Responding to the urge to move

Aug. 12, 2004

Dear Patty,

Starting out, joints complain and leg muscles barely lift feet above the pavement. It's more like shuffling than running. But after a few minutes the small aches fall away and the stride lengthens. With the morning sun at my back, I see the shadow of someone who looks like a runner.

The mind is the number one reason runners stop during a run, according to a poll. Legs finished second, lungs in third.

Monday, at the point I usually stop running and walk a minute or two to catch my breath, I kept running. My mind didn't want to, but I was prepared for my own resistance. After about 25 minutes the legs wobbled, but the lungs were still fully operational.

I ran for 30 minutes without a break for the first time. That was my goal when starting out to run nearly three months ago. Now I could handle a 5K race (3.1 miles) without difficulty but probably would finish last. As a runner, I'm more tractor than Porche.

Veteran runners say running gets easier once you reach this plateau, that eventually, after maybe a year, you get the feeling you could run forever. Thus the marathoners who run for hours.

Three months ago I could barely run for two minutes. The difference is the running program supplied by my benificent yoga teacher, Amy. Had I started running on my own, I would have pushed myself to run further and longer sooner. I wouldn't have built up my leg strength and lung capacity gradually. Running would have been a struggle. It would have been easy to give up.

The program was designed by Budd Coates and appeared in Runner's World magazine in March 1995. I'm sending it just in case you wake up one morning with the urge to move.

First, get your legs ready with eight days of walking -- 20 minutes a day for the first four days increasing to 30 minutes a day for four more days. Now you're ready to start.

Each week of the program, do the run/walk workouts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Take Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday off.

Week 1 -- Run 2 minutes, walk 4 minutes. Repeat 5 times.

Week 2 -- Run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes. Repeat 5 times.

Week 3 -- Run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes. Repeat 4 times.

Week 4 -- Run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes. Repeat 3 times.

Week 5 -- Run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat 3 times.

Week 6 -- Run 9 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat twice, then run 8 minutes.

Week 7 -- Run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute. Repeat 3 times.

Week 8 -- Run 13 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Repeat twice.

Week 9 -- Run 14 minutes, walk 1 minute. Repeat twice.

Week 10 -- Run 30 minutes.

See you on the streets.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.