Whether you have never been for a run or are building up to a marathon, sometimes the biggest challenge is just getting out the door. Here, running coaches share their tips on everything from mindset to avoiding injuries – but mainly how to find joy in running. Motivation ebbs and flows in all of us.” Wilkinson suggests arranging to run with someone to make yourself get out – “It’s much harder to let a friend down.
There’s a sense of obligation to turn up” – or find a running club to . If you sit on your sofa, you will not get up again.” “There are going to be days when you don’t want to do it,” says Thomas Craggs, who leads the World Class Endurance Programme for UK Athletics, which includes Keely Hodgkinson and Emile Cairess. But they do it anyway.” Craggs says he got into running as an “overweight, sedentary adult” and quickly became a mass participation marathon runner.
For those who feel nervous about running in public for the first time, he says: “Being self-conscious is normal – you are not the exception. You are going to have to embrace a period of discomfort to reach the point where running feels comfortable. But one of the joys of being a new runner is that progression can be quite rapid, so you go from struggling to do 30 to 60 seconds’ worth of running to being able to run for 30 minutes.” “Couch to 5K is probably your best bet to start, because then you have a little cheerleader on your phone,” says Allie Bailey, an ultrarunner, coach and the author of 31 Days: A Zero Bullsh*t Mindset Masterclass for the Modern Runner.
The app involves a mixture of walking and running to get you going. If you can jog and hold a conversation, that’s a good pace to start.” Don’t be afraid to walk, agrees Wilkinson. I walk all the time,” she says.
Emma Kirk-Odunubi, a running coach and author of Find Your Pace: How Running Changed My Life and How It Can Change Yours Too, recommends having your gait analysed, especially if you can get it done at an independent running store. Don’t forget: “You’re a hobby runner, not a professional athlete.” If you’re more of an experienced runner, is it worth buying those carbon-plated shoes – the kind favoured by record-breaking athletes – to get a PB (personal best)? Bailey gets hers secondhand: “I buy from Preloved Sports.
You can get everything – T-shirts, shorts, bras – really cheaply. The most sustainable kit you’ve got is the kit you’re already wearing.” Work out what your goal is. This could be, “I want to be able to run continuously to that lamp-post in six weeks’ time, or I want to go to a parkrun in six weeks’ time,” says Craggs.
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