Learning to Run in 13 Weeks: Week 1

Here's the plan. My Daughter, Liz, needs to get back in shape after a prolonged sports injury. After consulting with her doctor, we decided to use the The Beginning Runners Handbook: The Proven 13-Week Walk-Run Program to slowly increase her strength and endurance. As luck would have it, I have a crowd of women who like this idea and who want to spend their summer "learning to run."

I'm going to post our training schedule for weeks 1 and 2 so that you can follow along at your own pace. I'll update the schedule every Monday for the remainder of the program.

My group is going to meet on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. However, they all have a copy of the schedule so that if they can't run with the group, they can run on their own. Consistency is very important. Also, according to the book, you want at least one day between training sessions and you want to make sure to begin each session with a 5-minute warm up and conclude with a 5-minute cool down. The Handbook has a number of stretching exercises for these 5-minute periods.

With that in mind, here is the schedule:

Week 1

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 12 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 2: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 9 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 3: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 11 times. 5-minute stretch

Week 2

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, Run 2 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 11 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 2: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 3: 5-minute stretch, Run 2 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch


A few words about The Beginning Runner's Handbook. The 13-week program doesn't appear until page 151 because the authors (Ian MacNeill and the Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia) thought it was important to start with topics like moderation, choosing good shoes, training mind & body, pregnancy, cross-training, technique, diet, injuries and stretching. It is probably wise to do some reading of your own before you launch into this new exercise program. Please make sure you're healthy and ready for action and then join us!