Of all the things we do in the name of health and fitness – switching out regular H2O for alkaline water, eating tons of fermented foods, trying out new workouts while not embarrassing ourselves, just to name a few – running a marathon is by far the most intimidating. Maybe it’s the months of dedicated preparation that lead up to a should-be 4.5 hours of steady running. Sounds a bit, uh, painful, if you ask us. Still, we’re never ones to turn down a challenge, even those that scare the heck out of us. And as we do with most things, we resolved to tie up our laces and heed advice from skilled professionals like Nikki Warren, co-owner of Kaia FIT, also known as the most realistic fitness method we’ve ever heard of, who told us where to start, how to get over our mental blocks, and how train without injury. Ready, set, go.
On Where to Start
“The first thing we recommend to new runners is to listen to their bodies. We encourage them to walk when they need to walk, and run when they’re ready to run. Going at your pace, regardless of how fast others are going, is step number one.
“Start by walking and ease into your mileage gains. Do a one-minute run, two-minute walk, repeated ten times. Completing this a few times each week will increase your run intervals by 30 or 60 seconds and decrease your walking intervals by the same amount. Once you have mastered your pace, you can focus on increasing your distance. Running anywhere from one to five miles is a great start.”
On How Often You Should Run
“Ideally you should run three days a week, training for about an hour each time. This gives our bodies time to recover.”
On the Other Exercises You Should Be Doing While Training
“Running is a full-body sport. When using proper technique and form, you are working your shoulders, posterior chain, core, hamstrings, glutes, quadriceps, and calf muscles. Doing core strengthening exercises such as plank, bridge dips, and hip raises will help strengthen the lower back, obliques, and transverse abdominals, protecting the spine from compression due to repeated impact on hard surfaces. Squats and lunges help build powerful glutes, hamstrings, and quads, while plyometric exercises like squat jumps and thigh busters will help strengthen those quick-twitch muscles used to increase speed and agility.”
