10 Beginners Tips To Get Effective Running

Everyone struggles with motivation sometimes, even the pros. And everyone finds running hard at some point – it’s perfectly normal to find it daunting at the beginning, or after a break.
Running has a steep learning curve, not so much for your head as for your unaccustomed-to-the-impact muscles. So don’t stop after your first, second, or even third run: they are literally the hardest you will ever do.

And any time you push your body to do something new, you are probably going to feel it the next day. DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness – is perfectly normal, and nothing to worry about. It passes. But if you have something that hurts for more than a couple of runs, do try to get it seen to.

When you get over the top of the first steep curve you’ll be able to back off a little, and suddenly it feels enjoyable.


Yes, everyone. Whatever your age, size or background. Even if you’ve not so much as sprinted for a bus since you left school, and watching Mo Farah on the telly leaves you breathless, once you start running you will be surprised how quickly you improve.

You’ll not only get faster but healthier. Study after study shows that running brings enormous benefits, from cutting your risk of getting some types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, to reducing your chances of high blood pressure and stroke.

Then there’s the mental health benefits. Of course, you should check with a doctor if you have any concerns, but the vast majority of people can improve their state of mind and health with a couple of runs a week.

Following a realistic plan will help you improve faster than simply winging it. Realistic might mean not pushing yourself too fast, too soon and risking burn out – or equally, not slogging around a half marathon horribly underprepared.

If you are a complete beginner, then the NHS’s Couch to 5k programme is a superb start, tried and tested by thousands of runners. It assumes nothing beyond a certain amount of willpower, and will get you from panting by the first lamp-post on day one to running 5km without stopping in nine weeks.

If you are already in reasonable shape there are many online training plans, podcasts, apps and magazines or books that will help you step up.
Just make sure they have been devised with the help of a reputable coach and that they have the right focus for your individual goals.

10 Tips For Effective Running

You want to keep your running to a nice, easy pace when you're starting out. So your body needs time to get used to these new stresses and strains of running.
Far too many people start running far too hard and then they pay the price for this mistake, the obvious being that you just crumble mid-run, but also you could run the risk of getting injured.

So to avoid this altogether, just try and keep those runs to a nice, easy, and conversational pace.


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The beauty of running is its simplicity.
You can just head out of your door and run, but there's one thing that can totally transform your running, and that is your running shoe.

Having learned the hard way myself, I would honestly recommend investing in a good pair of running shoes.
Now if you are new to running, actually that's just heading on down to your local running store and getting some expert advice as to which shoes you should get for your current gait.

So that's basically the way in which your foot lands and rolls through during the running action. It can make a huge difference to your running and hopefully making running far more enjoyable in the long run.


I'd really recommend that you actually try and take a day off between each of your runs, because as I mentioned already, your body is trying to get used to these new stresses and strains of running.
And so by following this a day on, day off method can really help to avoid those overuse injuries.


This tip is to maintain some consistency with your running, I really advise you mix up the surface that you're running on.
The pavement or sidewalk is great for fast running, but actually it's quite a hard surface, so that's a lot of impact to be going through the joints from run after run, whereas the off-road can help with this.
Obviously it's a much more forgiving surface, but with that there is the increased risk of maybe rolling an ankle or whatnot.

Then we have the treadmill. Now that's great for all year round running despite what the weather or conditions are outside, although it can feel quite different to running outside.

So, those are just three examples of different surfaces that you can run on, all of their pros and cons. My advice would be to just try and mix it up for variety if nothing else.

Go for distance and not time. It can be far too easy to fall into the trip of fixing on the speed that's high, the pace of each of your runs.
Instead though, we just want to keep those runs nice and easy as I've already advised. Forget about that pace and just focus on the distance that you're covering.

Maybe you have a route quite close to you that you know the rough distance of. If so, forget about your watch. Leave it at home.
Or maybe even just don't check that pace. It can be amazing how much more enjoyable those runs can be,


Walking is not just enough. Particularly so if you are just starting out with your running.
See I've raced at a fairly high level and I'll still occasionally walk during some of my runs. Sometimes your body just needs, and actually this moment of walking allows you to compose and collect yourself and can mean that you actually end up running further after that.

However, for some people out there, I understand it can be hard just getting that continuous running in, so why not break it down into some jog-walks, maybe something like three minutes of jogging followed by two minutes of walking, and then with time you can start increasing the amount of jogging, reducing the amount of walking.

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lly hate to break it to you, but you are going to eat from time to time.

As you are adapting to this running, the new stresses and strains, you're going to feel fatigued, you're going to be sore, and you're going to get tight.
But it's really important that you stay on top of this and give your body some regular TLC.

This means stretching lightly after each of your runs, particularly around the calf’s, the quads, and even the hips, because they can be very often forgotten about, but very important indeed.

TIP : 8

Running on your own is great and I advise you to keep doing that, the benefit of running with others can be huge.

Sometimes it can just be really hard getting yourself out of the door and getting yourself running, but by having that pressure of joining some other people for a run can really help with that.

Also, by its very nature having a friendly group of runners, they can really help and support you as you progress as a runner.


It's really important that you build your running up very gradually.
Adding too much distance too soon could lead to burnout or even injury, so I normally suggest following the 10% rule.
So by that I mean never adding more than 10% to your weekly runs or your weekly volume.


The final tip,  and that is to keep a track or log of this distance or volume with your training.
It doesn't need to be anything fancy or online. It can actually just be the old school way, just a bit of pen and paper.
But with that, try and write out a rough plan in advance, keeping to that 10% rule that I've just mentioned, and maybe setting some small, achievable goals along the way.