Transitioning from Walking to Running Without Injury
Transitioning from Walking to Running - When you're ready to make the transition from walking for fitness to running or jogging, there are several things you need to keep in mind to make the transition safely. Start slowly with your beginning runs, and increase each run gradually. Get the best running shoes you can. When setbacks happen, remember that they are only setbacks, not failures. Countless people all over the world in all levels of fitness have transitioned from walking to running and you can too. Earlier this year, I went from being someone who hasn't run anywhere since I was forced to run a mile in my Junior High P.E. class, to someone that runs three miles, three days a week, and loves it.Two Great Beginning Running Programs
When I decided I wanted transition from walking to jogging, I found the Couch to 5K beginning running program at CoolRunning.com. It gives a day by day, week by week plan to go from being a couch potato to running a 5K (That's 3.1 miles to those of us who are metrically impaired). It give very specific running and walking times, so it helps to have a way to measure distance, or a stopwatch if you're going to use this system.
After some experimentation, I've found that listening to music gets in the way of my own jogging, but many people swear by good running music. There is a podcast available for free from iTunes called PodRunner that is set up to go along with the Cool Running's Couch to 5K program with intervals for each walking and running segment.
A similar walking to jogging program is available from SparkPeople.com. In some ways it is a little easier than the Cool Running version as it starts off even slower and more gradual, but both achieve the same end result in about the same amount of time - 8 or 9 weeks.
Start Running Slowly
Slowly in this case means both in terms of how much running you do each week, and your actual jogging speed.
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