These 2 Changes Got Me Back Into Running After 4 Years Off

It can be pretty intimidating to get into running for the first time, as anyone who’s trained for their first 5k or even marathon knows.

But once you’ve begun to feel a little more comfortable in your running shoes, it can prove just as tricky getting back into the activity. Some research has found that ten years after a running event, half of joggers had quit.

I am among them. I ran about 60km a week from 2019-2020, which stopped once I moved out of college and into the “real world.”

My attempts to get back into it seemed to confirm it wasn’t for me anymore. I felt slow, sore, and frankly embarrassed that neither my mileage nor my speed was up-to-scratch.

If you’re in a similar boat, here’s what helped me to break the four-year hiatus in the past four months – and even helped me to cover further distances than I’d ever managed before.

1) If you think you’re going too slow, slow down

When I first got into running, I quickly realised I wasn’t going to progress if I tried sprinting everywhere.

Technically, I told myself, a person who can walk 10km can jog it too – the only difference is pace, so if I wasn’t able to hack a distance, I needed to slow down – a move experts say can prevent injury, increase adherence, and even, paradoxically, improve speed.

That’s been key to helping me get back into running. While it can be very tempting to compare yourself to your perceived “glory days” pace, it’s just as unhelpful as gasping through a 30-second interval was in your early runs. 

If it helps, zone 2 training – where you stay at a conversational pace – is pretty great for us, helping to build our cardiovascular base. The best athletes do 80% of their training at that level.

2) Mix up your workouts 

It’s helped to see this period of running as a sort of “second try,” given that I used to only run without strengthening my hips, knees, or core. 

As a result, I got a lot of injuries, which kicked straight back in whenever I attempted to rekindle my passion for running. A 2018 paper suggests injuries are the leading cause for runners to nope out of the sport. 

Now, I mix strength and flexibility training into my workouts and genuinely have not had an injury since.

Squats, lunges, and variations are immensely helpful. Fitness expert Mark Harris previously told HuffPost UK that strength training improves “biomechanics and how your body moves and absorbs impact,” meaning “you minimise compensatory movements that can lead to imbalances and injuries.”

Personally, mixing strength training into my running routine also means I don’t feel like I haven’t worked out if a run doesn’t go the way I want it to.

Lastly, try not to compare your old running ways to your new ones. OK, I’m not as speedy as I used to be, but I’m going a lot further on my long runs and (have I mentioned this???) I don’t get a single injury any more. 

The tools that got you into running in the first place (perhaps it’s an app or a running buddy) are just as helpful for getting back into it too – after all, it’s a new start.