10 Resources to Start Running Next Monday {34 days}

Last week I wrote a little bit about my running. If you read it you know I’m talking about the couch to 5k program which is a training plan for people that are beginners and wish to be more active. It has helped thousands of new runners to leave the couch, at least 5k behind.

This program works well because it gives you a goal to achieve while you’re training 3 times a week for a total of 9 weeks.

Yeah that’s wonderful but how can I do that? It’s a fair question a friend asked me, so to answer her here are a few apps you can use for this program:

Runmeter (paid, only for iphone) is the one I use, it guides you until you finish the 5k program, it also has 10k, half and marathon training programs. In plain English, you will hear a woman telling you when to run and when to walk. Each week gets more intense. What I love about this app is that you can track your time, location, distance, speed, so you can actually see your improvement. Choose the day, turn the music on, press start and go.

At the same time I’m using Nike+ Running (available for android) it tracks your run very accurately, if you like you can activate the power songs to give you the motivation to run faster, among other cool stuff.

Another similar app is Runkeeper (free and available for android too) which will give you all the information you need and has a web page where you have a personal account. Actually there are tons of apps you can download, but those are my favorites, just choose the one you like the most and go for it.

If you don’t like the idea of running with your smartphone or don’t have one and you wish to start with this plan, there are other ways to do it, you only need an mp3:

- You can download the Running into shape, Go Nicole yourself or NHS 5k training podcasts; just make sure you download the right one.

- If you have (a lot of) free time and want to listen to your music, arrange a playlist in an audio editing software (I recommend Audacity) following the 5k training plan, only if you are tech savvy and clever or it could be a waste of time.

What about gear? How am I supposed to carry my smartphone or mp3 with me? I bought this armband but any armband will do. If you don't want to spend a single dime just use an old sock.  Make sure you also have a pair of comfortable headphones. Lastly but most importantly get a nice pair of running shoes, trust me, you don't really want to go running in converse.

P.S. If you make the decision to start with this training program make sure you look up a little bit more about the right way to run, it's very important.


If you are an experience runner, tell me what apps do you use? Can you recommend me anything else I didn't mention?

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Introduction to running {41 days}

Photo: Thomas Hawk

In the past 8 weeks, Gian and I have been a little more active than usual; we’ve been running religiously 3 times a week in a park near where we live, La Vereda del Lago.

We are trying to complete this plan for fat asses called Couch to 5k (more like Internet to 5k). Is basically a program that helps you run 5 kilometers without stopping during 9 weeks, each session is about 20 to 30 minutes and every week you’re making a progression so you build endurance, trust me, it gets hard that’s what she said.

This is our 8^th week which means we are supposedly running non-stop for 20 minutes, now that we can maintain a steady pace is time for us to build speed, I barely run 4k.

This program was built especially for people that have never run, trust me, we are surprised of our progress. The first couple of weeks when we had to run for 2 minutes we couldn’t even breath, now we can pull a non-stop 15-20 minutes.

Tonight's run, slow but effective.

We’ve been using an app for iPhone called Runmeter, even though there’s a bunch of other apps with the same program, Android has a lot of apps too. I'll get around to this topic soon.

In the near future I’ll be giving some tips about running and more, if you are interested in more info make sure you stay tuned :)

Let me know in the comments below if you have running experience or you’d like to start running? What would you like me to write about this topic in particular?

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