The Difficulties of Striking In
It’s always fun to have guest writers for my blog, and obviously I’ve been really slacking on giving my poor blog attention lately, {sigh…} so this is an extra fun treat! Lucky for me I was contacted by a writer for runreviews.com who wanted to write a guest post on my blog all about running. And since I myself am not a runner, {due to some bad knees and a bilateral knee surgery I endured through a few years ago}, I jumped at the chance! 
Hope you enjoy!
As a freshman runner, you may face certain difficulties that you should get clarification on. Whenever you feel uncertain, just pop the question to someone you know you can get answers from.
As any other new field that you are exploring for the first time, sports can be scary and can make you wish to quit. Quitting is a very easy thing to do, if you do not care about being coherent in your actions and finishing what you start. Your biggest fear probably is “What if I can not do it? What if I fail?” As any other hypothetical question, this one remains rhetorical. No one can answer it. But a sure thing is that you will be a failure if you do not have the courage to start, if you give up. Generally speaking, it is best not to focus on the big picture, if the big picture is too blurry and scary. Concentrate on the beginning, and once the beginning has been made reality, focus on the next steps and so on and so forth. But the idea here is that sports are not scary. Yes, pain and fatigue and sprained ankles are, but they will not kill you. So what if you your body sores after your first day of practice? It is only normal. You are alive. So look towards your harmonically built body and think what that will feel like. You will be giving up smoking, unhealthy food and your days will be much happier and fulfilling, as working out in the morning reaches your serotonin arrearages and completely bolsters your self image.
As a beginner, you want to start slowly. Do not overdo yourself. For your first run, 10-15 minutes are enough. You are getting out of a sedentary life, don’t forget. So be wise about this and keep it low for your first days. After this you may cross over to increased time and speed. Since you are new with this, there are things that may crush your spirit. Try to remember though that if you have been running for only 10 minutes and you feel you can not breathe anymore, you should stop. There is no shame in stopping. Relax, practice for a few seconds the technique of belly breathing and when you are comfortable again, proceed. You should not run more than 3, 4 times a week. Exhaustion will only lead to ceasing workout. Build a program and make sure you alternate training days with rest days. One is as important as the other. The body needs to breathe after this new kind of effort. Do not focus on speed. You will tend to ambitiously increase it too much and this is not something your freshman runner’s body needs.
If you feel that your motivation could be weakened, stay focused on at least 3 factors that pump up your motivation. There are various ways of strengthening your determination. If you are the literary type, you can start a blog or look for others’ blogs on running. Others’ experiences can be educational. Also, if what you are looking for is losing weight, try not to solely focus on this main goal. It will make you go crazy and you will most probably discourage yourself.
As any other new activity, you should try and bone up on the activity you are starting on. Read sports and running books and magazines, search for other runners’ experiences. Do not spend too much time thinking about how your first trainings should go and just go do it. While doing it, you will understand how your body responds and this way you will be able to plan your further trainings and future runs.
This article is a guest post by Miki, writer for runreviews.com, a site where you can read professional treadmills reviews .
