Tyson (00:00:00) - Ladies and gents, welcome back to the Relax Running podcast. Tyson Popple stone here. Hey, sorry. It's a couple of days late. At the moment. We're, um. I'm sitting here in my accommodation up at Falls Creek for the first ever Falls Creek Run camp. It's, uh. It's been a pretty cool experience. Got six of us up here. Or seven, if you're clued. Include, uh, Mark's wife who's been out on the bike and just checking out the trails. But, man, it's been, uh, been really exciting. I'm hoping that next year it just gets bigger and better. And, uh, I mean, it's amazing how just being up in the mountains for a few days has some incredible ability. Just to put things in perspective. It could also be with the fact that, I mean, I've been away from home, uh, from, uh, three year old and a one year old for the last five days. And the noise in the apartment that I'm staying at, he's a he's a whole heap, uh, a whole lot less than what it is back in my place.

Tyson (00:00:50) - But, hey, it's unbelievable. The trails that we've seen up here. We came up on, uh, Thursday. I'm recording this on Sunday afternoon. Sunday? Yeah. Sunday afternoon. So we came up Thursday. The camp officially kicked off at about 3:00. We went out to Langford Gap and just started with the bed. An 8-K relatively easy run just to welcome the legs to altitude. We're here at 6100m above sea level, which in Victoria, uh, in terms of running trails, you're not going to get much more in terms of height. And unless you just start going into some real up and down trails, the beauty with False Creek is that there's so many flat paths so you can do speed work. You can do long work. Um, I mean, we're just absolutely spoilt for options. Got out on Friday morning for another run, did some strength and conditioning later in the afternoon. Saturday was a tempo session for some of us. Another easy run for a couple of others. This morning I ran with, uh, with David Wilks.

Tyson (00:01:47) - He did a 24 day long run, did ten K by himself, then 14 K with me. We went out. And for those familiar with False Creek, this morning's long run was was what we call the Tower Run. So it's about 13 K. I tacked a little bit onto the end there. We've been absolutely looked after with weather conditions. I'm looking outside right now. The sun's shining. Um, maybe if I don't come home with a tan, I'm going to be incredibly disappointed. If you are interested, I've already locked in the dates for next year. If you want to get your name on the the list. Obviously we had we had a few people had to pull out with injuries in the lead up to this, but hey, all going well. Gonna run this again next year with with a whole heap more people. So I think ideally we could get up to around 20. So if you're uh, if you want to get that locked in nice and early, I think it's the 12th to the 16th.

Tyson (00:02:35) - I'm looking at doing the camp up here for next year. But coming into the end of the year, I thought what might be a good subject to touch on is I know over the last few days of me being here, I've been sitting down, reflecting and just doing a little bit of planning on all things in in my life, with particular reference to, um, the running coaching with relaxed running in general. And as a part of it, I'd sort of planned a little bit of my journey going into the new year, but what I wanted to do, I know for so many of us, this is a bit of a time where we sit back and we reflect and we plan. And I also know there's a lot of times when people start a New Year's resolution or they start to set their sights on something bigger and better often January the 1st is a nice clear break on when to start that. So today I wanted to specifically dedicate this episode towards, um, just offering a beginner's guide to starting your running journey.

Tyson (00:03:26) - Because for so many of us and the vibe I get, there's a lot of I mean, it seems as though there's there's quite a variance in who listens to this podcast, but I think a lot of you guys are at community level or even just looking at getting involved. So if I can be of any assistance in this regard, I would I would absolutely love to. So I've done some brainstorming. I've put down a whole heap of ideas. Now, like anything, running is such an individualized sport. So the truth is some of these are going to be relevant to you. Some of these are not going to be relevant to you. And there's probably a couple that haven't been mentioned here that probably should have. So if you think I've missed anything, let me know. Um, leave. Uh, honestly, I think the best place to communicate these ideas is if you leave that comment on if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, feel free to leave a review. Leave your comments there. I'll read them out on the episode next week.

Tyson (00:04:15) - Also, really good to leave those comments. It helps the podcasts a lot reach a whole heap new of new listeners just through, uh, ranking a little higher on Apple Podcasts. But with all of that said, no specific order. Let's jump into what it is that you should consider. If you're someone who either hasn't been running for a long time or you've never run, and yet looking at just getting started, the first thing is, I reckon we just need to start with a good, comfortable pair of running shoes. Now, we had Matthew Klein on here a couple of weeks ago. He's a lower leg specialist. He spoke with specific regards to the kind of shoes that we're running in now. From the research and studies that he's done. He's a genuine believer in the fact that so many of the shoes that we actually wear. Don't necessarily have the impact that we're told they do some shoes, we're told help with the rolling in of our feet. Some shoes are designed for people with higher arches, he said.

Tyson (00:05:09) - Find something that's super comfortable. And so with that said, under his advice, I would encourage you. Step one go out and find a running shoe that is designed for running, or at least walking. I would say running because you can run in a walking shoe. You can't necessarily sorry. You can walk in a running shoe, but you can't necessarily be super comfortable walking in a or running in a walking. You know what I'm trying to say, don't you? It was hard work to get that that little sentence out. Um, essentially, you want to make sure that the shoes designed for running, not cross training, it's not really heavy leather or anything like that. I think having something on your feet which is comfortable is part of the incentive. There's nothing worse than going out for a run and being concerned with blisters or being concerned with the fit, whether that be too narrow to short, too wide, whatever it is. So go down. If you're here in Victoria, obviously the running company, if you're in South Australia, joggers world, I mean, there's places all around the world that have a reputation for dealing out really good running gear.

Tyson (00:06:06) - So, um, find out a place in your area that's designed to hook runners up with the right shoe. Get one of the professionals at the source to help fit you out. But most importantly, find something that's super important, super comfortable. That's a really important place to start. The second thing we want to talk about, if you've never run before, you're not going to go out and just be able to run 30 minutes or 40 minutes all in one go. And you'll see with really popular training programs like couch to five K. They'll get you to start with walks. Now, this is the exact thing that I would recommend. I mean, honestly, anyone who's being completely honest with you, it's about time. On your feet. Until you're comfortable walking for 30 minutes, you're not going to worry about running for 30 minutes. Now, obviously, a lot of this is dependent on where you're at in your own personal fitness journey. If walking for 30 minutes is a challenge for you now, let's start there.

Tyson (00:06:56) - Let's go out. Walk for 20 minutes if you have to. Now, running has a reputation for rewarding those who are the most consistent, so this is something that you don't need to be a hero on January the 1st and go, you know what, I'm going to walk for 2.5 hours and then get home, be wrecked and not walk at all for the rest of the week. You're going to want to go out, put in some time, do less than what you're capable of with the intention of making sure you get home and you're feeling inspired and confident that you can do this more consistently. I would recommend at least four times a week, find 30 minutes of time to to just walk. Now if you'll be on walking, this is where you start to adapt things a little bit. Your next step is to walk for a jog for 60s at a very, very slow pace and then walk for four minutes as a recovery. Now repeat this process for 30 minutes. Now, as you might imagine, the progression gradually increases where you go from one minute of running to two minutes of running with a three minute break, then three minutes of running with a two minute break all the way up to five minutes of running.

Tyson (00:07:55) - Now here's the thing if you can run for five minutes, you can run for ten minutes. If you can run for ten minutes, you can run for 20 minutes. It's all at that stage about pacing. So many new runners go out there with the expectation of going, okay, well, I can run now. So I guess I just go and run for 30 minutes and they run. You've got no idea what pace you should be operating yet. So here's the rule run at a pace that you feel so embarrassed to be running at and then slow down even more. That's a really good place to start. If you feel you're 200m in, you're really breathing hard. Slow it down, even if it's simply half a step faster than a walk. Get comfortable with that. Then, once you've started to walk through that program, once you've gone from walking to jogging, jogging to some more running, that's where we can start to implement a bit more structured training and structured interval tempo, threshold speed work.

Tyson (00:08:44) - That's the kind of work we do to get you running faster. Now, this ties in beautifully with the next point, which is follow a structured program. If you've never trained before, if you've never ran before, or if it's been a long time since you have, you're probably going to have absolutely no idea of what it is that you want to include in your training week. And so with that said, find someone you trust, someone who's been in the sport for a while, or maybe a running coach, at least find someone you know who has some idea of how to structure a training program and figure out what works specifically for you. I'd be more than happy if you needed a little bit of guidance. Reach out to me. Jump over to relax. running.com. Hit the contact button that comes through to my inbox. I can point you in the right direction if you're looking for some more personal coaching. Obviously the new year might be a really good place to start that regardless of what level of fitness you're at, what sport you're at, I'm happy to work with you there, but the goal is to find someone you trust to sit down and help plan out something specifically to you.

Tyson (00:09:44) - More important than just having a specific training program, I would say, is having someone that you trust to offer feedback on the work that you're doing, someone to keep you accountable. I was talking with David on the run this morning about how when you're relatively new to running, you feel good. You go out there and you just start smashing it as hard as you can. Or the reverse might be true. You might just think you have to force through certain pains and injuries and niggles, and you don't give your body the right chance to recover. So the idea of having someone to keep you accountable can both be inspiring and also a little bit of a scaffold, which can keep your body in order for a little bit longer. Sometimes it's nice to be able to bounce off someone, hey, I felt like this when I ran. The pain got worse and have someone to say, hey, look, listen, we've got to get on top of this before we keep going or to have someone to go, hey, look, you've been training pretty consistently for four weeks now.

Tyson (00:10:31) - I think we can increase the distance, the intensity, the speed, or just start to make little changes in what it is that we're doing. A structured program is really good, especially towards a particular goal. If you can have a goal in mind, if you can have a little bit of an idea of where it is that you're trying to get to, it makes it so much easier to plan for. And so with that said, my next point is you want to set realistic goals. Now, running has a reputation for attracting people who are very, very driven. And with being very, very driven comes maybe an over expectation of what you can achieve in a short amount of time. Truth is, a lot of you could probably run for an extended period of time very quickly, but it's not always the best way to do it. So you might come into the sport going, all right, it's January now. My goal is to run a marathon in May. Chances are we could probably get you fit enough to do it.

Tyson (00:11:21) - If you've got a little bit of a foundation. If you're committed relatively injury free, you've got good form, you've got good commitment. We could get you running a marathon in that amount of time. The question is, is that a Smart goal to set? I would say based on my experience, based on who I've spoken to, based on what I've learned over the 20 years I've been involved in the sport, I think we should expand the horizon of goals like that. So we want to set realistic goals for where you're at. Maybe your first goal is simply to get jogging with what I spoke about earlier that 60s on four minutes off. Awesome goal two set. Maybe that could be goal one by the end of January. Goal number two might be okay. By the end of March. I want to be running for 30 minutes four times a week. Goal number three might be like, okay, I'm doing that. Maybe by June or July I can run a 10-K. Maybe by November, December I could start looking at a half marathon.

Tyson (00:12:09) - Then once you start to get those things up your sleeve, you start to get confident. A little bit of rhythm, a little bit of momentum. You've got a structure in place that's really working for you. That's when we can start looking at bigger and better goals. Maybe your goal is just consistency. Maybe you just want to get 12 months of consistency. Your or your goal right now should be, hey, clarify exactly what it is that you're working towards, and from there you can start to plan the training program accordingly. It's always so much easier to hit a goal when you know what it is, and to structure a training program towards a goal than it is just to go out and cross your fingers and see where the running takes you. The next point I want to talk about is paying attention to your running technique you run form. The truth is, for whatever reason, distance runners have a lot to learn when it comes to technique. The conversations have been so limited around this. It's really frustrating, actually, that so few people pay attention to the efficiency of their movement.

Tyson (00:13:04) - Sports like tennis and golf and swimming, cycling even have a really big focus on the efficiency of movement. So it's crazy that in a sport like distance running, so many of us are thinking about training and nutrition and recovery, um, the structure of our training program. All really important things, obviously, but we completely forget about the efficiency of our movement. Now, if you don't know, I do a lot of technique analysis with the athletes that I work with and also athletes separately to that you can jump on board with the online membership, or you can sign up for simply a one off technique analysis. We can do that in person if you're local, or we can do that online if you're not. We use a great app called On Form, which gives a whole range of tools from a whole range of perspectives. We can look at your technique from different angles, at different speeds, which is really beneficial to you. If you're interested in that, make sure you jump over. Check out the technique page at Relax Running.

Tyson (00:13:59) - I can't encourage you enough with this. One of the best things we see with athletes who are committed and consistent to working on running technique is that the the feel of them running starts to get a lot better. Just like I said at the outset, you want to have a pair of shoes which are comfortable. But the best thing, one of the most effective things to make you enjoy the feeling of running is running with efficiency. It's so nice to realize, oh, I stole my tension here. It's so nice to realize, oh, I feel a certain amount of stress when I do this. It's so nice to know a couple of simple cues that you can apply it that makes running easier. If you've never had a running technique analysis done before, get in touch. I highly recommend you to do that, because essentially, the foundation of all your training is the movement that you're doing it on. So many athletes think I'll get fitter and then I'll get faster, and they completely forget about the fact that getting faster also comes through more efficient movement.

Tyson (00:14:49) - I mean, there's no surprise that the smoothest athletes in the world also have a reputation for being the most technically beautiful to watch. You don't even need to be a qualified or trained runner to see this. I can show a video of David Rudisha to my wife, who has really no interest in running, and she can go, okay, I can see there's something different there. Have a look at every world record holder from the 100m to the marathon and tell me they didn't look amazing when they run. I don't think you'll be able to find an example of someone who doesn't. The next point is you want to include some down days in between the work. As I mentioned earlier, four days is usually a pretty good place to start, especially with that walk run option. The idea with a rest day is just giving your body, your joints, the chance to recover. Your chance to actually absorb the work that you've done. Your goal should not be to go out there and absolutely just smack it out of the park every single day.

Tyson (00:15:41) - But to have a level of exercise which is relatively relaxed, have a look at the video on the Norwegian method, which I've posted on YouTube recently. These guys have a really targeted approach to a lactate threshold training or a lactate, that blood lactate level kind of training, which focuses on them not actually hitting their maximum intensity during most of the sessions, but backing it off a little bit so they can actually absorb more volume. This is something that I would encourage you to do, not necessarily to have a lactate meter to measure your blood lactate levels, but simply make sure you're not pushing yourself to your actual absolute limit, because in the name of consistency, that's going to really challenge our body's ability to absorb the work. The next point is we want to focus on consistency. I've touched on this point a couple of times throughout these first few points that I've made, but consistency is the key to progress. You have so many athletes I've seen this are honestly like the amount of times that I can't possibly keep count of over the course of my running career.

Tyson (00:16:43) - So many athletes can come out and they can train incredibly well for a week. They might do 50 KS and it's more KS than they've ever done before, but as a result, they're cooked for the next few weeks. Your goal is to do less and do it more consistently. Falls creek's a really interesting example. I remember being up here as a young athlete in 2004, and for whatever reason, I mean, you already come from sea level to 1600 meters above sea level, and then you're surrounded by a heap of good runners. And because of that, you go, well, I'm just going to smash myself for a week, and you go out and you run harder than you would at sea level. You run further than you would at sea level, and you get home in the week after you're absolutely spent. And so with all of that said, let's be really intelligent with the way that we structure it. Stay consistent, because consistency is going to be the key to your running progress. The next thing I want to focus on is incorporating some cross training.

Tyson (00:17:35) - Now, if you're relatively new to running, as I said, you've got the four days of week, four days a week of exercise. If you're the kind of person that says, hey, you know what? I want to do more than 30 minutes worth of exercise on my feet. Maybe rather than introducing 60 minutes of hard running, Gordo Byrne, who's an ultra endurance superstar from the early 2000, had a really popular conversation with me on this podcast just a few weeks ago, which is also I'll link that in the show notes as well. He speaks about how cross training is really beneficial, because you can get the aerobic benefits of running on an elliptical or a stationary bike, or some form of cross trainer without all the pressure on your joints. So if that means you add in an extra one of those to your training week or at the. End of 30 minutes worth of work, you go, you know what? I'm going to jump on a cross train or stationary bike for an extra 30 minutes to increase the aerobic capacity of my running without the intense pressure on my joints.

Tyson (00:18:32) - That's a really good way to do it. Next thing is just simply listening to your body. I always say to my athletes that your training programs are written in pencil, and so what do I mean by that? Adam Dziedzic taught me this, and it means that just because something's on your training program doesn't mean it's the right thing for you to do for that day. Sometimes if you wake up and you're absolutely caulked or you've got pain and you're scheduled to do a 30 or 40 minute run, sometimes it's good to go. You know what? Today's a rest day. Today is a yoga day or a strength day or a cross training day. The idea of making sure you run every day just because it's on your program is crazy. Over time, you start to recognize the pains and discomfort which are actually serious, and then you start to realize pain and discomfort, which is just a result of fatigue from the day before. It is a little bit of a trial and error process. It's going to take you a while to get used to it, to navigate what it is that's going on in your body before you can be confident with this, but it's really important that at the end of your run or the start of each day, you tune in touch, base with yourself and go, hey, how am I feeling? How's this pain? Is it getting worse? Is it getting better? Should I take a day off and listen to that? Don't push through injuries, pains and niggles with the idea that it's going to help you because it's really not.

Tyson (00:19:41) - The second last thing that I want to talk about is hydration. Now you'll know that Precision Hydration is a really big supporter of the show. I used them during my marathon build up. These guys have an individualized hydration plan, which looks at the amount that you sweat, the style of sweater that you are, and the things that need to be replenished based on that. Don't just think, okay, I'm a runner now, I have to drink three liters of water. You want to make sure you're replacing the things that you're sweating out. So figure out hydration. Stay on top of it. Actually, Mark, one of the athletes that I'm up here with says he struggles a little bit with being consistent with hydration. So his wife bought him a bottle that on the side of it, it tells you on one side how much water you drink and on the other side how much you should have drank by that point of the day. So he said it almost gamified it a little bit. By 12:00 he knows he had to have X amount of liquids, and if he's not up to that, then it's time to play catch up.

Tyson (00:20:27) - That's a fun way to do it. The other side of all this is looking at nutrition. What fuels you? Well, obviously carbs are the main source of carb, a main source of energy for so many runners. Unless they've decided to take up some ketogenic diet, where the body plays more of a role in using fat as its energy, figuring out what you respond well to, what food you enjoy, what you like to replenish with. Don't just go out and go, okay, well, I'll just eat this and hope it works. Do a little bit of research, find out what a lot of athletes eat, and then try and stay as closely tuned to that as possible. Obviously the nutrition subject is a huge one and I've done a disservice there. But if you're interested, I mean, get in contact. I can link you to so many great podcast episodes, so many articles that can delve a little more into this particular topic. Last but not least, you want to celebrate your achievements.

Tyson (00:21:16) - Don't be that kind of athlete who you're not happy until you've absolutely smashed your goal out of the park. Celebrate the small steps along the way. It's so much easier to get out there and run well when you're actually enjoying the process that you're taking part in. So if you're not the kind of person to celebrate, schedule in some little celebration moments. Once you hit 30 minutes of running, bang, go out for dinner, take your lady out for dinner, take your man out for dinner. Whatever it is that you've got to do to celebrate a moment. Running is so much more fun when you're doing it with other people and high fiving a couple of mates who are around you. Last little one, I would actually give you a little bonus one if you can find a group. A group is such a great motivator to have. One thing I've loved about being up here at Falls Creek is every day you've got five people, six people to run with and you can chat. The time goes fast.

Tyson (00:22:02) - Dave ran 20 4k this morning. As I said, I ran 14 the 14 K that I joined him for. It went in a blink of an eye. We're just talking smack, having a laugh, talking about goals and dreams and whatever else comes up. Having people by your side to actually enjoy the journey with is really important. If there's anything else you need help with, as I've mentioned, jump on board over at Relax running.com, hit me up. Whether that's for technique, analysis, personal coaching. I would love to look at working with you guys in the new year, but for now, happy training. If you're thinking about getting started, I'm excited for you. It's a really, really rewarding journey you're about to step into.