February 2, 2009

Three Times a Week

If you’re really unfit, getting fit is hard.

In the past year I've gone from not being able to run a kilometre, to running the 21km of a half-marathon (albeit pretty slowly). I can vouch for how hard it is.

There’s a ton of fitness advice out there, to the point that it’s totally overwhelming.

I'm going to give you the one bit of advice I wish I'd had when I was starting out. Here’s your new mantra:

3 times a week

Let me explain…

When I first started running, all the fit folks said to me, “You’ll love it, you’ll feel great, you’ll have so much more energy!”

Then I started, and I felt awful. I was exhausted. I was sore. I hated it.

The fit folks weren’t lying. Once your body gets used to regular exercise, you do feel great. Now I run almost every day, and running energises me.

The trick is getting yourself into the habit of exercising, both mentally and physically.

3 times a week

Here’s what will happen: you’ll go for that first run (or swim, or bike ride) on a Saturday. It’ll be short, and it’ll hurt, but you’ll feel good that you did it.

Maybe on Tuesday you’ll have another go. You’ll feel worse, but you’ll push through it.

Then on Thursday you’ll get home from work, and you’ll be tired, and you’ll know you won’t make it through the same run you did on the weekend.

3 times a week

This is the turning point, and here’s how you deal with it: Put your running gear on, and just go and walk the same distance you ran on the weekend. Don’t think you can manage that? Go for a shorter walk. Whatever you do, don’t sit down on the couch and turn on the TV!

What if you do turn on that TV? Having one day off can’t be that bad, right? You’ll go for a really good run on the weekend, you swear.

As soon as you take more than a couple of days off from exercising, your body starts to shut down again. The result is that you’ll progress more slowly, and you’ll find exercise painful and tiring for much, much longer.

3 times a week

So you’re much better off doing light exercise that you can manage three times a week, rather than pushing yourself hard and only exercising once or twice a week.

And you know what will happen? One evening, when you’re really tired and you’re out for that walk, you’ll think, “Actually, I don’t feel so bad now that I'm out here.” And you’ll start running.