CHAPTER SIX

The Fitness Programme

‘A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise’

A.A. MILNE

You are approaching your fortieth birthday. You can’t get into the trousers you wore ten years ago. You find that running about with your children leaves you breathless after a remarkably short time. In a word, you want to get fit. Your programme starts with Stage One.

On the other hand, you may be quite fit already, playing football or squash in the winter, cricket or tennis in the summer, but you want to give running a try. Your programme starts at Stage Two.

This is for those who are starting from scratch, with no running back-ground. Those who have already done some running can glance through it and feel smug, but if they are impatient to get on we suggest they move straight to Chapter 7.

Anyone can run

The pleasure and the pain

Let’s face this ‘enjoyment versus pain’ thing right from the start. Running really hard is painful and running moderately hard is moderately uncomfortable, but you don’t keep it up it for very long and when you have done it you feel terrific. Running at an easy pace, talking pace, is no harder than walking when you are fit and, like walking, a long run is good fun. At 68, Bruce can still go out for an eight-mile run and say ‘that was lovely’. Unlike swimming in a pool or training in a gym, you can choose where you run, run different routes according to the weather and usually find something to stimulate your mind as well as your body. Even when the scenery is familiar, the sensation of running, of being in control, is pleasurable. It has been shown that running for a long time causes the release of endorphins in the brain; these improve your mood and can even cure depression. Mind you, the harder you run, the more quickly you get tired and the sensations of fatigue and pain will override the pleasant sensations. The last ten minutes might be quite hard work, but to counterbalance that there is the satisfaction of being able to do an eight-mile run and the pleasure of anticipating a nice shower afterwards, a rest and a drink.

Of course you could get up from in front of the television and have a shower, a rest and a drink, but it would not be nearly so satisfying. You cannot enjoy food without some hunger or drink without some thirst, and you cannot enjoy rest unless you have made some effort.

The person who has not run since schooldays will almost certainly find it uncomfortable. The secret is to start at a point on the programme where the exer-cise is comfortable and enjoyable. When you get used to that level of exercise and can handle it easily, and not until then, you can move up to the next stage.

It’s not where you start that matters, as much as where you finish. As long as you keep your original intention in your mind you have a reason for going out running. The problems only arise when your ambition is too great for your level of fitness.

Take Wendy Wate-Loess, for example. Because she is just aiming to take off a few pounds, it doesn’t matter how fast she goes or how many miles she does per week, as long as she gradually increases the dose. You will find the relationship between exercise and weight loss in Chapter 12, but she might start off by doing six miles of walking and jogging per week. When she gets up to ten miles a week she will be able to see tangible results, and she won’t need to do any more to achieve her goal. Howard B. Grate, however, has ideas of running a marathon, and since this demands at least six months preparation he may find that his enthu-siasm runs out before he is in sight of his goal.

Satisfaction comes when your achievements match your ambitions. If your short-term goals are modest and attainable, you will get more fun out of the sport. Molly Meanswell just wants to get round the 10k race with her friends, so she will be happy to finish, however long it takes her. Peter Pan, with a cautious methodical approach, will run his first race with a bit in hand and use this as a basis for future training, regardless of his position. Steve Welldunn, on the other hand, accustomed to being a success in every sport, might find it difficult to adjust to being beaten by older men who have more training behind them.

Getting started

‘I started running at 48. It took me three months of alternating walking and jogging before I could jog continuously for 3 miles. Five years later I ran the London Marathon in 3 hours 12 minutes.’

RALPH HENLEY

Stage One: the pre-running programme

Do I need a check-up?

Because walking and running are natural activities, there is no need for a medical check-up except in special circumstances. You should ask your doctor for a check-up if:

What should I wear?

Because we start with walking, no special clothing is necessary. Your shoes should be wide enough for your foot to spread out fully and should not have a high heel. Your clothing should be comfortable as well as suitable for the climate. There is no point in wearing a heavy woollen track-suit in the height of summer or going out in skimpy shorts and singlet on a cold winter’s day. As most people are shy about taking exercise when they start, it is best to wear incon-picuous everyday clothing. See Chapter 4 for more details.

How far should I go?

How much you are capable of doing depends on what you are doing at the moment. We start with a fairly gentle walking programme, so if you are already used to walking 2 miles a day you can skip the first two weeks. However, it is best to err on the side of safety, so stick to the programme and don’t increase your distance until you feel ready to do so.

Similarly, when you feel you are doing enough for your needs, you don’t have to move up just because the programme says so. If running 10 miles a week makes you fit enough for your purposes, just stay on that level.

We have set an arbitrary figure of twenty miles a week for the ‘full fitness’ programme, but the ‘serious runner’ programme will take you up to 30–40 miles a week and the ‘marathon runner’ will take you even further, if that is where you want to go. It’s a free country.

How often should I take exercise?

The programme starts with walking every other day, then moves to four and five days a week. Later on, the running programme will do the same. In general, the principle of one day on, one day off, is a sound one. More is not always better.

Should I be on my own?

It is much easier to take exercise if you have someone to keep you company, and if you have made a rendezvous with someone you are much less likely to put off the session because it raining or something. For women, particularly, running in groups engenders confidence and encourages the beginner. If you can’t find a friend or relation, put up a card in the local gym or leisure centre and start a ‘meet and train’ group once or twice a week.

However, one of running’s main attractions as a form of exercise is that you don’t need twenty-one other players and a referee. If you feel like it, just go out and run. Until you get to know the area, stick to well-lit routes and tell people where you are going.

The programme

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Develop the habit of using the first part of any session as a warm-up and the last part as a warm-down.

Additional exercise

Stretching and mobility work. All serious runners warm up and loosen up before they start training – particularly in cold climates – and most of them stretch after the running is over, because by then your muscles will be warmer and more flexible. You don’t need a warm-up before walking, but after the walking we recommend spending a few minutes on general mobility exercises. We suggest you follow a routine of six to eight simple exercises, spending only 30 seconds on each one – for example: arm swinging, shoulder rotation, hip rotation, side bending, deep knee bends, leg swinging, toe touching and sit-ups (see Appendix 1).

What about gym work?

If you have access to a gym, there is no reason why you should not increase your level of fitness by spending 15-30 minutes, twice a week, following a general strength-building programme.A good programme would involve three weight-training exercises for arms and shoulders, one each for back and abdominal muscles and three for leg strength including work for both the ‘quads’ at the front of the thighs and the hamstrings at the back of the thighs (see Appendix 2).

The other way in which you can use your gym in the early stages is to monitor your fitness by using one of the cycling or treadmill exercises linked to a heart monitor. Choose a test just above the low end of the range for your first try, so that you are not over-stressing yourself, and measure your heart-rate during ten minutes of steady activity, e.g. treadmill at 5 miles an hour (8 km/h) on a 1%slope. Doing this once a week during Stages One and Two and you will see a marked improvement. What was moderately strenuous will become easy and your heart rate will not go up as much. The next step is to select a programme a couple of notches higher and see how your running training affects that.

The Portsmouth ‘5’

Aches and Pains (see Chapter 13)

Doing something different is bound to cause a reaction, so even regular walking may cause stiffness to start with, particularly if you are changing from high-heeled to low-heeled shoes.

Stiffness is one of the body’s safety-precautions, so don’t ignore it. If you are walking every other day, the stiffness should be wearing off by the second day. Start slowly and gently, and if the stiffness gets worse, turn around and wait another day. Your motto should be: ‘if in doubt, ease off’. If the stiffness is really painful, take an anti-inflammatory such as Ibuprofen or Aspirin.

The other pain you may encounter is shin soreness, caused by the impact on hard surfaces. The solution to this is to get off the road and onto the grass as often as possible. This is where the benefits of ‘cross training’ - come in, using swimming, cycling and gym work, all of which are low-impact sports which improve your strength and your fitness.

Stage Two: Beginners’ running programme

Getting more from less

Once you have got used to getting out and walking for three or four hours a week, you should have no problem with the running, because it takes less time. A brisk walk is four miles an hour, at least fifteen minutes per mile on a flat path. Jogging a mile slowly will take you about ten minutes, and when you get fitter it will be only eight minutes, so you are covering the ground and burning up the calories at almost twice the speed. Moreover, because the demand on the heart and lungs is greater, you are getting more fitness benefit from half an hour of running than from an hour of walking.

When to run

The best time is always before meals – you should not try running on a full stomach. Many people find that before breakfast is the only time they can guar-antee having to themselves, but it takes some getting used to, and most of us perform better later in the day. If you have somewhere to shower and change, a half-hour session before lunch is excellent. Daylight is guaranteed and you often get the best part of the day.

When not to run

You should not run if you have a temperature more than 1ºC above normal (do you know what your normal temperature is? Not everyone is 37ºC)

You should not run after an illness, until given clearance by your doctor.

You should not run if you are feeling sick (unless it’s a race-day, when it is just nerves!)

If you are just feeling very tired, or headachy, or a bit stiff, put your kit on and go for a walk.If you start to feel better, jog gently.Often running itself will clear up your symptoms.

A slight cold in the head need not stop, you, as long as you have proper clothing, but do not run if you have a chest cold, cough or sore throat.

Where to run

The best places are parks, playing fields, footpaths and beaches, but any quiet stretch of road will do. If you want to find out how fast you are running, go to a public running track. They are all 400m tracks, which means 4 laps to the mile.

How fast should I go?

In the early stages – the first four weeks of running, at any rate, don’t run above ‘talking pace’. If you start to feel very breathless, either drop to a walk for thirty seconds or just slow down the pace until it feels comfortable again. This is what is meant by ‘walk-jog’.

It takes time for your body to get used to continuous running, but it will adjust, believe us, as long as you give it time.

The Programme

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight

Keeping records

To start with, the simplest thing is to copy this plan, pin it up somewhere and either tick it off or write in what you actually do. When you get into running regularly, keep a training diary.

What about missed days?

It does not matter about doing the days in the correct order, as long as you put in the four days. If you miss a single day in a week, carry on as normal, but if you have missed two days, so that you have only run twice that week, repeat the week before moving up to the next.

Ann Ridley — hard effort brings results

Do other sports make me fitter?

This is all tied up with your reason for running. Some people take up running to get fit for other sports, like football or hockey, so, obviously, a couple of days a week will be taken up doing those sports, to which you will add your two or three days of inde-pendent training.

If we are trying to control the overall training load, these other sports have to be taken into account. We generally reckon that an hour of a team sport is equivalent to four miles of running. With individual sports like tennis it depends on the effort level. A brisk half-hour of singles might be worth 3–4 miles of running, but half an hour of doubles would only be worth 2–3 miles.

Doing other things, like weight training or swimming, will certainly help your all-round fitness, but perhaps the question you meant to ask is: will doing other sports affect my running? Most coaches would agree that a weekly or twice-weekly weight-training session, added on to your running programme, would make you a better runner, but for the average person, running 3 or 4 times a week, doing a weight session instead of a running session would not. Certainly we do not advise doing a weight session or another sport the day before a race.

Cross-training is one of today’s buzz-words. It means training for one sport by doing another. Sports which make large demands on the heart-lung system and involve the same muscle-groups as running can be used to good effect. The advantages are, firstly, that they reduce the chances of injury caused by the impact of running on roads and, secondly, that they add variety to the training regime. Cycling, rowing and cross-country skiing are the best examples. The cycling is more effective if done on a mountain bike on hilly courses. All three of these sports can be done on a machine in the gym. A sample cross-training schedule can be found in the next chapter.

 

COLIN DOW

Age: 52

Occupation: sports centre manager

Colin Dow has not won any world titles, but he epitomises the thousands of people who run for fitness and enjoyment. He is one of the driving forces behind the Marlborough Running Club, of which it is said: ‘at the present rate of increase the club numbers should reach 225,000 by the middle of the century’ (the population of the town is 10,000) and also: ‘this is a drinking club with a running problem.’

‘I started running when I was in my late twenties, mainly as a means of keeping fit for squash. However, I soon found myself caught up in the marathon mania of the 1980s. It seemed in those days that running the marathon was the ultimate achievement which everyone wanted. Everybody remembers their first marathon; mine was in Cardiff and I remember sitting on the roadside at the finish in total Utopia, having run under 3 hr 30.

‘Over the next few years I continued running marathons and evenutally achieved a best time of just under three hours, only to be told that the course was short! For a change I started to compete in triathlons and enjoyed the multi-discipline aspect of the sport. When I moved to Wiltshire and didn’t have the time for triathlon training I discovered the joys of trail running, particularly long distance stuff, which is still my main enjoyment. To be up on the hills and running gives me a buzz I don’t get with road running.

‘Memorable moments are many:

finishing the South Downs run (80 miles), breaking the ice before getting in to swim in the ‘Tough Guy’, and having a sprint finish with my team mate at the end of the Otter Peak 40-miler. But the best was definitely finishing my first marathon.

‘I still run most days, but also mix it with a bit of off-road cycling. I have decided that as I am not going to get any faster I might as well take my time and enjoy the expe-rience. I don’t feel I have to run every day, but if I don’t manage to get out for a few days I miss it. For the future I hanker after one more big long distance run, such as the West Highland Way, but if I can’t manage the training time I will still be happy as long as I can get out into the countryside – and run.’