As a beginner in running, it is a normal thing that you feel like you want to increase the running distance and pace. However, it seems like this is a bit of a difficult task to complete because it requires high patience and development. To achieve that, our team at FitnityTreadmill has prepared 8 useful tips to increase running distance and pace for beginners. They can be challenging for all of you as beginners, but as a quote says “ Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
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A warm-up is an act which you should perform to get your muscles and yourself ready for exercises. Warming your body up before running is one of the most important steps to increase running distance and pace. That is because it makes your body more flexible and increases the blood flow to your muscles. Most importantly, warming up prevents you from injuries since you will be used to the intensity that running puts on your body. That means you will be able to protect yourself from unexpected injuries easily.
The ideal way to warm up is to start by jogging slowly or brisk running to increase the temperature in your body. Next, you can stretch for a few minutes, and you are good to go.
Keeping your posture correctly is a really crucial factor that makes you increase your running distance and pace effectively. You might ask how your posture should be.
First, you need to look ahead. Whenever you look up, your neck and back will be straight as well. Plus, you should never let your chin stick out. Both your shoulders should be pretty low and loose which means you can let your upper body relax. Talking about your arms, you need to unclench your hands and let your arms swing. That way, it will release the tension in your body.
Furthermore, you should keep your upper body straight. The center of your body is the hip, and that is easy to get the right hip posture because all you need to do is to focus on the position of your upper body and head. Your legs need to be directly under your body to keep yourself stable.
Not rushing is another rule that we recommend all runners observe in order to achieve more distance and pace. That plays a really important role because it helps reduce the impact on your body during this process.
Another key thing to remember, you should always switch between running and walking. Normally, you would feel really exhausted after a moment of continuous running. That is an ideal time for you to switch to walking so that you can rest a bit and take a little breath. You need to remember that whenever you rush, your energy will not be enough to last you throughout your session. It means you cannot increase your running distance.
Running slow is a good task you should apply to your running. That is because it can provide a number of benefits as we will demonstrate in a moment. Do not worry, you can always step up your running level whenever you see your improvement and capability. However, you should be running slowly for a while until you get the hang of it so that you can increase the speed of your running without any risk.
You can increase the speed and distance gradually after one week of running. It means your muscles and joints will have some time to take a break and recover to let you run for a longer period of time in your next running session.
Running outside of your home is also another important factor because that will boost your mood drastically. The reason behind that is because when you see people, you tend to feel more confident in yourself in completing the goal you have set. More than that, you will also get to see the beautiful view outside of your home. If possible, it is also a good idea to have some people running with you, such as runner partners, some friends, and family members.
That is one of the most beneficial tricks you would be able to follow. As you run and talk with them, you will never get reminded of exhaustion. There is another benefit that all of you would not believe, sunlight is actually useful for health. It contains Vitamin D which can improve your bone, teeth, and muscle. The best time to stay under the sunlight is from 7 AM to 9 AM because the sunlight after that time will be unhealthy.
Hydration is one of the biggest things that all runners need to increase running distance and pace. When you have enough water in your body, you will not get tired and give up easily. That is because hydration controls the temperature in your body, protects your joints, and reduces the rate of cramping. Not only does it protect your body, but water also allows you to recover your energy back faster so that you can run even longer and farther.
When it comes to eating, we recommend you to prevent the kind of food that contains fat or something that does not digest easily. Instead, you should consume the kind of food that contains simple carbs, such as fruit, whole wheat bread, unsweetened milk products, and unsweetened milk. Those kinds of food will let your body convert the glucose into energy that will be a good assistant to push you to run longer.
As some people have already known, completing any work would not be possible if you have no motivation at all. Instead of being pessimistic, you should be optimistic about what you are going to do. Running is the same thing. So, it is good to set a goal, but you need to make sure that it is a realistic one.
First, you need to trust in yourself and believe that it will go well and successfully. Then, what we recommend doing is to think of the distance and duration you are planning to run. After finishing planning all of the goals, make sure to make it possible. For example, you can plan to run for 15 minutes a day and 3 times a week.
After setting your goal realistically, you need to make sure that you keep consistency because that is really important. If you are not able to follow your goal, you would never see the improvement and result.
Therefore, you need to run for the same time, distance, schedule that you have set. It is also necessary to know that it is normal to get tired after running for a while, but do not get down. What matters the most in this process is to fight against your weakness and keep up your good work.
It is a normal thing for a runner to feel overwhelmed quickly while trying to increase running distance and pace. However, you do not need to put too much pressure on yourself. You will eventually see the results if you keep up with your consistency and follow all 8 tips that we have shown above.