How to Go the Distance — A Beginner’s Guide to Running for Ordinary People

How to Go the Distance — A Beginner’s Guide to Running for Ordinary People

To maintain good physical function, doing aerobic exercise several times a week is essential, especially for office workers who have been sedentary for a long time. In recent years, jogging has gradually become more popular and has emerged as a healthy and beneficial form of exercise—and that is no coincidence.

Compared with other aerobic activities, jogging has relatively low requirements. It does not require specialized equipment or dedicated sports facilities; as long as you have a basic running surface and a pair of running shoes, you can get started. In terms of efficiency, among aerobic exercises done for the same amount of time, running burns the most calories and delivers the greatest training effect per unit of time. In terms of safety, running is one of the most natural human movements, and with good habits, the risk of injury and danger is much lower than in many other sports. In addition, moderate exercise helps release negative emotions and regulate one’s mental state. A decline in physical condition—especially in body shape and appearance—can also reduce self-acceptance and confidence. In this respect, exercise improves not only physical health, but also self-recognition and self-confidence. It can truly be said to have countless benefits and almost no downsides.

For ordinary people, the thought of wanting to run may pop up from time to time, only to be immediately canceled out by the thought: “But how do I even start?” Beginning to run is often triggered by chance, but once it becomes a habit, it can turn into an indispensable part of life. When I was in college, the school followed the motto of “striving to stay healthy enough to work for the motherland for at least fifty years,” and every year we had to complete a 3,000-meter fitness test. My original motivation for running was simply to deal with that exam. But after running on and off for 18 years, “going for a long run at the drop of a hat” has gradually become one of the few enduring pleasures in life.

At age 17 or 18, the body is basically at its peak. Even without much technique, you can throw on almost any pair of shoes and run brilliantly. But if you start running 10, 20, or even more years later, then you need to make adequate preparations before you begin if you want to turn it into a lasting habit. In my experience, the single most important secret to sticking with running is not determination or willpower, but this: don’t get injured. All preparation and technique should serve that one goal. The purpose of exercise is health, not pain. Injury not only defeats the original purpose, but may force you to stop for days, weeks, months, or even permanently, rendering all your previous effort meaningless. Only by keeping “don’t get injured” as your guiding principle can you make this habit last longer.

With that goal in mind, the three most important factors in running are pace, training volume, and form. The vast majority of running injuries are caused by one or more of these. Gear and road conditions are often the other main culprits.

1. Pace

How fast should you run when you first start? This is the first question many people face. If you have never run before, or haven’t run in a long time, then the answer is: as slowly as possible. In fact, at almost any stage of running, if your goal is not to become a competitive athlete, I would recommend running “slow enough” for your current level. Running too fast is bad for your health, increases the chance of injury, and if competition is not your goal, it simply is not worth it. If your BMI is over 30 or higher, it may be better to start with brisk walking so that your body can gradually adapt to the rhythm of aerobic exercise before transitioning into running.

For new runners, if possible, adding a heart-rate monitor to your gear is ideal. In the beginning, keeping your heart rate below 70% of your maximum heart rate is generally a reasonable upper limit. As for your maximum heart rate, one way to measure it is through a short all-out effort: run as fast as you can for six minutes and then measure your heart rate. But I think that method is a bit too brutal for most people who are just preparing to start running—it might extinguish their initial enthusiasm entirely. So using one of the common online formulas to estimate your age-based maximum heart rate is perfectly fine.

If you do not have a heart-rate monitor, or even if you do but still feel like you cannot keep going, then simply slow down as much as possible. As a general rule, your starting pace should be one at which you can still breathe comfortably and speak naturally while running, without gasping for air or turning red in the face. From the perspective of aerobic training, most workouts can be done at this rhythm. As your physical condition improves, the pace that feels easy will gradually increase until it stabilizes at a certain level.

2. Training Volume

In terms of frequency, running 3 to 5 times a week is a fairly suitable range. Too little will not produce much training effect; too much will not allow your muscles enough time to rest and recover, and it will also increase the chance of injury. During the first few months, in order to help your body adapt to the rhythm of running, you can start with 20 minutes per session and gradually increase from there. This increase can be very slow—you can take half a year to a full year to work up to 30 to 40 minutes. If your schedule allows, you can gradually build up over an even longer period to one hour or a bit more. But a single session is best kept under 90 minutes.

You can increase your training volume as slowly as you like. If you feel uncomfortable after increasing it, you can always step back to the previous stage. If you previously ran 20 minutes each time, then adding just 2 minutes per run means that over 10 days, you are only adding the equivalent of one extra day of your previous volume. But if you increase too quickly, get injured, and have to rest for a month, then the loss is far greater. So when it comes to training volume, this is a case where less is more. Only if you stay injury-free can you keep running, and as long as you keep running, the volume will eventually go up.

3. Form

Proper competitive running form—the kind you see on television—typically involves leaning slightly forward, lifting the feet only minimally, and moving forward more through shifting the center of gravity than by pushing off with leg spring. But for beginners, that is too technical to be very useful. For new runners, the two most important aspects of form are where the foot lands and stride length. Different running books aimed at different levels of runners vary in what they recommend regarding foot strike, but one fairly consistent observation is that elite athletes usually land on the forefoot. That is the most efficient approach at high levels. However, if your feet and ankles are not yet strong enough, landing that way may feel uncomfortable and may also increase the risk of injury. For beginner runners, landing with more weight toward the heel or with the whole foot is a safer option. The most important thing is that the landing be smooth—you should not be bouncing yourself all over the place. A significant part of the design of human joints is for shock absorption, so you should never land “hard.”

If your stride is too large and your foot lands far in front of your center of gravity, then to a certain extent you are braking with every step. That is uncomfortable and reduces running efficiency. The correct approach is to shorten your stride, keep your steps small, and lift your feet only slightly. If you want to go faster, increase your cadence rather than your stride length.

4. Gear and Running Conditions

Choosing the right gear can make a big difference. Of all running gear, the most important item is your shoes. Professional athletes choose racing shoes based on factors such as traction and lightness, and do not focus much on cushioning, because when running technique is refined enough, the body’s own structure—muscles, joints, and form—can already perform much of that function. Lightness and durability then help improve performance.

But for beginner runners, a good pair of running shoes can compensate for a lack of technique by providing foot protection and cushioning. I would not particularly recommend brands like Adidas or Nike for beginners. On the contrary, at Decathlon, whether it is their entry-level Kalenji line or shoes from Asics, the products are labeled with reference factors such as suitable body weight, road conditions, and mileage, making them very suitable for beginners to choose according to their own situation. I myself have always run in Kalenji or Asics shoes.

Running clothes made of quick-drying fabric are not essential, but they can reduce the chances of catching a cold from staying in sweat-soaked clothes too long, so I would still recommend them. Windproof jackets or fleece layers for cold-weather running can also be useful. But if you are starting to run in a warm season, you might as well wait until the weather turns colder and treat the purchase of thicker gear as a reward for having stuck with it.

A heart-rate watch and mobile running apps (such as Codoon) are also worth considering if conditions allow. It is best if your heart-rate monitor can be used together with your running app—for example, with an Apple Watch. Recording your workouts through software is very useful for reviewing and tracking your progress. However, I do not recommend blindly chasing PBs (personal bests) or mileage just because the app encourages it, because those are very likely to become the cause of your next injury. Less is more; slow is fast. Over the long term, these principles are particularly applicable to running.

Although running does not require much from the environment, you still need a basically even surface. If possible, having a rubberized track nearby is ideal. If you run on roads, avoid peak traffic hours. In the early morning or at night, wear running clothes with clear reflective markings. When visibility is poor, be especially careful not to twist an ankle.

Finally, no matter how much theory or how many ideas you have, in running there is one thing even more important than the principle of “don’t get injured”: you must put on your shoes, open the door, move your legs, and go run.