Thread: Guide to Running

I have a question, ninja. For someone, like me, who has never run for an extended amount of time, what sort of distances would you recommend for running for a start? Any tips for setting up a regimen? Also, I take some supplements for weight training. Creatine, Whey Protein, and L-Glutamine are all in my stack. Would any of these cause problems while running? And on the opposite side, would I see any positive effects from them related to my running?

Running uses your muscles so much that creatine will dramatically make your leg muscles bigger, which will kill your stride.

To start out two miles a day would be good. I'll add that to the sticky later.

Ninja, that is good advice, but I don't think all of it applies to everybody. Based on what you have told me, your distance racing times were better than mine, so don't think I am trying to sound like more of an expert. I dabbled in road racing in elementary school and got very serious about track, cross country, and road racing as a teenager. For me personally, I have to stretch before I run. My legs get worn out faster if I don't stretch first. They feel flat and crampy. However, I think everybody should be very slow and gradual in stretching cold muscles. You don't want to jerk them and end up with a pulled muscle. Also, I absolutely have to eat something a few hours before I run to do it effectively. Running without having eaten that day leaves my tank on empty, and it sucks. I pretty much never run in the mornings, but if I do, I eat maybe two pieces of bread or drink a glass of Rice Dream or something 30 or more minutes earlier. Maybe those needs don't apply to most people, but I thought I should mention that they do to me.

Good thread.

If you stretch, your muscles are weaker. You don't want your muscles to be tight, but you don't want them too loose either, loose muscles pull easier and can't keep a tight hold of your joints that way.

The more power that you use, the more you need to stretch. Football or sprinting should have some good warmup and stretching, not for slow jogging and LSD.

Running with the tank on empty is painful, but you will loose more weight if you don't. Not completely empty though, you don't want your stomach in a knot.

Ninja~~~~

I signed up for a half marathon in September. I ran 13 miles the other day, so I know I can finish it. . . My shoulders were sore, but not much else. I'm wondering how I should focus my training as I approach race day.

Hmm. I would recommend running 6 days a week. 3 days should be something like 5 miles, 2 days should be like 3, and one day a week do a 10 miler. Do some pushup and pullups to strengthen your shoulders a little bit.

I'm going to add to this for people who are already in good shape and building on that, and another section for advanced runners who do half marathons, triathalons, and marathons.

I just got great running shoes that I would suggest: Nike Shox. I like that it is Nike+, so I can put the Nike+ sensor in it(which I would also suggest if you have an iPod).

Originally Posted by ninja9578

The more power that you use, the more you need to stretch. Football or sprinting should have some good warmup and stretching, not for slow jogging and LSD.

I know the Ole Miss track team used to do it at the beginning of every practice, distance runners (such as Pablo Sierra, Thomas Johnson, and George Kersh) included. Pablo won four SEC distance championships, including cross country, and led half of the New York Marathon in 1996, and George was the 800 meter SEC champion and held the high school national record in the 800 for ages. He ran a 1:46 in high school and got down to 1:44 in college. He came in first in the 800 at the Good Will Games in 1990. Any way, those guys stretched even before really long runs. However, I also knew a complete bad ass coach who believed in not stretching before runs. He thought stretching should only be done three times a week on occasions very separate from runs.

That's been the line of thought for many many years. It changed my freshmen year of college, when all NCAA coaches stopped doing that. The CDC did an extremely large scale study about the effects of stretching before exercise and overturned that thinking in 2004. Damn, I can't find the study itself, but google CDC 2004 and stretching and you'll find lots and lots of articles referring to it. Olympic and NCAA coaches stopped extensive pre-workout stretching then. The teams still stretch, but not nearly as much.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

That's been the line of thought for many many years. It changed my freshmen year of college, when all NCAA coaches stopped doing that. The CDC did an extremely large scale study about the effects of stretching before exercise and overturned that thinking in 2004. Damn, I can't find the study itself, but google CDC 2004 and stretching and you'll find lots and lots of articles referring to it. Olympic and NCAA coaches stopped extensive pre-workout stretching then. The teams still stretch, but not nearly as much.

Wow. I have been out of the loop on that since the early 90's. Maybe that change in thought has to do with why the times have gotten a good bit better.

It reminds me of how the thinking on running your guts out every single practice changed around the late 60's. My dad used to screw with me for training the way the biggest experts in the world believed in training. He had the 50's and early to mid-60's mentality that you are supposed to push it to the limit every time you run. I think maybe he still does. I could never convince him otherwise.

Originally Posted by KingCarnie

I have a question, ninja. For someone, like me, who has never run for an extended amount of time, what sort of distances would you recommend for running for a start? Any tips for setting up a regimen? Also, I take some supplements for weight training. Creatine, Whey Protein, and L-Glutamine are all in my stack. Would any of these cause problems while running? And on the opposite side, would I see any positive effects from them related to my running?

This not a big problem.. ones you just start running with short distance then you reach at extreme level of Running.... just do