JOHN O’REGAN IS an ultra marathon runner. With the Life Style Sports Run In The Dark weeks away, here’s his top tips for getting fit in the right way.
- Don’t do too much too soon. As a beginner your first priority should be to get used to the movement and allow your body get used to running.
- Don’t run faster than your fitness allows as this is one sure way to get disheartened because you’ll feel like the training is too hard and you can’t manage it. As a rule, you should be able to talk when running easy and to help find this easy pace you could try running with a partner.
- Don’t get caught up in distance but instead measure your running by time. Try running away from your starting point for x number of minutes and then turn to retrace your steps. As you get fitter / stronger you’ll start to cover more distance in the same time and if you’re feeling tired you won’t be putting yourself under extra pressure.
- Don’t sacrifice health for fitness. If feeling fatigued or a bit under the weather you shouldn’t feel like you ‘must’ go out for a run. Sometimes taking a step back can help with going forward.
- Don’t try to continuously keep doing more as it takes time for your body to adapt to a new stress. Every third or fourth session you can reduce the length of time spent exercising.
- Don’t run every day as rest is an important part of the training cycle. It’s during rest that the body repairs and gets stronger while adapting to the stress of training.
- Don’t ignore pain as this is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. Pain can be a sign that you’re doing too much and stopping in time can prevent an injury. To improve your training needs to be continuous and you can’t train if injured.
There are 5 official locations for the Life Style Sports Run in the Dark – Dublin, Cork, Belfast, London and Manchester. Early bird entry closes on Sunday night. For more information and to sign up visit the website.