30-Days of Running Update and Tips!

So it has been three months since my 30 days of running. Last week I ran a sub-six-minute mile. Remember that when I started, I had an almost ten-minute mile.! I also was able to run about 12k in under an hour at an average pace of 5:10/km. My first kilometer was under four minutes!

Given my success, I’m going to give out a few tips on how to do what I did.

Step one: dedicate to running every day. If you have 10 minutes you can run. A lot of times I really didn’t feel like it, but because I had a limited time goal of running for thirty days, I had to meet it. By the way, it’s ok if you don’t run every single day, it’s not a failure. The important is to wake up every day with the goal in mind.

Step two: set a time for running in one direction, that way it doesn’t seem as long. When I first was running I put a timer for ten minutes. I’d run ten minutes and then turn back. This way it felt like I was running for less time and after 20 minutes I had 2k done. As I got in shape I increased the time and my distance increased too and it was a lot easier as my body got used to it.

Step three: create a short route so that even on a day you don’t want to run, there’s a run you can do that is short and won’t take up too much time. Sometimes I woke up late, but I had ten minutes. Sometimes I got home late, but I had ten minutes. I had a ten-minute route created around my house. It was fast and easy and I could check it off. The important thing this did was keep up the momentum and also gave small rest to me. My route is exactly a mile long so it was nice to keep track of the run!

Step four: log your running. Seeing faster times will really motivate you! I saw the times and the distances and I felt great seeing the time slowly decrease and the distance increase. I did not do this for those results but they gave a nice morale boost! I even got a nice app created by Underarmor called Map My Run that logs my runs, shows me my speed, shows the route and even posts the pictures I take during my run :). The cool thing about this is it shows how I’m doing compared to others, once I get into top 10% of 25% of runners. Which feels great once you’ve been running for a month or so.

Step five: get a coach. I ran all through middle school and high school. I had a coach who taught me the right posture, the right way to breath, how to pick shoes, how to warm up and stretch. A small investment in having someone teach you can save you a lot of money and pain and really increase your time!

Step six: have good podcasts! I am addicted to podcasts. So running is a great guilt-free way for me to get a couple podcasts done at the beginning or end of the day. My favorite ones are those that really get me lost. It makes it a lot easier to run for a long time when you listen to a podcast. To get through more podcasts I listen to them at 1.5 speed and this helps the pace as well! Some of my favorite ones are the 1A podcast about news, Radiolab about science, 99% Invisible about design, Ted Radio Hour for inspiration and How I Built This on Entrepreneurship, This American Life, Moth Radio Hour and Snap Judgement for stories and there are tons and tons more that exist on any subject you love!

That’s it. I tell you, this is how I did it. It helped me and maybe it helps you. And if you think running is boring, find another way to work out. Just remember, not having enough time is a terrible excuse, if Obama had time to run every morning, so do you.

Read the original post from my 30-Days-of-Running challenge.