Hi everyone,
You are all doing so well! I was about to say it seemed to be a walk in the park for you, except for once we weren’t in the park… 🙂 As we noted on the run on Thursday, the canal is a great place to run out for a distance and turn around at the halfway point. It allows for non-stop running and it’s easy to get to. But please always be careful of the bikes!
If you haven’t yet joined the group, there is still time to join us and not be far behind, but please join us this week! Or let me know if you’d like to punt out a year and I’ll keep your info for next year if you’d like.
A couple of dates to put in your calendar:
Thursday 10 October – we will be having a we will have a little gathering after the run (location TBD) to talk about the race (which should be announced in the next few weeks). It will be a chance to hear from some former beginners about their experience, ask any questions and just be social.
Thursday 17 October – Big Ben! We will be running to Big Ben this day, believe it or not! So clear your calendars so you can join us for this major beginner group milestone! Don’t worry – there will be many traffic lights and stops along the way, and you’ll be ready for it, we promise.
Keeping it Slow on Tuesday
I’m hearing that it is a little tricky to keep it slow on Tuesdays. This is normal – we hear this every year. At this point, you should be keeping together, for the most part, as a pack. So one way to help this is to have the slower people up front to set the pace. Just make sure you don’t crowd them!
Next Week’s Route
We will likely be running through Primrose next week. We will plan to start running at the corner of Charlbert and Allitsen, so those of you who have been meeting us in Regents – you’ll need to meet there or at Barclays. Also, in the next week or so we will start doing warm up exercises at Barclays and doing a shorter walk to start, so you may want to build into your schedule to come to Barclays soon to start.
Now that we are a few weeks in to the program, we wanted to give a bit more information on shoes, nutrition and aches/pains.
Shoes – if you are feeling like you want/need a new pair of shoes, you can go out at any time now and buy some. Runners Need and the Asics store on Oxford St both do gait analysis and will help you find the proper shoe. However, you do not need to go out and buy a new pair of shoes if you are feeling like yours are fine. There may be a point when we will advise you to get a new pair of shoes because if yours are getting old, they won’t have the support you will need as we start to increase our run times. But for now, as long as you’re comfortable, you’re fine.
Nutrition – it’s good to eat a little something before you come out to run, but you don’t want to eat a lot. Everyone is different in what works for them so try different things each week and see what works for you. Things to try – a banana, yogurt, toast with peanut butter, a granola bar. It’s fine to have coffee before the run. When we are running longer distances, we will give you more information about nutrition for before, during and after the run, but we aren’t to a point yet where we need to be thinking about it. More things to look forward to!
Aches – some of you may be experiencing some aches and pains. It is common to have some aches and pains during the first 2-3 months of this program. For the most part, it’s just our body’s way of telling us “Thank you very much, but I would prefer hanging out at Starbucks and skipping the running part.” Many of you are already fit through other types of sports/hiking/tennis/etc, but we use different muscles in running and those muscles/joints will speak up. As a very general guideline, most experts suggest ignoring any pains during the first 10-15 minutes of an exercise session then after that monitoring whether the pain/discomfort is stabilizing or increasing. If the pain increases while you are running, then you should stop – if the pain is consistent or lessens during exercise then usually you’re fine to continue. There are experts such as physios listed on the womenrunningtheworld.com website if you are interested.
Other Exercise
All of us will benefit from lots of stretching and some squats or lunges whenever you have a bit of time. You don’t have to go to a gym to do squats/lunges – you can do them anywhere. Those exercises build muscle in your legs particularly around your knees. The stronger those muscles become the more they can help to stabilize your knee joint which is extremely helpful in running. Don’t let these suggestions overwhelm you! None of it is required, it’s just the more you do, the easier the running will be. Lastly on this topic, we are still only running twice a week. This is SO important. Feel free to do as much walking as you want, and tennis, or swimming, yoga, pilates or whatever….. but not running. Twice a week is the perfect amount right now. In a month or so we will come to a point where we’ll tell you it will be good to add a third run, but not yet.
See you Thursday,
Your coaches