By Run Birmingham Activator Sally Bynoe
As you may already know, a lot of the work that we at The Active Wellbeing Society is to do is with people starting out on their exercise journey. With Run Birmingham, we work to support those taking their first steps and often have Couch to 5k running programmes taking place across throughout the year. If you don’t know much about the programme, it’s basically a good introduction into running and you start with lots of walking and just a little bit of light running to get you going.
In those early weeks, it’s about using your legs in a
different way and engaging different muscles. I’m not going to lie, it will
probably hurt a little as you’re using muscles that you probably didn’t even
know you had but it is well worth it!
Lots of things will probably come into your head, “my feet/legs
hurt”, “I can’t breathe”, “I can’t run”, “what
will people think if they see me out trying to run?”, “I’m too
slow”. All of these things are absolutely normal and pop into most
people’s minds. It’s something new and it’s ok to recognise there’s a bit of
fear. Remember, when you start something new you need to learn how to do it.
You’re not going to be a top athlete just because you’ve decided you’re going
to run. Also look to the reason you decided to start, and try to see ahead to
how you will feel once you achieve your goal.
Once you complete a session you will hopefully feel a sense
of pride and satisfaction. You’ve just achieved something you didn’t think that
you could. It’s your first building block, so the following session when you
return, try to remember how you felt at the beginning of the previous session
and remember, you can do it, you’ve done it before!
It can take a little while to settle in when you start running and it’s always
ok to walk if you need to. The programme builds slowly so initially it’s about
learning to use your legs differently, what to do with your arms and how to
breathe when you have a slight bounce in your step. It can feel a slow process
but I promise you, that you will be making progress.
It’s good to check in with your body from session to session. You’ll find that something that was hurting before might not be hurting as badly the next time or you go a little further or a little faster. This usually happens without you noticing and as a Run Activator I like to highlight this so you can see the changes are coming.
A great thing to do is to get a jar and fill it with notes
of your successes. Don’t forget, you’re already winning by putting your
trainers on and stepping outside of the front door intended to get moving. This
is a great tool to keep motivated as when you recognise the small successes,
they soon become big!
S from Shard End, Couch to 5k, week 4, run 1.
“I can’t believe I’ve just run for 5 minutes and my back isn’t
hurting!”
If
you are interested in opportunities to exercise The Active Wellbeing Society
can help you, check out our activities here
