Running helps you live before you die
If you want to run longer for passion, I would recommend to first get better at shorter distances first. For that you need to focus on strength training three to four times a week
A LOT OF US PICK UP RUNNING FOR HEALTH BENEFITS. SOON ENOUGH THE RUNNING BUG BITES US AND WE SIMPLY CAN’T HAVE ENOUGH OF IT. WE WANT TO RUN FASTER AND LONGER. AS MUCH AS I ORGANISE SUPER LONG RUNS RANGING FROM 33 TO 555 KMS, WE NEED TO RECOGNISE THAT RUNNING LONGER IS MORE ABOUT PASSION FOR RUNNING THAN FOR HEALTH
Every now and then you would read an article that would talk about your chances of death reducing if you do or don’t do a certain activity. At the very outset let us get one fact out of the way: if you are born, you are going to die. It simply is misrepresentation of results of scientific studies. As much as we would want to believe otherwise, but current technological advancements simply can’t change that. In any case, you need to focus on quality of life rather than just planning on living till cows come home.
A recent article published in British Journal of Sports Medicine looked at fourteen studies having more than 230,000 individuals in total, ranging over a period of 5.5 to 35 years. Runners as compared to non-runners had 27% lesser incidents of deaths, which included 30% lesser from cardiovascular and 23% lesser from cancer.
It means that runners are more likely to live longer than non-runners and unlikely to succumb to the two dreaded disease families, namely heart conditions and cancers.
A lot of us pick up running for health benefits. Soon enough the running bug bites us and we simply can’t have enough of it. We want to run faster and longer. As much as I organise super long runs ranging from 33 to 555 kms, we need to recognise that running longer is more about passion for running than for health. Even the above mentioned study found that even running 50 minutes in the whole week is enough for the above mentioned health benefits. Beyond 50 minutes of running per week, these benefits disappear. This amount of running is fine even if it’s done once a week.
As for speed or pace, 10 km per hour or 6 min per km is fast enough for the above benefits. With 35 years of running experience and over two decades of mentoring runners and practicing sports medicine, I agree too. Running for shorter durations, the tendency is to run faster as compared to when running longer. This increase in intensity is probably the one that is making a bigger impact.
POOR BASIC FITNESS
In India a majority of the people who pick up running in their 30s and later are doing those durations but when it comes to speed, for some odd reason 10 km per hour speed seems like a dream project. It probably is because of poor basic fitness levels and the desire to run longer and longer without addressing that. Even if you want to run longer for passion, I would highly recommend to first get better at shorter distances first. For that you need to focus on strength training three to four times a week. Even floor exercises like heel raises, squats, push-ups, planks, orange squeezes and lunges will do the job. The other thing to get started with is time on feet rather than trying to run fast right away. If you are new to running, you don’t even need to run right away.
For the first few weeks, just build up walking time to 20-30 min before you think of running. My mantra is ‘if you want to run as fast as you can, slow down.’ If you can do anything well slow, soon enough you’ll do well while being fast too. The other mantra I go by is ‘form follows function’. Just get started. Don’t worry about perfect form right away. The form will get better as you keep moving. The plan should be not to live forever but to live before we die. So let us keep miling and smiling.