You are ready. It's time to go all out. No excuses. Just dedication, motivation, and the will to succeed. That's how it goes the first week, maybe the next, but then it seems like the motivation drops and the enthusiasm deflates. The runs become less frequent. And eventually, you stop. Sound familiar?
In this article, we've gathered some great tips on how to start running well, avoid injuries, and most importantly, how to maintain your new good habit.
Tip 1: Patience, patience, patience
The motivation is high, and you're really ready to give it your all. But be careful. Starting to run well is primarily about taking it easy and having plenty of patience. Running is not something you become good at overnight. It takes time. So start slowly with few and short runs, rather than many and long ones.
Many start running but quickly drop out again either due to injuries or lack of motivation. One reason for this is that many want to achieve everything in half the time. But I can't stress enough how important it is to take it easy for the first long period.
Tip 2: Your fitness improves faster than your muscles and tendons
If you're a beginner, be aware that your fitness improves much faster than your muscles and tendons do. And what does that mean? It means that if you run according to your fitness, you're likely to get injured. It's very important to give your body time to catch up and strengthen itself. Therefore, a good tip is to run with ease in the first year – at least. You should run with the feeling that you can easily run faster and longer. It takes a long time (many months) for especially the body's tendons to adapt to the increased load, so give it time. Don't push your body, but focus instead on building good routines where you go regularly and have energy.
Tip 3: Have a goal and remember your motivation
A pitfall can be forgetting your motivation. You've started well, but suddenly you've forgotten what the point of it all was. Therefore, it's a good idea to have a goal to train towards. It could be that you have a specific distance you'd like to run, maybe you want to run a distance in a certain time, or you want to complete an official race like . Whatever it is, a goal can help push you out the door on days when it's tough and hard. When you've reached the goal you've set, or when it all feels a bit overwhelming, remember why you started. Was it for your health? Weight loss? Personal goals? Something else? Your motivation stems from something you need to remember. It was that motivation that got you started, and it should also help you continue.
Tip 4: It's in the breaks you get better
Once you've started running well, it's actually, believe it or not, quite nice. And therefore, many also want to run as much as possible. Therefore, many also end up overdoing it, and you need to be careful with that.
It's often injuries that cause people to stop running again. And metaphorically speaking, running is a marathon, not a sprint. Therefore, it's important to remember the breaks. Remember to rest so your body can recover. It's in the breaks that you get better. It's here your muscles and tendons have time to recover and become stronger.
Tip 5: Run in proper running shoes
It may sound trivial, but many underestimate the importance of running shoes. Maybe you have some old running shoes lying around that you used ten years ago, or maybe you just have some regular sneakers that you think you can run in. But be careful with that.
Instead, buy proper running shoes that protect your tendons and joints and help you get the best start to life as a runner. If you need good advice and inspiration for finding your next running shoes, help is available here:
See our full selection of .
Tip 6: Remember tip number one and don't rush
The best advice when you want to start running is to arm yourself with patience. Without getting too philosophical, running is something you should enjoy doing again and again and again and... Running is largely about repetition, and it's largely about enjoying the process. For running is truly an endless process. Therefore, there's no reason to risk injuries and other pitfalls by wanting too much too quickly. Take it easy. Enjoy it. Be patient.
If you need a good training plan that takes you safely and effectively towards 5 km, 10 km, half marathon, or marathon, you can find it here:
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