3rd June 2010 | How to Drive a Tank...

Ever wanted to run but didn’t want the pain? There is a simple running plan for beginners that I included in How to Drive a Tank that many have responded to. It’s outrageously simple, and anyone can do it.

How to Run
Remember all those Ethiopian track stars that honed their skills without fancy modern training kit? Like walking this is one of those skills that we all naturally have. We all used to run around like maniacs as kids, in the park, or on the football pitch. But as adults all we seem to remember are those ‘cross-country’ days where we forced to run around a track endlessly in the rain. The thought of running filled me with dread as a younger man, I lived on a beautiful park and one day I thought I’d give it a go. I did what we were taught to do in school, just go at it. About a hundred yards later I had to pull over hold onto a tree and wheeze like a coal miner. I was an extremely heavy smoker at the time which didn’t help. I gave up. Then I found Hal Higdon’s excellent book How to Train. In it he detailed a running plan originally designed by the ex-military coach Chuck Cornett for the over 50s. It’s called the 30/30 plan and it teaches you how to run properly, unlike school.

The Plan – Everyday for 30 days do the following:
Go away from the house for 15 minutes, then turn around and come back to it for a further 15, total time: 30 minutes.
Walk for the first five minutes – this is your warm up.
Walk for the last five minutes – this is your cool down.
For the middle 20 minutes jog or walk as long as you do so easily and do not push yourself. To begin with in your 20 minutes, try jogging 30 seconds, walk thirty seconds and slowly build up your time.

Always listen to what your body tells you. If you want to go faster do it, if you want to go slower, or walk, do that too. I guarantee you that after a week or so you’ll be wanting to go out every day, because if you don’t you’ll miss it.

After your 30 days you’ll be running a mile or three every time you go out and it won’t have been painful in the slightest. After that if you begin to run a little further you’ll find out that lovely little secret of runners everywhere, after 20 minutes the endorphins kick in. You won’t even want to stop.

Hal has updated this plan on his website where you can also find all his other running plans, from 5k to Marathons. In the next few days I’ll add another post on how to increase your aerobic capacity so that you can run faster and longer and with less recovery time between runs.