If you went from nothing to 30 minute jogs, likely a little while. What’s your history? Solid couch potato with a potato shaped body or worse? You’re looking at a couple hard months. Formerly fit/fit-ish, maybe some high school sports or something? Maybe an unpleasant month or so. You’d be better off easing into it a little slower. Can you do a brisk walk for 30+ minutes? Jog for 10-15? Build up to a full 30 minute jog. They have things like C25K (Couch to 5K) programs that give you good pacing.
I work in the trades, constantly pushing 400lbs crates on wheels, I’m not unfit, but I wouldn’t say I’m running fit. It’s like a whole new part of my feet and legs just gives out while other parts can keep going
That’s the SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demand) principle at work. You’ve gotten used the movements you do every day and your muscles can perform them more efficiently. The same will eventually happen with running, once you’ve been doing it long enough for it to not feel like a new movement. Keep at it.
Stop pushing yourself to where you feel like you’re dying. If you’re new to this much exercise, you’re having to build up both muscles/tendons and breath.
Tendons and connective tissue take longer to condition than muscles. Don’t push to injury.
Aerobic capacity grows by working out in aerobic range. If you push past that to when you’re gasping for breath, you aren’t improving your aerobic capacity as efficiently as you could.
Nerd rabbit hole, you want Zone 2 training and you can find a bajillion YouTube videos on it. The less-nerd version is run until you start losing your breath, slow down or even walk until you catch it again, run until you lose it, rinse and repeat.
Couch to 5k programs are fine. I think if you’re trying to do this for longer-term goals than a 5k in ten weeks, then look for zone 2 training instead of couch to 5k. Zone 2 training will be slower advancement but result in a more robust base.
Also something few people talk about is fully breathing out all of your breath. A lot of people don’t expel their full breath and end up gasping but not exchanging much air. Breathing technique can also help with this.
That’s a big one. I get side stitches easily and something that’s helped immensely with preventing them and improved my breathing when walking, especially up big stupid hills, is breathing in through the nose and out the mouth
But also, at the same time: I’m mad that the people who said “exercise gives you energy” were right.
Drop it to ten minutes a run plus walking, but up it to four times a week. You’re better off taking it slow and working up. Easier on your lower back and knees. Good shoes also matter. Might want to add some free calisthenics too. Body weight squats, pushups, dead hangs at a pullup bar, etc.
I never got to the point that jogging felt good. But eventually what happened was that I’d feel better for the rest of the day on a day I ran, than on a day I did not run.
Aerobic dance classes are enjoyable once my aerobic base develops but running is boring and a drag always.
If you don’t have a way to pace yourself – kind of never.
If you haven’t already looked at “couch to 5k” give it a look. I’ve been more successful with a form of intervals for some days and only one day of “solid” running.
As someone who also drinks … don’t. It is terrible for your cardio and definitely contributes to feeling like death, because your heart is recovering from some toxicity if you’ve drank within 24 hours or maybe more.
Other than that, other people have good advice. The ‘zone 2’ stuff is probably most relevant if you’re already semi-fit.
Other than that, all I can say is, the first ~5 minutes of any heavy cardio are going to suck, roughly for ever. Even in good shape, it takes the body a good long moment to warm up. I’m sure a proper warmup could reduce the, “I’m dying” feeling down to a, “yep, this is work”, but if you drank within a day, the feeling will be very easy to get regardless.
I haven’t found the first 5 mins too bad. It’s the last 5 mins that suck on a 5k. Just did my first running end to end and by the end the only thing keeping me going was determination to keep going as I had already been going for so long.
I know that sounds a little bit stupid but: In a way going faster makes things easier. I recently improved my 5k record by a couple minutes (sub 22) and when I compare it to me 2 years ago it is in a way easier, because I only need to run at my peak speed for less time. I am sure with time you will have a similair experience.
But in general if the ending is hard and the beginning easy then you should start/run at a slower pace at least a couple times on this distance.
I often struggle with pacing in general, park run here is like 600 or so people so I usually keep with others for a while.
30 mins is long for a beginner unless you just do a fast walk. Better to just do 10 minutes every day and keep track of your pace. Then increase the speed first when the sessions become easier. Then once your pace is decent and it doesn’t tire you add interval training at the end of every other session so alternate between a sprint and a jog every 30 seconds. For like 5 times and increase the reps or the duration when it becomes easy. Then later on you can add a second 10 minute session like at the end of the day on a couple of days in your week where you do something different like hill or stair climbing.
With your current training schedule there is a good chance you will quit altogether. Don’t make it hard on yourself. Also if you become super exhausted after a run it doesn’t mean you trained better and will progress faster compared to a run where you still feel fine afterwards, it can actually cause the opposite since your are more likely to injure yourself.
It’s probably very dependent of your current physical status but trust me at some point it will be like being on a machine moving you through the environment. You will stop feeling anything about it, much like walking, standing or sitting.
Ever seen a runner smiling? Me neither.
I actually thought of that meme when I posted this, was wondering if anyone would pull it out :)
No but I see them casually having conversations while running with their friends annd that seems like magic to me. I get embarrassed at how I breathe after a flight of stairs or if I have to hurry a little crossing the street.
A work friend and I run a 5k twice a week at lunch. There is something therapeutic that happens when you jog with a friend at a casual pace. You can’t look each other in the eye so you say a lot of things that you’d normally be uncomfortable talking about.
Yeah, I hear ya. Any cardio exercise helps with that though. I like to hike on local trails at a brisk pace and I’m in a decent place there (not running any 10Ks though)
You just start to like that feeling.
It took a few weeks for me. You may just need to slow your pace. I do it more by distance than by speed.
I dont run anymore, but when I did, I intently focused on my breathing to keep it slow and stable, even if I was dying. I was never a fast runner, short legs didnt help, but, I could go for awhile after some time.
Well. When do you think you’ll die?
Maybe never. Some other people also wrote it. But I think only this is not the whole truth: For me I am now running for 2.5 years and I never really stopped feeling like im dying, but I improved over time, so now i am really fast while feeling dead. And you will probably also learn to like this feeling of dying because it shows you you have done something.
Also, yeah there is running in Zone2 for everyone, and thats probably something you should try.
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