#ahem me

Starting from scratch?

I usually recommend that anyone who is beginning from scratch with no recent exercise history to start walking every day, working up to 30 minutes daily. Some start with as little as 10 minutes a day, others can do 30 minutes on Day 1.

A walk-jog program I like to recommend is to begin with two minutes each of brisk walking and jogging for a total of 30-32 minutes. Speed is irrelevant; just break into an easy jog and continue for two minutes, stop and walk for two minutes and alternate each for eight sessions, getting in at least a 30-minute workout.

Stay with the two minutes each of walking and jogging for 2-3 days and progress by adding 30 seconds to the jog portion every 2-3 days until you get up to 5 minutes continuous jogging with the two-minute walk in between. The number of repetitions will decrease as the length of the jog portions increase. The goal is to get in 30 minutes each workout.

Next reduce the walk portions by 30 seconds every two-three days till you are jogging 30 minutes non-stop. You might imagine that it will take four or five weeks to progress up to only jogging and you would be right.

Again, the point is to allow your bones to strengthen themselves for the pounding of running. If you think this is tedious, right again. I’ve had maladies where I remained at the two minute each walk-jog stage for a full four weeks. I knew that to progress quicker would be counterproductive.

During this gradual buildup of running, one can supplement with non-weight-bearing exercise as desired, such as biking, swimming, or rowing, to maintain cardiovascular fitness. 

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So how do you increase from the 30 minutes per day level? Assuming, like most new runners, that you are running anywhere between 7:30 to 10 minutes per mile, 30 minutes daily would be 3-4 miles or 20-30 miles per week.

Given the first premise of adaptation taking about three-four weeks, I advise increasing your weekly volume by five miles, but only every month. Thus, if you are running 25 miles per week for January, you can bump it up to 30 for February, 35 for March, etc.

I also recommend a rest week after each three weeks at the new level, with a 10 mile per week reduction. For example, the first three weeks in February are at 30 and the last week at 20 prior to increasing to 35 for the first three weeks in March.

The rest week allows recovery from the previous training level prior to upping the program. If one is going from a 25 per week base level up to 50 or 60 in preparation for a marathon, it’s going to take five-seven months to reach the goal mileage safely with this program.