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| New year, old gear, but I like my comfy orange coverall |
I can never resist a play on words. So I'm playing around with the award-winning This Girl Can campaign because I'm on a mission to inspire middle aged women to run. And I became a grandmother in March, at the age of 52. I imagined everyone would say, when I told them this news, 'but you're too young to be a granny!' Not enough people did, to my great indignation. One young woman even said 'is this your first grandchild?' I punched her lights out, of course.
People do say I'm an inspiration, though. I am quite old to be training as much as I do. My last blog on the subject covered the 365 days from the 2014 Virgin Money London Marathon to the 2015 event, which I ran in 3:44.08, a personal best.
Now I am embarking on a 16-week training schedule to attempt a 3:30ish marathon time. I won't be boring myself to death by posting every day. Weekly will do. Starting on the cusp of the new year seems apposite, given all the New Year New You marketing malarkey bombarding festively plump, vulnerable and hungover post-revel resolution makers around this time.
So for anyone reading this who wants to be inspired to run, or has chosen running (a famously cheap and outdoorsy calorie-burning option) as part of their New Me health kick, here are some useful tips to help you on your way.
- Eat to run, don't run to eat. By which I mean, each run should be appropriately fuelled. Don't get into the 'run to eat cake' mindset. Punishing yourself by going on a 1000-calorie a day diet and running 5miles daily will burn you out: your body will go into starvation mode and start storing fuel. 'Rewarding' runs with pointless calories from doughnuts and biscuits will accentuate the muffin top. Eat real food, not too much, and be realistic about how much you need. It's easy to work out your resting metabolic rate and eat accordingly.
- Start slowly. Walk for a minute, run for half a minute. Build up to running for one minute. Make your first outing a 15-minute toddle round the block. Follow an NHS Couch to 5k schedule.
- Make running fun: seek out likeminded friends who fancy giving it a try, pop along to local running groups and clubs, sign up for parkrun, which is free, full of friendly people, and no-one judges you if you walk, because it's NOT A RACE.
- Enjoy winter training. Getting outdoors and making the most of short daylight hours is a well documented mood booster. My favourite running time is dawn (in winter that is a very civilised 7.30am ish), or as early as I can get out in the morning.
- When you're just starting out, run no more than three times a week, to give your body time to recover.
- Revisit your childhood. Remember you used to run to get to places more quickly? Yes, you did. Why did you stop? Running is not undignified, or embarrassing. We were built to run. You just have to start. Yes, you will get out of breath, if you're out of shape. Walk a bit, then, until your breathing gets back to normal, then run again.
- Don't take the lift.
- Don't buy a bungalow.
- If you've been sitting down for longer than an hour, get up, roll your shoulders and plan your next run
- Read this blog and follow me on Twitter @ronnie_haydon
