Runners Are Made, Not Born.

As a physical therapist I can unequivocally tell you that ANYONE CAN BE A RUNNER. Yes, you read that right. Anyone! Even you. Even if you are 20, 50, or 100 pounds overweight. Even if you are reading this from the comfort of your couch surrounded by a sprinkling of potato chip crumbs. Even if you have never run a full mile-except for that unit you did in grade school PE where you were forced to trudge out the entire 5,280 feet while contemplating your PE teachers demise. You can MAKE yourself into the runner you have always wanted to be (or the runner you have wanted to be for the past 2 minutes that you have been reading this post).

I always say that runners are made, not born and this is 100% true. Even the most elite runners started out walking and trained their bodies to run. And so will you. All that you need is a good pair of running shoes, a training program, a watch, and a desire to make a change in your life.

Shoes: You don't need to spend a fortune on your shoes, especially in the beginning. The start of any good beginners training program will consist of a lot of walking. Technical running shoes become more important as your overall running milage increases. It is, however, important to start with a new pair of shoes and track the miles that you put on them. Running shoes usually break down after 300 to 500 miles. Running in broken down shoes can lead to ankle, foot, knee, or hip problems. As a matter of fact, shoes are the leading cause of overuse injuries in runners. Most of which will resolve as soon as the shoes are replaced. That being said, it is also worth noting that since the start of your program will involve a fair amount of walking, you will probably be able to get by with more than 500 miles on your shoes. Just make sure to listen to your body. If you start getting aches and pains it may be time to go shoe shopping (and who doesn't like to shoe shop!).

Training Program: The best programs for beginners (or lapsed runners/postpartum runners) are the Couch To 5K programs (C25K). There are several of them out there. My favorite happens to be the Coolrunning.com program which I have referenced in my Best.Links.Ever section. I highly recommend this program as I have done it twice with great success. One thing to remember is that while the program is set up to take 9 weeks, it is not set in stone. If you feel that you are able to skip weeks-go ahead. If you need to repeat a week in order to feel like you can tackle the next weeks progression (like me!)-go ahead. Make the program work for you.

Watch: While the $200 Garmin GPS running watch complete with heart rate monitor and pace and distance calculations is AMAZING, do not feel that you have to have one of these fancy gadgets to get the job done. I run with a Walmart cheapie that I think cost a whole bank breaking $7. The only downside with a watch that only has a time and stopwatch function (which unfortunately are not even on the same screen) is that I have to know the distance that I am running (which means driving it in my car to calculate) including where the mile markers are (hoping and praying that I remember that the house with the black dog who is ALWAYS outside is the 2 mile marker) to calculate my pace-which then requires some head math. The silver lining-my head math skills haven't been this good since the 2nd grade when my teacher put the kabosh on writing in the margins. Oh, and that I paid JUST $7.00! :)

A Desire To Make A Change In Your Life- This desire has to come from you and you alone. There will be times when running is a challenge and it will be this desire that gets you through the next mile (or gets you out of bed in the first place!). In order to help you find this desire I have included some stats that I found in a great article on Runningplanet.com.


-people who run about 30 minutes per day - five days per week extended their lives by 3.5 to 3.7 years. 


-burning around 1600 calories or 16 miles of running per week may stop the advancement of cardiovascular disease and 2200 calories or 22 miles of running per week could actually reverse the disease.

-sedentary individuals can reduce their risk of premature death between 20% and 50% by simply becoming more active.

-higher, more intense levels of physical activity such as running were more effective in protecting against cancer than lower level activities. Physically active men and women were 30% to 40% less likely to develop colon cancer and physically active women were at 20% to 30% less risk of developing breast cancer than their less active counterparts.

-the most physically active breast cancer patients reduced their risk of cancer related death and recurrence of breast cancer by 26% to 40%.

-running 15 to 20 miles per week is associated with maintaining or building bone density.  Another study conducted in the year 2000 showed that intense physical activity led to a reduced incidence of hip fractures in the men studied.

-exercise also helps decrease the severity of existing osteoporosis. In a 6 month study, 98 older women with osteoporosis participated in high impact exercise training. The exercise improved their bone densities by .5% to 1.4%.

Now that you have everything you need it's time to get moving! Happy Running! 

" I want to lose weight-now what?"

The problem with being on a "diet" is that it typically has an end-when you reach your goal weight. The problem with this is that a great deal of people then revert back to old habits and eventually end up gaining back their weight and then some. In order to make a tangible change in my life I had to first change my thinking. Instead of thinking of this as a "diet", I though of this as a lifestyle change with the end result being good health and the side effect being weight loss.
Weight loss is basically math- calories taken in vs. calories burned through exercise. I think that most people over estimate the number of calories they should be eating a day. In my Best.Links.Ever section I have included a link for the Mayo Clinic's calorie calculator. You just put in your age, height, weight (or goal weight), and activity level and it will tell you how many calories you need per day to maintain your weight. If you calculate this for your goal weight you will know where your daily calories need to eventually be.
The very first thing that I did (and I highly recommend this to you) was to start journaling everything I ate with a running total of calories.  I was shocked to see how many calories were in some foods and even more shocked to see what my total calories were. The journal also helped to show me which meals and which times of day that I was taking in the most calories. This is a great place to start. Once you get a baseline of how many calories you are taking in per day I suggest trying to cut out 500 calories a day (or burning 500 more calories) in order to loose one pound a week- a safe rate of loss. If cutting 500 calories is too daunting of a task then I suggest cutting 250 calories and burning 250 extra calories through exercise.
A word of caution here: Do not try to change everything a once. At the start of any new "program" people are always so motivated and immediately try to break all bad habits at once only to get discouraged and quit. My advice to you is to address one thing at a time. I found that I was better able to stay on course and I was more successful when I only had to focus on one life change at a time. Each week decide what you will work on that week and make a goal for yourself. If at the end of the week you don't feel that you have mastered it, then continue it the next week until you feel comfortable enough to switch your focus onto the next area while maintaining the one you have mastered. The goal doesn't have to be difficult. One of my first goals was just to drink 64 oz of water everyday.
One more thing to keep in mind as you get started: The beginning of any new change/program/lifestyle is always the hardest. IT DOES GET EASIER. I promise. You just have to stay the course. Keep in mind that it will be difficult and then believe that you can do it. My favorite quote is from Henry Ford. It basically says that whether you believe you can do something or you believe that you can't- either way you are right.