Be honest with yourself when determining your current abilities. There’s no shame in building slowly. It just means you get to improve even more.
Not every day is a hard day. There are huge benefits to varying your workouts. If you’re running about the same distance each day you run, you’re doing it wrong. Some days should be shorter, more intense intervals broken up by very slow jogs or walks, while other days should be “active recovery” days of short, slow runs, while other days you might go for distance and a sustained pace. Just to give an idea, even elite athletes will not usually do more than 2-3 hard (interval) days each week. You will want to start with 0 or 1.
Watch your volume: Slowly increase your total miles / week over time. Make sure you start low enough not to get repetitive stress injuries.
I was once a fairly successful runner and have a lot of experience with designing training programs for both distance running and weightlifting. I’d be happy to help you design your running program or to look over your program once you do some research and put something together. Let me know!
A side question: from a joint-stress point of view, is it better to have a heavily cushioned running shoe or it’s better to go for minimal shoes and avoid heel strike and running on hard surfaces?
That’s a tough question, and one I’ve actually struggled to answer myself.
If you ask anyone in the mainstream competitive running community, they’ll tell you to get a good, cushioned running shoe, but also to work on your form to develop a good midfoot strike. Runners often to barefoot drills and other drills to develop proper midfoot strike, but still run in cushioned running shoes. They’ll also go running on the beach barefoot if they can to improve foot strength and form.
Repetitive stress injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, joint and tendon problems) are the single most common injury in runners and have taken me out of the game many times, even when actively trying to prevent them and with proper coaching. Proper shoes and good running form are both supposed to reduce these injuries.
However, there are a lot of successful barefoot runners and I do think there is something to learn from the ancestral health and fitness communities. There are a lot of runners who go completely barefoot and a lot who use minimalist footwear like Vibrams and don’t report any issues. They claim that your body mechanics are better barefoot and I have to agree that we were built to run barefoot. However, a lifetime of wearing shoes could definitely make a difference on whether or not running barefoot is still a good idea.
I suspect that you just have to be a lot more careful with barefoot running and that it’s probably not a good idea for your joints or back longterm to run barefoot or minimal with high volume for years. But honestly, I don’t know if it’s any worse than doing it with cushioned running shoes. Runners in proper shoes also have joint problems when they get older.
The best general advice I can give you is:
Be honest with yourself when determining your current abilities. There’s no shame in building slowly. It just means you get to improve even more.
Not every day is a hard day. There are huge benefits to varying your workouts. If you’re running about the same distance each day you run, you’re doing it wrong. Some days should be shorter, more intense intervals broken up by very slow jogs or walks, while other days should be “active recovery” days of short, slow runs, while other days you might go for distance and a sustained pace. Just to give an idea, even elite athletes will not usually do more than 2-3 hard (interval) days each week. You will want to start with 0 or 1.
Watch your volume: Slowly increase your total miles / week over time. Make sure you start low enough not to get repetitive stress injuries.
I was once a fairly successful runner and have a lot of experience with designing training programs for both distance running and weightlifting. I’d be happy to help you design your running program or to look over your program once you do some research and put something together. Let me know!
A side question: from a joint-stress point of view, is it better to have a heavily cushioned running shoe or it’s better to go for minimal shoes and avoid heel strike and running on hard surfaces?
That’s a tough question, and one I’ve actually struggled to answer myself.
If you ask anyone in the mainstream competitive running community, they’ll tell you to get a good, cushioned running shoe, but also to work on your form to develop a good midfoot strike. Runners often to barefoot drills and other drills to develop proper midfoot strike, but still run in cushioned running shoes. They’ll also go running on the beach barefoot if they can to improve foot strength and form.
Repetitive stress injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, joint and tendon problems) are the single most common injury in runners and have taken me out of the game many times, even when actively trying to prevent them and with proper coaching. Proper shoes and good running form are both supposed to reduce these injuries.
However, there are a lot of successful barefoot runners and I do think there is something to learn from the ancestral health and fitness communities. There are a lot of runners who go completely barefoot and a lot who use minimalist footwear like Vibrams and don’t report any issues. They claim that your body mechanics are better barefoot and I have to agree that we were built to run barefoot. However, a lifetime of wearing shoes could definitely make a difference on whether or not running barefoot is still a good idea.
I suspect that you just have to be a lot more careful with barefoot running and that it’s probably not a good idea for your joints or back longterm to run barefoot or minimal with high volume for years. But honestly, I don’t know if it’s any worse than doing it with cushioned running shoes. Runners in proper shoes also have joint problems when they get older.