Running is one of the best ways to burn some serious calories while toning and strengthening your muscles but for those who haven’t tried this workout just yet, their endurance and stamina levels are not as impressive as those athletes. Fortunately, there are steps that you can take that will help you run the distance without gasping for breath. Here are some that should get you started.
Follow the run walk method
For newbies, the best thing to do is to pace yourself to avoid unnecessary injuries. Since you are just starting out, the best approach would be to do a 10-minute brisk walk to warm your muscles up. Follow this up with 30 seconds of running then 30 seconds to a full minute of walking to recover. Do this for a week then increase your run time while slowly reducing your rest time until you can run for 25 to 30 minutes without taking a break.
Run long and slow
One of the biggest mistakes that many of us do when we run for the first time is to train hard to get results fast. Unfortunately, you won’t go very far with this kind of thinking. If you ask the pros, most of them will say that you are better of running long but slow. It is better that you just run at 80% of your speed that you can run the same distance. For example, if you can run 10 miles at 7:30 pace, you should do it at 9:23 pace. This way, you won’t burn yourself too much or straing yourself too much for that matter.
Interval training
Another way to increase your stamina and your endurance is to do interval training. As the name suggests, this type of training will involve doing intervals between intense workout and mild ones. One way to do this is to head to your local track then warm up for 10 minutes first. This will help loosen up the muscles so you won’t suffer from muscle cramps or injuries. Once you have warmed up you should do 8 to 10 200m sprints at your maximum speed then rest for 30 seconds to a minute in between sprints. Afterwards, don’t forget to cool down.
Make your workouts count
Since you shouldn’t be pushing yourself too hard, a good way to make every workout count is to break it down to three workouts. The first one is the long run, then the tempo run, and last is the speed workout. You can do these three workouts intensely then take it easy in between days. This will not only help improve your endurance and stamina but it will also prevent injuries from taking place.
These are just a few suggested practices on how you can improve your stamina and endurance so you will be able to run faster and longer in the future.
