Ian MacNeill - The Beginning Runners Handbook

This book was written specifically for beginning runners. It has been designed to answer the practical questions you may have about getting started. It will tell you how to avoid sore muscles and injury. It will give you advice about motivation and help you set realistic and achievable goals. And, most important, it will provide you with a recipe for success, a tried-and-true training program for starting to run.

The heart and soul of this book is SportMedBCs 13-week program that has its roots in what is now one of the worlds most popular 10-k events, the Vancouver Sun Run TM . A relatively obscure event when it started in 1983, the Vancouver Sun Run TM annually attracts 50,000+ runners and walkers. As the run started to grow, event organizers noticed that the frequency of running-related injuries had risen. A good number of the runners were first-timers, and many of them hadnt properly trained or prepared for the event. It wasnt until after they were injured that they learned the necessary steps required to safely go the distance. Either that, or they quit altogether.

It seemed clear that many participants would benefit from receiving expert advice before the event.

The 13-week training program presented in this book was originally conceived by Dr. Doug Clement, a sport medicine physician, former Canadian national team running coach and retired co-director of the Allan McGavin Sport Medicine Centre at the University of British Columbia. After several years of treating a steady stream of running casualties, he decided to design a training plan that neophyte runners could follow and benefit from. The mandate was simple: develop a graduated program that intersperses walking with jogging or running in order to help people develop the physical robustness to run, walk or jog a 10-k course without getting injured.

In 1996, the 13-week RunWalk program became the basis for a series of community-based running clinics created and managed by SportMedBC. Clinics are available at local recreation centers, fitness clubs and YMCAs/YWCAs. Although the fundamentals of the program stayed the same (walking interspersed with jogging or running), each training segment was carefully fine-tuned. Over five years, the original training program was then modified to fit the real-life experiences of the more than 75,000 individuals who had used the program. Compelled by the testimonials of clinic participantssome of whom claimed that following the program provided one of the most rewarding, life-altering experiences they had ever hadwe decided to take the program to a larger audience. Since then, tens of thousands of people worldwide have accomplished their running goals using the Beginning Runners Handbook.

This program has been proven to work by people who may have been fearful at first, but who doggedly set goals and persevered to achieve them. The book includes first-hand accounts from many of these runnerstelling about their challenges, setbacks, successes and failures. As well, it includes guidance from a wide range of professionals, all experts in their respective fields of nutrition, sport medicine, sport science, psychology and coaching, and running tips from track-and-field Olympian and RunWalk coach Lynn Kanuka.

Whether you want to start running to lose weight, relieve stress, quit smoking, reduce your cholesterol levels, meet new people or simply get fitter, this book will help you meet your goal. You will learn how to start an exercise regime the right way, and you will be able to learn from the mistakes and successes of others. Best of all, once you have started the program, you will be able to come back to the book and review specific sections for encouragement, advice and reinforcement. Having the book is a bit like having a personal running coach in your back pocket. If you use a logbook, and we highly recommend that you do, this book will also help serve as a permanent record of your achievement. (See , for information on SportMedBCs 13-week training log, which is designed specifically to accompany the program.)