2020 has been a hard year for many of us, and as we go into 2021 tomorrow, I want to help you make it your year. It can absolutely be your year to become a runner, and with my tips today, I know you’re going to sail through this process and have running be a safe space for you when you need some self-care and joy in your life.
Whether you’re a beginner and you’ve been on the fence about starting, or you’re a seasoned runner, or are coming back to it after a break, you need to listen in today. I’m sharing seven super easy ways to start running in 2021 so you can let all your fears and worries melt away and be replaced by the excitement of getting out there!
Join me this week as we say goodbye to 2020 and get prepped for 2021 with tips and hacks to make running easy and invigorating! No matter your running experience, I promise you’re going to get something out of this episode, so listen in and get moving.
If you’re struggling with consistency in your exercise routine, or you use mistakes to beat yourself up, you need to come to my masterclass on how to become a consistent exerciser and let go of your excuses. Mark your calendars for January 3rd when the class will be happening, and click here to sign up!
The next class of the Rebel Runner Roadmap opens on January 7th, 2021! If you want to be notified as soon as the class is open for registration, click here to sign up for the waitlist and you’ll be emailed as soon as you can join!
If you’re just starting out on your running journey or getting back into it after some time off, I want you to sign up for my free 30-day Running Start Kit. Just click here to sign up, and make sure to share it with anyone else who could use it!
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
- My 7 super easy tips for starting to run in 2021.
- What the run-walk method involves and why it works.
- The most common mistake new runners make.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
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- Runkeeper
- Ep #9: How to Shut Down Your Inner Mean Girl
Full Episode Transcript:
I want to make running easy for you. I want to help you get over any fears or worries that you have so you can get all the joys and benefits of a good run.
Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’re a woman who has never felt athletic, but you still dream about becoming a runner, you are in the right place. I’m Jill Angie, a certified running and life coach and I teach women how to start running, feel confident, and change their lives, and now I want to help you.
Hey Rebels. Well, it is the last episode of 2020. It is the last day of 2020. And I think this New Year’s Eve might go down as one of the biggest celebrations in history. And even though most of us won’t be celebrating in big groups, or maybe even in small groups, even if COVID means you’re home alone with your cat tonight, I hope you’re going to take some time to mark the passing of one of the most memorable years in recent history.
Bye-bye 2020, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Anyway, I mentioned last week that I have some epic shit planned for 2021. And then I was thinking about how epic it would be if you started running this year. Yeah, if you’ve been listening to my show for a while, thinking, “I don’t know, I’d like to start but I’m nervous, I’m scared, I’m not ready, I don’t have the perfect running shoes,” whatever it is, let’s just decide.
Let’s just decide that 2021 is your year to become a runner. I believe in you, my friend. I believe in you. Enough for both of us. You can totally do this. And if you are brand new to the show, maybe this is the first episode you’re listening to because you Googled running podcast and this one came up, well guess what, you picked the exact right one to listen to.
Because here’s the thing; I want to make running easy for you. I want to help you get over any fears or worries that you have so you can get all the joys and benefits of a good run. I want to help you think of it as something fun and awesome that you get to do, rather than something you have to do.
My hope for you, my deepest wish is that you never look at running as a chore, or an obligation, but rather a safe space for you to go when you need some alone time, some self-care, or some joy.
So if you’re already a runner and you’ve been listening to this show from the very beginning, or maybe you used to be a runner and you want to restart, you should still listen to this episode. It is not just for beginners because I promise, you’re going to get something out of it.
If nothing else, if you’re one of my clients and you’re keeping track of the number of times I mention Cheetos in my podcast, you at least need to listen to this one so your data is accurate, okay?
Alright, are you ready? Here are my seven super easy ways to start running in 2021. Number one, start with 10 seconds. Yeah, you heard that right. 10 seconds of running, and then a minute of walking. And then another 10 seconds of running, and then another minute of walking. And keep repeating that for 15, maybe 20 minutes. Let’s say 20 minutes.
And then boom, your first run is done. You’re officially a runner. Goal met. Now, if 10 seconds doesn’t feel challenging, you can make it 20, or even 30. The point is short amounts of running followed by walking is what’s known as the run-walk method, and it’s a very, very common way to be a runner.
Some people use it as a starting point and some people use it as their primary way of running. I do. That’s how I run. And either way, the reason it works is because it gives you a place to start that’s not overwhelming, which means your brain can relax and stop telling you lies that running is hard.
Alright, number two, run around your house. I am not joking about this. Thanks to COVID, a lot of people don’t feel comfortable going to the gym right now to use the treadmill, and not everybody has a treadmill in their house. I don’t. And it’s winter, which means the weather, it might keep some of you indoors.
So did you know you literally can start just running in your house? Up and down your hallways, around the kitchen island, in your basement, run in place in front of the TV. If you are just starting out, the point is to just do it. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Build up your stamina in your living room, and then when the weather is nicer, you can run outside and you’ll be like, look at that, look how much cardiovascular endurance I have because I’ve been running laps in the dining room. You can totally run in your house.
Number three is to run slow. You do not have to be fast. In fact, I coach all of my beginner clients to slow the fuck down. It’s like, one of the most common mistakes that new runners make is they go too fast. They can’t catch their breath, and then they think, oh, I suck at running, and they quit.
So I want you to run at a pace that doesn’t make you feel like you’re completely out of breath. And you might be thinking, “I’m too slow,” but you’re not. Running is not a speed, my friends. It is a way of moving your legs. I mean seriously, look it up in the dictionary. There’s no speed or pace associated with the definition of running.
And as you get stronger, the more living room workouts you do, as you get stronger, you’ll be able to go faster. But for now, slow it down so you can last your entire workout.
Number four, allow yourself to suck at it. Yes, I said that. Nobody is good at running when they first start, seriously. These people that you see kind of bouncing along like a gazelle, yeah, they’ve been running for a long time. Nobody looks like that in the beginning. Nobody.
You’re going to be sweaty, you’re going to be out of breath, you’re going to be red in the face, you’re going to feel like you’re stomping around like an elephant. It’s normal. That’s all part of being a beginner. It will get easier.
Number five, do not worry about having the right gear right away. Yeah, it is important to get fitted for shoes and it is important to wear a good sports bra and wear the clothing made out of fabrics that help you manage your sweat and your moisture.
But for your first few runs, it is way more important to just get out there. So whatever sneakers you have right now are going to be fine. I mean, unless they’re Converse and they don’t have any kind of cushioning. But if you have walking shoes, or if you have sneakers that you – workout shoes that you wear to the gym to do step class or something, those are totally fine.
You can totally run in those. And if you don’t have a high-impact sports bra, again, just make do with what you’ve got. Wear two bras if you’ve got big boobs like I do. Just put on two bras. It’s not going to be the ultimate perfect solution, but it’s going to get you started. And once you’ve gotten started and you get a couple runs under your belt, then you can worry about the gear.
And that’s actually one of the things that I teach in my beginner running classes. I get my runners up and running first and then I’m like, okay, now here’s the gear that you’re going to want to invest in. But you don’t need it to get started.
Number six, use a free timer app. If you’re going to do run-walk, which I highly recommend, as you know, make it super easy on yourself by putting an interval timing app on your phone. There are dozens and dozens of free apps out there for both iPhone and Android.
You can use one like Runkeeper. This is actually the one I recommend. It’s called Runkeeper. It counts out your intervals while it tracks your time and your distance and your elevation and it’s free. Or you can use just a simple one that tells you just when to run and walk. And most of them work, if you set it up on your phone and you run with maybe one earbud in, you can run with both earbuds in if you want to, especially if you’re at home or you’re on the treadmill.
But if you’re outside, maybe you just run with one earbud in so that you can hear traffic. But regardless, they’ll just beep in your ears. And if you’re playing music, it’ll make the music a little bit quieter for a second and tell you whether to run and walk, and then keep playing the music. They work seamlessly and beautifully.
So they’re free, you can literally download it right now. The key is just to get one that you can program with the run-walk timing that you want. So a bunch of them are going to have pre-programmed stuff in them and that’s all fine and good, but I want you to start out with the run-walk timing that works for you.
So Runkeeper will let you customize. I have a tutorial for how to program it in episode nine of this podcast. We’re actually going to link to that tutorial in the show notes for this episode, which is 177. So if you need help with that, I got you covered.
Alright, and number seven, this might even be the most important one. Plan ahead for when you just don’t feel like it. This is how you’re going to make it easy from a mental perspective. Because you are not going to wake up every morning thinking, “Oh my god, I get to go running today. Woo-hoo.”
No. Not going to happen a lot, especially if it’s cold and it’s dark. You’re way more likely to think, “Nah, I’m going to do this tomorrow instead.” So when you wake up in the morning, or maybe you’re going to do after work run because you want to run when it’s light outside and your brain is going to say, “We’re so tired from working all day, we should just skip it,” right?
Here’s my hack for when that happens. You’re going to tell yourself, “All I have to do is 10 minutes.” That is it. You can do anything for 10 minutes. And then if you really, really want to, you can come back home, get in a piping hot shower for the rest of your workout time.
But tell yourself you got to do 10 minutes. And then you can stop. And that is such an amazing brain hack because for the most part, once you get out there and you’re 10 minutes in and you’re going to be warmed up, and you’re going to think, “Well, I can probably do 20 minutes.” The next thing you know, you’ve finished your whole workout.
Oh, and here is a bonus way to make running easy in 2021. Come to my masterclass on January 3rd to help you become a consistent exerciser. So whether it is running or another type of exercise, if you are struggling to stick with it, this class is going to help you understand exactly why you struggle and then let go of every single one of those excuses.
So if you want to join that class, all you got to do is go to notyouraveragerunner.com/masterclass. Or you can just click the link in the show notes for this episode. And you can sign up there. I hope I’ll see you there. I really, really want you to be there.
2020 was a hard year, you guys. Let’s get you set up to just sail through 2021. You deserve it. So come to this consistency masterclass, notyouraveragerunner.com/masterclass. Come to the class. I’ll help you get set up for success and 2021 is going to be epic.
Oh, one last thing for my Run Your Best Life clients, Cheetos. That’s all. Alright my rebellious friends, that’s it for 2020. What? 2021 is your year. I promise. I love you, stay safe, get your ass out there and run and I will talk to you next year.
Oh, and one last thing. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you have to check out the Rebel Runner Roadmap. It’s a 30-day online program that will teach you exactly how to start running, stick with it, and become the runner you’ve always wanted to be. Head on over to rebelrunnerroadmap.com to join. I’d love to be a part of your journey.
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