How Can I Get Back Into Running?

An experienced runner who hasn’t been running for a while, perhaps because of injury, and now wanting to get back into running?

A graduate from the beginners’ programme who’s been busy over the summer and you’re not quite sure if you’ll be able to run the whole of the short club run, even at conversational pace, without taking a walking break?

Somewhere in the middle – life’s been busy and you don’t know what to do?

What can Ealing Eagles offer to help you?

First of all, if you need to go right back to basics, our beginners’ programme starting at the end of September is a run / walk programme which means that it may be compatible with your return from injury run / walk programme. The first session will be run 2mins, walk a minute and repeat for about 30mins; the amount of running is increased gradually over 6 to 8 weeks until beginners can run for the whole session, covering about 5.5k (the short club run) in about 45 to 50mins. All sessions encourage beginners to run at a pace at which they can talk as it will be their long run; this may be gentler than your normal pace so you can use the time to concentrate on your running form while chatting to the beginners. You may also find that you do not need to go through the whole beginners’ programme. If you want to take up this option, please email beginners@ealingeagles.com for more information.

If you are able to run about 5k but not sure what else to do, then why not try our Improver or Starter sessions (see separate article) starting end of September / beginning of October? Aimed at graduates from the beginners’ programme, the sessions are designed to introduce you to speedwork and also to increase the distance for which you can run. One advantage of being able to run further than 5k and to do speedwork is that it will help you to fit in a “shorter” session if you don’t have time to go for that 10k run you were intending to do. Consistency is an important feature of being able to keep running and to enjoy running.

If you’re a bit more experienced and/or a bit faster (we won’t put a pace range here in case it worries anyone), then you may simply need to identify some training buddies or a race to train for. Come along to a club social (first Wednesday of the month) at the New Inn and meet some of the other Eagles. Or, have a look at the list of club championship races and choose one to train for and to go along to – there’ll be other Eagles there. The local parkruns are another place where you are likely to see plenty of Eagles on a Saturday morning – favourites are Gunnersbury, Osterley and Northala or there may be a few Eagles doing a bit of parkrun tourism.

And what if you’re not at any of these levels? Perhaps you’ve done beginners and you don’t need to go right back to the beginning but 5k still feels like a long distance? If anyone, particularly beginners who graduated in June 2017, hasn’t been doing much running over the summer and is not confident about being able to do even the short club run at a conversational pace, please get in touch with Wei Hei at whkipling@talktalk.net and we will see what extra sessions, if any, need to be organised.