Running Made Easy: 4 Tips for Beginners

Can you make it five kilometers at a stretch when jogging? Then you've already made a start on running. Whether you're running at an average of seven or 15 km/h doesn't really matter when it comes to endurance running beyond competition. It is also said that anyone who can accomplish 45 consecutive minutes of locomotion somewhere between walking and running has left jogging behind and is well on the way to running.

To become a (continuous) runner, set a quarter or fifth within your race course for yourself from now on, which you run particularly fast at least once a week. Stop your time and try to increase successively. At the same time, work on your endurance. At least once a week you really take your time. Now it's all about the number of kilometers. Week after week, you try to run one or two kilometers more than the previous time. Start with five kilometers and work your way up to ten kilometers.

Congratulations, you've completed another stage: from ten kilometers onwards, you're no longer talking about jogging, but about running. That's because the officially measured laps at most running events are ten kilometers long.

With the help of various tables on the Internet, you can now extrapolate your personal best time to the marathon distance or calculate it yourself (time x 4.667). For example, if you complete the ten kilometers in 45 minutes, you will need 1:40 hours for the half marathon and 3:30 hours for the entire distance. Theoretically, at least.

The longer the distance actually completed, the fewer seconds per kilometer are added. Only when you can actually run 15 to 20 kilometers in a row and then still put down a passable time, the half marathon is realistically in sight. It is still a (very) long way to the marathon. In purely mathematical terms, it is a factor of HM x 2.1 away.

You don't just become a runner. It takes several months of training to go from jogging to running. For some it takes years and some never make it. Once health and fitness are stable, an individual training plan should be developed.

A common beginner's problem with running is starting too fast, which prevents even keeping up the distance for the first time. The pace, which is usually only practiced over shorter distances, must be deliberately delayed for a few kilometers at the beginning when running longer distances. This running with the handbrake on also needs to be trained specifically and with a constant eye on the clock, otherwise there is a great danger that you will not achieve your training workload.

Several weeks before the first marathon, many long runs should be on the program. Long runs mean average distances of around 30 kilometers or at least three hours. One long run per week is recommended, at least five in total. In between, shorter tempo runs with several increases should be incorporated into the training plan.

After these many intermediate steps in running, the really big goal can be tackled. And after that? After the first marathon? Then the fight for the next personal best time begins for many runners, or new challenges await in the form of ultra runs of up to 100 kilometers or over several days. Even if you have definitely made it from jogging to running, the journey remains the goal.