Nuggets of wisdom, advice and useful things I've learnt.

[nonrunner_for_30_years]

Hello

I nearly started a blog telling everyone how I found each session but after reading some of the other blogs realised that: 1) people have been able to write about their experiences a lot more eloquently than me and; 2) there was no point repeating things.

So I decided I will record useful things people have told me or I have seen on this community group that have helped me. I will keep adding to this blog as the weeks go on.

Do feel free to add any comments under my blog.

Distance - Calories

I was told, whether you run or walk, rule of thumb is for every mile you cover you burn 100 calories.

Such an easy thing to remember. Also really helpful as one lap of the park I jog in is 1 mile so it makes me smile that I have burnt 100 calories.

Stretching

It is better to do a 5 min walk warm up before your jog but not stretch as stretching cold muscles can hurt them, better to do stretches after jog. Time to hold stretches seems to vary but at least over ten seconds.

I found this really useful as I have been stretching before hand - oops.

Head position

Keep your head held up. Looking down at your feet will make it harder to jog.

For the first few sessions I had my head permanently looking down at my feet. Don't know why but I did. After I heard this advice I started to keep my head looking straight forward and it really helps. I feel I am moving faster (Though not sure if I am) and also I am looking at things around me and the path in front of me so the time also seems to go faster rather than just looking and focussing on my feet.

Parkrun

Thanks for Malcy's tip that you need to ensure when you print the barcode that you press the print this page first so the barcode comes up bigger (size of credit card) to enable it to be scanned when you arrive.

I am doing my first parkrun this Saturday (and so excited even though I know I will come last - I'm just looking forward to taking part) and know I would have made the schoolboy error of printing the barcode too small and then not being able to take part.

[lizfish]

Thanks for these. I'm sure everyone will find at least one they've not heard of. There's so much (sometimes conflicting) advice in running, it's great to know what works for you.

Good luck with your parkrun! I'm a way from 5k yet, but I know I can get here.