health and posture will naturally improve as well. How fast should you run? If you're just starting out, don't think about speed.Take it easy and let your body get used to the unaccustomed running activity.Stop when you get tired, and run for a while.do not worry.Adopting a strenuous exercise program can be just as harmful as binge eating.You should be able to talk while running, so don't run so fast that you won't be able to talk to your friends comfortably. When your physique strengthens, you can run faster and maintain a certain speed for a longer period of time while using the same amount of effort.Only then can you think about how fast you're running. David Berhans of Pasadena has been running since 1970.He recounted to me how delighted he was to see how quickly he had improved after he had overcome the early difficult stages: "I'd like to say it was a breeze, but it wasn't like that. After I ran every day I was completely exhausted. I believed every day that my body had reached the end of its endurance, and no matter how much others persuaded me or how good it was for future health, my body could not run any faster. Later, it gradually appeared Something weird happened. I started to realize that I was using less and less energy to run a mile. I started getting stronger." Attached table: Average runner time per five miles in first seven years of running 45 │ ★ │ │ │ │ │ │ 34 │ ★ │ ★ 33 │ │ 32 │ ★ │ ★ 31 │ ★ │ ★ 30 │ ★ └──────────────────────────1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 Whether you can adapt to exercise depends on whether you adopt the principle of excessive load.If you make your body do a job that it doesn't do easily, your body will not only get strong enough to do the job, but it will get stronger.Therefore, if you want to improve your health, you have to use the principle of overloading.It's not hard to work out how much overload you need, we all have a maximum heart rate, our hearts can only go so fast and no faster.While heart rate varies from person to person, your maximum heart rate is approximately 220 beats per minute minus your age.If you're forty, it's about a hundred and eighty, if you're thirty, it's about a hundred and ninety, and so on.For most people, your heart rate during exercise should be your resting heart rate plus 75 percent of the difference between your resting heart rate and your maximum heart rate. To figure out how intense your workout should be, figure out your maximum heart rate, then after sitting still for a few minutes, take your pulse to find your resting heart rate.Subtract your resting heart rate from your maximum heart rate, multiply by 0.75*, add this number to your resting heart rate, and most of the time, to keep your heart Run at that fast pace.To save yourself the trouble of calculating, just look up the "Using Your Pulse as a Guide to Exercise" table.It's the same as the formula above, although it doesn't take into account differences in individual resting heart rates.The numbers in the table labeled "Optimum Heart Rate" are recommendations, but any number between "Minimum Heart Rate" and "Maximum Heart Rate" is fine. Note: *Use 0.65 to multiply if you smoke, or are over 20 pounds overweight, or if you have had recent surgery, or have been seriously ill. Using Your Pulse as a Guide to Exercise Sheet Minimum heart rate for women age Optimum heart rate Maximum heart rate 25 130 157 185 30 126 153 180 35 123 149 175 40 119 145 170 45 116 140 165 50 112 136 160 55 109 132 155 60 105 128 150 65 102 123 145 man's age 25 137 166 195 30 133 162 190 35 130 157 185 40 126 153 180 45 123 149 175 50 119 145 170 55 116 140 165 60 112 136 160 65 109 132 155 To measure your pulse, use a watch with a second hand.Stop running and measure your heart rate from your wrist or neck just below the corner of your jaw.Carefully count your heart rate for six seconds, then add a zero.Some authorities recommend counting longer to increase accuracy, but heart rate drops very quickly after exercise stops, so six seconds is best. But those who have a pulse meter have lately adopted one of the easiest methods of measuring the pulse.This is a watch that, in addition to telling the time, can also display your heart rate digitally by monitoring the blood pressure of the capillaries.Its only downside is that you have to temporarily stop running to get an accurate reading. No need to check your pulse every time you run.With a little practice, you'll know how fast you have to run to hit the aforementioned 75 percent heart rate, but you'll want to measure it every few weeks because as your fitness improves, you'll need to run faster. To achieve the same heart rate, you have to run faster. Don't think of the number 75 percent as sacrosanct.Subtracting your age from two hundred and twenty to get this maximum heart rate is only an estimate.If your heart rate is lower than this, you may find yourself feeling fatigued as you try to keep your pulse rate at 75 percent of this hypothetical maximum heart rate.If this happens, take it slow and don't worry.Each of us is different.All we can do is make the best of what we have. The reason for the 75 percent figure is that cardiovascular fitness (which is what really matters, and fortunately, that's what running can achieve) depends on how efficiently the body uses oxygen. The heart rate is directly related to the amount of oxygen used.So when we make the heart beat faster, we activate the oxygen-handling machinery, thus strengthening it. By the way, percentage increases are not good.If you try to get to 85 or 90 percent, you're not going to get faster results. How far? When you first run, don't plan to run very far.Just manage to run a few hundred yards.If you feel tired or short of breath, take a short walk.When you feel the rest come, run another few hundred yards.When you've run a total of half a mile, if you don't want to go any further, don't run.It is important to run at least four times a week.Only by running continuously can there be progress. It may take months before you can run two or three or four miles at a time; don't rush, it's safest to increase gradually.If you try to run too much too fast, you are likely to injure yourself.When I first started running, I had all kinds of injuries.I always wanted to run too much too fast.Now I can run a lot, but I almost never really run hard.I was once unable to run due to an injury.Two or three years have passed since then. If you find that you're sore or tired after your workout increases, slow down your progress.By the way, it's best not to work out your exercise program days in advance; if you're as stubborn as I am, you won't want to change it.But try not to.It's important to pay close attention to your body to see how it responds.After some time, you learn how your body responds so you can adapt your workouts well. Question about not buying a stopwatch You can no doubt see by now that I am indifferent to questions of how fast and how far I run.Having that attitude adds to the fun, and I think I've made almost as much progress doing it as I would have done with a rigorous exercise program.So while you may be desperate to see how fast you can run, don't buy a stopwatch—not yet, anyway.A man who runs with a stopwatch often seems to be haunted and driven by something. Most important was what one researcher called "how much effort I felt I was exerting."It just means how taxing you feel for a run.If you feel comfortable with your workouts—not ridiculously easy or bone-shatteringly exhausting—it's about right.The advantage of the criterion of how much effort is used is that it takes into account factors such as heat, humidity, terrain and wind.Sometimes you may run fast, other times you run hard.It doesn't matter.What matters is how you feel. Pay attention to normal breathing After you've been running for a few minutes, especially when your body starts to build up, there's a wonderful thing that happens to be known as normal breathing.Return to normal breathing occurs after the initial period of shortness of breath.When this happens, the shortness of breath subsides and you suddenly feel light, powerful, and fast. There has been much debate over the years as to whether there is really such a thing as restoring normal breathing.Dr. Roy Sheppard reported that twenty students performed a hard twenty-minute exercise on the treadmill.Eighteen of the students who were asked by the researchers during the one-minute breaks between workouts said their breathing improved after a short run; fourteen said their legs felt better .You will go through phases where you can breathe normally.Please have a good experience. weather After reading Chapter Thirteen, you'll know how to run when it's hot, cold, snowy, or rainy.When you first start running, there are really only two factors you have to be careful about: heat and humidity.Both of these factors will slow you down, so don't run in mid-August like you did in April.The heat and humidity can make you very uncomfortable.If it's probably going to be over 80 degrees Fahrenheit at noon, you should try to run early in the morning, or just after the sun goes down. After running for a while, heat is less of a problem as your body finally gets used to the heat.It takes about a week of running in hot weather to fully adapt. As for rainy days, if you follow the advice in Chapter 13, you'll never have to stop running. after every run After running, don't stop suddenly.Take some time to calm down gradually.This should include short, easy walks and doing some of the kind of stretching you do before a run.After every run, it is especially beneficial to do some stretching exercises.Your muscles are most likely to stretch when they are warm and supple.Try to calm down the body for eight or ten minutes so that the waste of metabolism is excreted from the muscles.When you stop, your pulse should be within twenty beats of what it was when you were not exercising. What to do when you are sore When you first started running, you probably had sore legs.This is hard to avoid.If you're in a lot of pain, you're running too hard, too fast.The soreness should be nothing more than a pleasant tingling.It's your body's way of telling you that long-dormant fibers are working again.Take a hot bath, then apply some activating oil or something, massage and massage and you will feel better.If the pain isn't severe, there's no need for you to cut back on running. Run slowly the next day, preferably on soft grass, which will make your muscles feel more comfortable. As your running program progresses, you may occasionally feel pain in your bones and joints. Pain in the outer shin is a case in point.This is pain in the front of the leg that is common among first-time runners.This pain is a very natural phenomenon.You make your body do things it has never been made to do—at least for a long time—and it has to work hard to reinvent itself in order to make its parts more effective.So, while your body adjusts, pain of varying degrees of severity is bound to occur from time to time.Most pain goes away without treatment; rarely will any pain stop you from running altogether.A good rule of thumb is this: If it hurts better when you run, keep running, and if it hurts more, take a break. make running a habit As we've already seen, running not only has physical benefits, but also some psychological ones as well.But if you don't run regularly, you won't get either benefit.So, from the start, make running a habit.Set aside time to run exclusively, and allow enough time to change, warm up, run, calm down, take a leisurely shower and change, etc.Running is more fun if you don't run it like an errand. overcome setbacks If, for some reason, you haven't run in a while, don't say, "Alas, all my workouts went to waste." Unless you've stopped running for a long time, you'll still be enjoying some of the benefits of past workouts .It takes about the same amount of time to completely lose your fitness as to start gaining exercise.Get back to running as quickly as possible. Do some light test runs to check, see how much your workout has been wasted and get back running right away.It won't take long for it to return to its original level. The longer you run, the less you will find excuses not to run.In the beginning, you may go a few days without running.After that, you hardly ever have a day off.In the last two years, I've only had five days without running, and those days were spent on the high, rocky trails of the White Mountains.I could easily die if I ran there. , So don't worry about being frustrated, and resume your good habits as soon as possible. (By the way, avoiding overindulgence and gaining weight when you stop running will keep many of the benefits you've gained from exercising.) keep a diary Most runners keep a journal in which they record their running experiences. Joe Henderson, editor-in-chief of Runner's World, kept a diary for years.His diary is very detailed, not only recording the mileage he ran, but also recording his feelings during the run.我的日记就记得比较简单：“十一月十一日（星期三）——10。 HILLS”。“10”的意思是我那天跑了十英里。“HILLS”是个代号，意思是，我跑的是北边坡地路线，而且在上坡的时候跑得很费力。有些跑步的人还记录他们的饮食、体重、感觉等等。你想记什么就记什么，但是一定要试着记，而且还要不时记录你的静止时的心搏率。这样你就能一开始就检查你的进步情况。你会发现，一年以后再回过头来看看是很有趣的，你会说：“哎呀，去年这时候，我只能跑半英里。今天我能跑五英里了。而我的心搏率慢了二十下了！ "