9 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Running

[00:00:00] So I wasted the first six years of my distance running life training without structure, running too hard, getting injured, and wondering why I wasn’t getting any faster. Years later, after researching, experimenting on myself and talking to all the experts, I finally learned nine simple things that changed.

[00:00:16] Everything. If I could go back until my 1996 self, these rules, I would’ve probably run a sub three hour marathon years earlier. Instead of constantly dealing with setbacks, here’s what finally fixed it. I’ll be going over why running slow is the secret to getting fast. The beginner mistakes that kill your progress before it starts.

[00:00:34] How to build a system that works every day. When your motivation fades, the identity shift that makes your runner today? Not right now, not someday today. And a free training plan so you can run faster and longer without getting tired, because that’s what we all want to do. Most new runners, they skip number five and that’s why they quit.

[00:00:52] Alright, rule number one of the nine things that I wish I knew. Running slow actually makes you faster. Most beginner runners, they don’t realize this. The secret to speed is actually slowness. New runners think every run should feel hard. I absolutely did. Like you’re proving something ’cause it feels good.

[00:01:08] But what’s actually happening is that you’re trending your body to burn matches. Instead of building that furnace and that big fireplace that burns for hours and days on end, running really hard all the time will not help us run far and fast with less energy. So how do you do this in your running? Most of your run should feel.

[00:01:24] Disgustingly easy, like embarrassingly easy. Run at a pace where you can hold a conversation. Yeah. Actually talk in full sentences. It’s okay for you to take a gas purvey at, you know, six, seven words and then you talk like this. That’s, that’s fine. That’s okay. That’s the top end of zone two, which I’ll get into in a second.

[00:01:42] But if someone saw you, they think you’re jogging. And that’s fine. They’d be like, why are you running so slow? Because I’m in zone one, zone two. That means you’re doing it right? So why does it matter? When you’ve run at a conversational pace, you’re training your body, use fat for fuel, build mitochondria and create a bigger aerobic base, and a whole lot of other really awesome things that I’ll go into in the future.

[00:02:03] Did a whole episode on base training. You can check that out up here or the link in the episode description, but some science to back up what actually happens to your body when you run slow. It builds that aerobic. Engine aerobic base. That’s the system that powers the long, steady pacing. And eventually your best times.

[00:02:20] It takes a while. You gotta think in the long term. Patience, patience, patience. And there’s science to back all of this up. Many, many studies say this, everything I’m saying, and elite athletes show this because they run easy. But they’ve been doing the slow thing for so long that it looks like they’re running fast.

[00:02:36] So that’s why I look at elite runners and I go, oh, that’s your easy run. Well, I should be running fast. It’s like, no, no, no. You have to earn the right over many years of running slow to be able to run fast. Here’s an analogy that I like to use. It’s like building a house running hard all the time. It’s trying to build that second floor once you’ve poured the foundation, so you already got the the ground floor going, and you’re like, let’s do a second floor.

[00:02:58] Second floor is a nice add-on. Sure. You’re working really hard. But the whole thing’s going to collapse if you didn’t lay that concrete. And they’ll steel beams the right way. Slow running builds that foundation, solid, stable, and able to support everything you wanna do later. Speed work longer runs, et cetera.

[00:03:15] If you run too hard all the time, you’re just getting good at suffering and increasing the risk of injury, burnout, or illness, you actually won’t get faster in the long term. Maybe in the short term, and I know what you’re thinking, run slow to get fast. That sounds backwards, but here’s what else. Sounds backwards and actually works.

[00:03:31] Rule number two, it’s okay to walk. Walking isn’t failing. Walking is strategic. When I started trying to do low heart rate run, slow to run fast kind of training, I thought walking meant I wasn’t a real runner. It also felt lame when in actuality, all real runners, they walk a lot during warmups, during cool downs, even pros coming back from injury, a time off they do.

[00:03:51] Two minutes on, one minute walk, two minutes, run, one minute. Everyone does that. That’s the great protocol from injury. Pros do that again during ultra trail runs when they’re being smart about effort and there’s a huge hill ’cause they’re running for 50 kilometers, 50 miles, a hundred miles, and they don’t wanna spike their heart rate, they walk.

[00:04:09] You get it? It’s a tool that gets used when necessary. How to do this in your own training, use run, walk intervals. Made famous by Olympic runner, Jeff Galloway. Strategically in your training and even racing, if you’re new to running or coming back from injury again, start with something like one minute of running, one to two minutes of walking.

[00:04:27] Repeat as you get fitter. Flip the ratio. Two minutes of running, one minute of walking, so you’re running more than you walk. In a few weeks, you won’t need the walk breaks, but by then you’ll have a base that doesn’t break down. Why it matters. Walking reduces muscle pain and fatigue, which helps you handle volume without crushing your body with intensity.

[00:04:45] So again, your cardio system might feel good, your lungs and heart and blood and all that stuff. You might be like, I’m fit, I’m fit, I’m fit. I’m not breathing hard, but your bones. Tendons, ligaments, soft tissue, all that kind of musculoskeletal stuff that takes, I don’t know, anywhere from 2, 3, 4 times longer to get fit to be able to handle running.

[00:05:04] And that’s why a lot of people get injured. They feel good, they push, then they get injured later. So think of your muscles like a smartphone, battery running drains. That battery walking is like plugging it in for a quick charge. Not a full recharge, just enough to keep you going without the battery dying completely.

[00:05:19] German researchers study recreational marathoners and split them into two groups. One who ran the whole race and the other who did one minute walk breaks every 1.5 miles. So about every two kilometers, the results finish. Times were. Basically the same, pretty much the same, just a few minutes apart. But here’s what really changed.

[00:05:36] The run walk group felt way less destroyed at the end of the marathon. Only a tiny fraction of the walking run group felt completely exhausted. So one in 20, compare that to the continuous runners where almost half of them felt absolutely wrecked and destroyed at the end of that race. Same finish time, way less suffering.

[00:05:55] I’d rather not feel like trash at the end of a marathon. I still haven’t figured that out yet. I always feel like trash at the last 10 kilometer, six miles, but that’s not a weakness. This whole run walk thing, that is a strategy. I spent a lot in my first running years not fully understanding this tool.

[00:06:10] Speaking of wasting years doing the wrong thing, if you wanna skip the mistakes I made and start implementing them right now, I built a free run far and long with low effort. Base training plan that walks you through all nine rules step by step. And better yet, it applies it all to the training so you can use it and you can actually get faster or run farther, et cetera.

[00:06:29] Grab it at the QR code here, link below, or in the episode, show notes onto rule number three. Shoes matter, but not the way you think. Everyone asks what’s the best running shoe, especially when they get into running, what shoes should I use? Blah blah. Wrong question. The real question is what shoes feel invisible?

[00:06:46] When I run? What shoes support me? What shoes keep me injury free? What shoes allow me to you get it? How to do this in your running. How to actually use the right shoe, idea and strategy. Go try shoes on in person, not just online reviews. Walk around the store and talk to the expert. Make sure you’re going to a reputable running shoe store, not just some big box generic shop.

[00:07:08] ’cause the people in there that run the shoe shop or they work there, they will know a lot, they’ll ask you a bunch of questions, et cetera. Jog on the treadmill, the track if they have one spoiler. The good run focus shops will have a treadmill and sometimes even a camera. And the slow motion you stride and show you this shoe.

[00:07:23] Does that, that shoe, does that pay attention to hot spots, pressure points, or anything that feels. Off. If a shoe makes you think about it while you’re running, especially when you first start using it within the first two minutes, it is the wrong shoe bonus. See a sports or running specific podiatrist to find out what type of shoes you should try based on your feet, your body injury, risk profile, performance, goals, experience, et cetera.

[00:07:45] They will help you out and at least steer you in the right direction more than online reviews about the, there’s the latest shoe hype from this random shoe reviewer, da, da, da. Like they don’t know you. They don’t know you at all. You gotta like be very specific and individual for yourself. Why all this matters.

[00:07:58] The best shoe isn’t the one with the most hype or the dopest looking colorway. It’s the one that fits your foot, supports your stride and disappears after mile two. Or maybe you, you have them for two, three months and you’re like, I love these shoes. That’s a phenomenal shoe. Get three of those. ’cause they don’t expire, they don’t go bad.

[00:08:15] Get three of them. Put ’em in your closet. You’re good to go. Comfort beats brand every time. But what happens when you do everything right and still have bad weeks? Enter rule number four. Progress isn’t linear, and that is okay. Some weeks make you feel amazing. Other weeks you feel like trash and nothing’s working.

[00:08:32] Welcome to training. Welcome to life. Two steps forward, three steps back, 10 steps forward. Four steps back. How to deal with this. Keep showing up. Don’t judge your entire running journey by one rough Tuesday morning. Track trends over weeks and months, not individual runs. While data is just numbers, data doesn’t have feelings, and being objective is great.

[00:08:51] When you get really emotional, you get in your feelings and you’re like, oh, I don’t feel, it’s like, well, look at the numbers. Did you actually progress? Here’s how to actually track that progress. By the way, use a simple running log or app, Strava Garment Connect Kros you. It would track it for you in the background.

[00:09:05] You don’t have to think about it. And you know, if you wanna be old school, a notes app on your phone, you know, write it down in a journal if you want to be that, or you have stones on your cave. Or whatever. That was a bad joke, bad dad joke. Every Sunday, write down two things. Your total weekly mileage and how many runs you completed.

[00:09:20] Here’s the key. Compare your average over the last month to the month before that smooths out the day-to-day noise. Always zoom out. Always zoom out in the weeks, months, et cetera. Track one simple question. Did I run more total kilometers or miles volume this month, then last month? If yes, that’s progress because you can control your input.

[00:09:38] You control. What you do, you showing up, uh, time is actually even a better way to kind of equate and equalize everything. ’cause sometimes distance isn’t great if you change roots, et cetera. It’s hot outside. So just time on feet that I run at zone two for 40 minutes, three times a week, tick, then you are going to, in the long term, be absolutely fine when you zoom out and on bad days, just complete the workout at any pace.

[00:10:01] Again, time is your friend showing up is winning. Just get out there for 30 minutes. Right there. Warm up, hold it. Zone one, zone two, then just cool down and you’re good to go. Why? It matters. Your body doesn’t improve in a straight line. It adapts and wave stress. Again. You go a couple steps forward, a bunch of steps back, A whole lot of steps forward.

[00:10:18] A couple steps back. Stress. Recover, adapt, repeat. Cycle completes. Here is the picture. Imagine climbing stairs in a dark room. Some steps feel solid, some feel shaky. Sometimes you miss a step entirely. You fall, you skin your knee. Ah. But when the lights come on, you realize you’ve been climbing the whole time.

[00:10:36] That is training. It feels messy in the moment, but you’re still going up. Trust the process of consistency even when it feels messy. And yes, consistency is a whole section of my upcoming book, the 1% Better Runner, more on that soon. So subscribe, hit My Newsletter, which you’ll get when you sign up for that free training plan, et cetera.

[00:10:52] And you’ll learn more about that book that’s coming up and will help you with consistency, habits, and just running far and long. For as long as possible in your life. So if progress takes time, what should your easy runs actually feel like? Rule number five, easy runs should feel ridiculously. Absurdly easy.

[00:11:09] If you’re breathing hard on an easy run, it is not easy. Quick sidebar, what’s an easy run? Get into a bit of run science. An easy run is one where you could talk in full sentences without gasping. Some runners also use nose breathing to help keep themselves in check. I do that. If you can breathe through your nose comfortably, in and out, you’re definitely in the easy zone.

[00:11:28] Uh, if you’re not a nose breather because of whatever you have, a deviated septum, et cetera, et cetera, then don’t do that. It’s a, there’s other ways you can have a heart rate monitor. Check it all if it’s an easy run, if you can’t do either, you’re usually running hard when you’re going through your mouth.

[00:11:38] How to do this in your run. So use the talk test is another thing, again, saying sentences, nasal breathing, keeping yourself in check, doing the mofi tone, MAF formula 180 minus your age, that gets you around your high zone Two, give or take five or 10 BPMs. Plus minus your ego. My hate. Going slow, but your body will thank you.

[00:11:57] Why it matters. Just like rule number one, running slow. This is easy runs. It builds aerobic base, allows recovery and prevents burnout. They’re not junk miles of kilometers. They’re foundation of every runner’s training plan. You wanna think of easy runs as teaching your body to run on the low simmer instead of full boil, where the.

[00:12:13] Pasta goes over the pasta, water goes over, and then it just makes a mess. You don’t want that. We want rumbling. Just a little bit of a simmer means you can cook all day. You don’t run outta water, you don’t have a big mess. Full boil. Again, burnout an hour. We don’t need that. Alright, so before we talk about how often to run, if you wanna help out another self-coach runner, do this easy thing.

[00:12:35] If you wanna pay it forward, just watch this to the end. This signals to the algorithm that this content is for those types of runners. If you’re feeling spicy and you wanna do a tiny bit more for me, ’cause I really appreciate it, just hit that like, subscribe, share, or comment below which of these nine rules hit you the hardest and which are you like damn.

[00:12:53] He’s talking to me triggered, why, why are you talking to me, bro? Uh, I would love to hear it. So rule number six, you don’t need to run every day. You need consistency running every single day when you’re not used to. It sounds hardcore. It’s also a fast track to injury. Burnout, generally just hating, running mentally.

[00:13:10] Just being like, this is, this sucks. I don’t wanna do this. How to do this in your running. How to not do this in your running. Uh, three to four runs per week is enough for most new and even intermediate runners to see some serious improvements. Four runs is quite. Quite a lot. You can schedule your runs like appointments, picky days, choose your times and protect them like you would an important work meeting or important doctor’s appointment for your kid or something.

[00:13:33] It’s like, nah, nah, that’s just what it is. I gotta work around it. Here’s a real beginner schedule. Three runs per week, same times every week. Let’s do Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Monday. Easy run for about half an hour. Zone one, zone two. Wednesday morning, easy run for about a half hour. Let’s do high zone two, and then Saturday morning we can do a VO two max workout.

[00:13:55] So some intervals or whatnot, or, you know what? You can make that a long, 60 minute run if you want. 70 minute run. That’s it. Don’t skip these either. The specific days don’t matter as much as keeping them consistent week on week. And it matters because it’s not how often you run. It’s that you keep doing it week after week, month after month, season, quarter year.

[00:14:14] Et cetera. Long-term consistency, beat short-term intensity every single time, especially with running. Running is not a hobby. I just wanna say that there’s some studies proving that your long run, you have to earn them throughout the week because you need to have a percentage of your long run be. As much as you ran for the week to avoid injury.

[00:14:33] So that means you can’t run for three months, take six months off, go back to running exactly how you ran before the marathon. That’s how everyone gets injured. So running is a lifestyle, it’s a way of life. It is not a hobby. If you want to get better and you wanna stay injury free, but how do you stay consistent when you’re starting from scratch and everything feels hard?

[00:14:50] Here we go. Rule number seven, you’re starting from zero and that’s normal. Running feels hard when you start because your body hasn’t adapted yet. Every runner who’s fast now was once slow, myself included. Every runner who goes long started barely making it around the block, especially pro runners after being injured 3, 6, 12 months, they gotta start from scratch.

[00:15:10] Like everyone how to do this in your running. Stop comparing yourself to other runners and definitely stop comparing yourself to when you are healthy and running your best times. That’s the worst thing you can do. Well, back when I was running two years ago, 10 years ago, but don’t do that. That’s the quickest way to absolutely mentally sabotaging yourself.

[00:15:27] It’s just pure toxic poison in your brain. You don’t know. Other people’s training history. Also, you don’t know their genetics and you don’t know how long they’ve been at this. So focus on your own baseline. Track your effort. Go back to when you first started. If you’re coming back from injury and progress against where you started.

[00:15:43] Here’s how to establish a baseline this week. Do a simple one mile test. Run at a pace that feels comfortably hard. Seven outta 10 start. You should end that a 8.59 outta 10. You should be able to say a few words towards the end. But you don’t, you can’t hold a conversation that’s impossible. You B’Av blah blah B’Av.

[00:15:59] That’s, that’s fine. Write down your time. Track Strava, how you felt. Put that little bar of how hard the effort was and it’s skip and put some notes. Simple scale, one to 10, put some notes, retest that every month so you’re using the same route and same effort level. Try to do on a track. It’s not too hot and not too cold.

[00:16:16] Compare only against your past self if you ran that mile 30 seconds faster than last month. Then you’re improving. Keep a simple log date, distance, time, how you felt. That’s your proof of progress when everything feels slow. So you got data to back up objective data to back up those feelings where you’re like, I don’t think I’m getting faster.

[00:16:33] Remember, fitness takes time to build your cardiovascular system. Your muscles, tendons, ligaments, they all need weeks and months to adapt. Feeling slow now doesn’t mean you’ll always be slow. It just means you’re at the beginning. But staying consistent. When motivation dies, that takes some extra special juice.

[00:16:48] Which is rule number eight. You don’t need motivation. You need a system. Motivation is a spark. Systems are the fire. Better yet, motivation is for amateurs. It comes and goes. Commitment is there all the time. How to do this in your running. Create a repeatable system that you can do obviously over and over again without thinking.

[00:17:06] Same time, same gear laid out the night before, same route or loop, or you have the same different loops. You’ve already tested these loops, you know they’re gonna work. When motivation dies and it will, your system keeps you moving and chugging along on autopilot in the background subconsciously, here’s a real system that you can copy the night before.

[00:17:22] ’cause everything, all morning routines, start the night before, set out your running shoes by the door or next to your bed. Lay out your running clothes on a chair or a cupboard or like a little part of the shelves, socks, short shirt, everything. Have your water bottle filled or ready to be filled in the morning.

[00:17:39] Set next to your shoes food. Try to have something really simple or a, uh, electrolyte and carb mix. Drink powder. Super easy. Set your alarm. And label it. Runtime. The morning of alarm goes off. Go to the bathroom, brush your teeth. Or if you don’t brush your teeth, don’t brush your teeth. Get dressed immediately.

[00:17:55] Don’t think, just move. You’ve already set everything out. You know what you have to do. You don’t have to think about it. Drink some water. Do a light, one to two minute routine. Which actually have a warmup routine. You can go check that out up here, or there’s a link below to get my seven minute warmup routine and walk out the door within if you can.

[00:18:12] I like to do it within 20 to 30 minutes of me waking up, and then you run the same loop from your house, you know, every turn. So there’s zero decision making. If you don’t do morning runs, you do afternoon or evening runs. Then just modify this to be ready in the morning, and then you come home from work or school or whatever, and then at four or five, 6:00 PM 8:00 PM you just have everything ready to go.

[00:18:31] You go because things will distract you. They will take your time away. Time fees will steal your time. The system removes all friction. You’re not deciding. If you’ll run or where you’ll run or what you’ll run, you’re just executing the same sequence. That’s how you run when you don’t feel like it. That’s how you build habits.

[00:18:49] That’s actually what makes it easy. This matters because if you don’t always feel like running, that is fine. Motivation comes and goes. As I said before, you don’t need to. Feel motivated. You just need a routine that happens whether you feel like it or not. And here’s the most important thing I wish I’d known on day one.

[00:19:05] Rule number nine, you’re a runner as soon as you start. You don’t need a pace, you don’t need a distance. You don’t need a race medal. You just need to run. You take a couple steps that is not walking and faster than walking. You’re a runner. So how do you do this in your running? As corny as it sounds. Say it out loud right now.

[00:19:23] I’m a runner. When you actually are running, say I’m a runner. Tell people you’re a runner. You start like burning that into your subconscious and then you like will just wake up and go, I, I’m a runner. You’ll actually just think and do all the running things. That’s a taking on the identity of said runner and now you are.

[00:19:39] It’s be, do, have, become the runner first, do the things that a runner does, and then you have all the accolades and all the amazing stuff, the health, the fitness, et cetera. The body that a runner would have. It doesn’t matter if you ran one or a hundred miles. You are a runner. You laced up and you got moving.

[00:19:56] Do not wait until you are fast enough or fit enough to call yourself a runner ’cause it may never happen again. If you haven’t already go and get that free checklist and training plan, you’ll also get signed up for my awesome, very different newsletter that’s five minutes or less per week to help with cadence via two max and mental toughness right in your email inbox.

[00:20:15] You don’t have to do anything. Automatically happens and. It’s right here at the QR code Link below in the show notes or episode description to get that training plan. But these nine things are just to start to running. If you want to dial in your actual running mechanics and sort out your running form, go watch or listen to my episode on improving your Run form right now.

[00:20:33] Get that below if you’re watching on YouTube or in the episode description or show notes of your Spotify or podcast players app. Thanks for watching and listening. Peace.