Let the pavement and the hills be your treadmill! Ditch the gym and start running! (Running)

Member Name: theabster

Product:	Running
Date:	18/01/09 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free! Freeing! Good for cardiovascular health. Therapy for depression!

Disadvantages: Tiring and can be tough on joints and knees. Long distance running isn't for everyone!

Running has become a huge part of my life. It is not something that I do singularly for the exercise, or weight regulation or any other kind of health benefit: I do it for the all encompassing way it reconnects you with your body, both physically and mentally. I literally feel like I couldn't live with without it. I am addicted to running! Mad as it sounds, I shall try to explain.

I began running when I must have been about 15 years old. I remember gruelling 9am cross-country sessions at school in freezing temperatures whilst we battled against mostly our reluctance to be seen to be enjoying it. I considered myself "ant-exercise", "anti-sport" and that there were better ways of spending your time that involved a heck of a lot less effort. Oh the naiveties of youth! And so began my running journey.

I went for a little jog round the neighbourhood that I live, just running on the pavement with a few beating tunes on my headphones. When I first started, I listened perhaps to just one or two songs, paced for perhaps 10 minutes or so, and came home. It wasn't much but it lifted my mood. A brisk walk would obviously have done just the same, but for some reason I chose to run it (quicker that way, I suppose!). Gradually it became a habit: I had a long day at school getting the bus at 7am and not returning home until around 5.30pm, but I would (much to my mum's dismay!) try and squeeze in a jog in the evening. I did act rather nonchalant about general risk awareness, and being a teenager made me more compelled to do as I pleased, but discrepancies aside, running became part of my life and began to shape me in ways I never expected.

As I became more familiar with running and I began upping my mileage, I needed quickly to invest in a pair of new trainers. The high impact nature of the sport lends itself to an array of leg related injuries, strains and stresses so you would be wise to take as much precaution as possible to avoid undue damage. Though I bought just a pair of Reebok runners from eBay, with little understanding of the dynamics of shoe design and personal fitting, it did enough to provide some protection from the shock of the concrete. My shins had been feeling the strain particularly: just a niggling, dull ache that was more prolonged as I upped the time I was running for. A simple internet search proved how running novices often overlook the importance of simple advice like kitting yourself out properly. This needn't be an expensive pursuit: I spent £35 on my first pair of running shoes and never bought a single piece of 'specialist' clothing (e.g. shorts, tops etc) for the first few years. Remember, there are no expensive gym memberships and no compulsory fees- running is, in the truest sense, based on your own personal freedom to mould it into your everyday life, whatever your situation.

I began running about 4 times a week for a year or two, whilst still at school but with more of a relaxed timetable. I would sometimes go for a short run at school with a friend if I knew I wouldn't have time that evening, or I would (I don't know how!) get up around 5am and take a 45 minute run before school. By this time I was getting the train to school which involved a commute of about 2 ½ miles to the station by bike- this I found to be incredibly complementary to my ability to up my mileage when running. I also tend to walk everywhere and my commute used to involve a 45 minute walk when I got off the train too. It was a long and tiring day, but the satisfaction of getting to sleep at the end was unlike anything.

I used to run about 15-20 miles per week then and found this to be the kind of optimum level I could sustain without letting my schoolwork down. I would take a longer run on a Saturday or Sunday: perhaps 6 miles or so, and it would flake me out for the rest of the day! It was the most wonderful feeling of barely being able to feel your legs and yet feeling utterly depleted and exhausted. It is weirdly masochistic! But incredibly satisfying.

Summertime always brought with it the excitement of being able to up my running mileage and essentially "see what I could achieve". By the holidays before I left for university I was up to around 35 miles per week, running at around 8 miles 2 times a week, occasionally a longer run of around 10 miles and then interspersed with shorter jogs of around 3 or 4 miles. It varied from week to week, according to what I had to do and where I had to be. I liked it best when I had a free morning to run at around 10am and be finished and showered by 1pm, but this will just vary as to whether you are a morning or evening person, or whenever you feel most energised. A long run of around 10 miles would take me about 1 hour and 20 minutes, though I never really measure my speed in time. I think when you run a lot you can be pretty in-tune with how fast you are running regardless of the timing and so you can adjust accordingly to get a more intense workout, or a more relaxed jog. I use the term 'run', but some of the time it is probably barely so! Comparative to the elite long distance runners, I am practically a snail, I am sure!

Was I ever aiming for some kind of goal? Am I still aiming for some kind of goal? I currently run as and when I can, though I am unable to get to the 35 mile a week stretches I was achieving before. Now in my second year of university, it can be difficult to combine the time consuming and relatively health-dependent aspects of running into student life. I feel constantly fraught living in a setting whereby 'enjoying myself' is seen to be through alcohol, parties and general procrastination, when I have essentially 'found' myself not be suited to that kind of lifestyle. The pressure to become part of that scene or be alienated from it is intense, and I wish I could learn for my university course in some other way. I have met some great people, some who enjoy running too, but few who consider it so much part of their lifestyle as to find the student life threatening to it. I am very much aware that I am reliant almost on running as a kind of therapy: as a means through which I can take time out of ordinary living to achieve a kind of balance. In the same way the concept of 'walking meditation' encourages you to take awareness of every step, running for me has facilitated a means through which I can make decisions in my personal life as well as forming an escape that allows me to essentially live for myself, in that moment, with only the landscape for company. It sparked in me a kind of spiritual awakening, a path to discovery of the potential of my imagination and creativity, particularly on long runs when I found my mind took me everywhere. I could imagine places I had never been, people I had never spoken to: I literally began to live a novel inside my head every time I 'escaped'. The rawness of existence becomes incredibly tangible when you are exhausted, when you are intimately aware of the mechanics, the failures and the wearings of your body. There is something methodical about it too (and about exercise training in general I suppose), that creates a kind of pseudo-primativeness, in which you can rediscover what it actually would have felt like to walk up to 25 miles a day in search of food. That acute awareness is incredibly important for me, and something I hope I can reignite as I abandon the trivialities of "student life" in search of that reconnection with nature that so helped me motivate myself to study in the first place.

A do have a few ambitions though! Running in a beautiful place always helps to improve the experience. So here's my plan:

The Midnight Sun Marathons: Tromso (Norway), Nunavut (Canada) and Mayor's (Alaska). These runs are above the Artic Circle, and sometimes held at midnight around the time of the summer solstice in June, when the nights are as bright as the day!

Marathon des Sables: meaning "marathon of the sands" or otherwise known as the Sahara ultra marathon. This is my ultimate! My dream! It is a six-day ultra marathon covering 156 miles, equivalent to five and ½ regular marathons on consecutive days. It is considered the toughest footrace on earth, with competitors expected to carry all personal belongings and food for the entire event. I aim to do it before I'm 30, but no doubt it will be sooner than that. I am already excited at the prospect!


And I once had a dream about running a marathon in Jordan in the Middle East. It was so vivid that I now feel I have to recreate the dream in real life! I think there is one around the dead sea, so I hope to do that.

So my tips for a great running experience would be:

1) Gradually increase the distance you run/speed you run until you can manage the amount you do in your daily life. Don't overdo it. Don't let being tired out affect being with the people you love and take days off to rest and recuperate. Muscles work better when rested, not when overworked!

2) Eat well: arguably I think the best diet for a serious runner is the Raw Food diet (see www.runningraw.com for more inspiration regards to that!) but I stick to just a vegan diet just now, since it is pretty anti-social to be raw 100% of the time. But there is no need to be so extreme: just be gentle with your body both with your running and your diet- be as healthy as you can be. Keep hydrated and drink fluids all day long. Post a big run make sure you get a little extra salt in your food, and if you can eat more protein after a run but more carbohydrates before.

3) Buy some good shoes. Go to a running shop and get them to fit you a really good pair that suit's the way you run (according to how your foot lands on the ground and flexes). It is worth it. Layer up in the winter with lots of thin non-cotton layers (cotton holds sweat and messes up you keeping warm!)

4) Invest in an ipod or something equivalent! Time out to listen to music is part of the beauty of running.

5) Try some yoga stretches to ensure that your muscles are well stretched post-exercise. I never do stretches before, since I think you need to warm you muscles up a little before you strain them. That's my theory anyway, but I am NOT good advice! Do whatever you feel is best for you though, and whatever is most comfortable.

6) ENJOY!

Summary: Just try it and see what happens!