By now, if you have been following my step-by-step schedule, you will have become a regular runner, going out for a training spin anything between 3 to 6 times a week. You will have noticed an improvement in your physical condition, and more so in your self perception. You're doing something useful for your fitness, and it's beginning to bear fruit. But the best part is yet to come. This is still very much the beginning - you're laying a strong foundation for a lifetime of running.
You are bound to encounter challenging situations. In the previous section I dealt with problems caused by the weather. Today I will consider some other problems you will need to tackle, namely, difficult terrain, dogs, injuries, illnesses, or simply off days.
Difficult terrain
This could be due to the weather (which I dealt with in the previous section) - there is no magic formula here, you just have to be careful if it's rainy or snowbound. You should of course avoid choosing routes that are prone to becoming muddy, as well as rocky terrain - both of which situations could result in a sprained ankle if you're not extra careful. These are rather obvious, common sense precautions.
What I have in mind most when I mention difficult terrain is hills. You will have immediately noticed how much harder it is to run uphill than on flat terrain. You become breathless more quickly while running uphill, especially if you're a beginner. Experience will teach you how to approach hills, so that eventually you will simply take them in your stride, without much ado. But in the beginning, the best idea is to avoid them, although in many places this is much easier said than done.
Here are a few tips about going uphill. First of all, be confident - you'll just need to work harder than usual for a few minutes. Be prepared for the fact that your pace is going to slow down. Decrease the length of your stride, look down to the ground, concentrate on taking small steps, thrust your arms to help propel you uphill, and don't be too concerned about reaching the top of the hill. The less you think about reaching the top, the quicker it will seem once you get there. Don't worry about getting breathless. Let your lungs and your heart pump away, but don't force the pace. The magic formula here, most often valid wherever long distance running is concerned, is to take it easy. It will definitely become much less difficult as you gain experience.
Dogs
On rare occasions, dogs can be a nuisance to runners, especially if they're not on a leash (the dogs, I mean...). The worst possible encounter would be if it's you and the dog (or dogs!) and no one else. Clearly, the best policy is to ignore them, and in most cases they will leave you alone. Once they realise that you're not threatening their territory they will lose interest in you, and go back to their doggy world. Very rarely, a dog persists in pestering me, in which case:
(i) I turn upon it, shouting an animal growl, and literally chase it away, hurling kicks if necessary. This action works wonders, and they always disappear in a flash; or
(ii) for added security I keep a stone handy when anticipating an unfriendly doggy encounter. Throwing a stone or even an imaginary stone at them, again, should scare them away.
In 17 years of running, I have never had any trouble with dogs other than the very rare occasions that I resolved by (i) or (ii) above.
Injuries and illnesses
If you don't make any abrupt changes in training distances and intensities, you shouldn't have many injury problems. However, people do get hurt without even running at all, and this is true for runners as well. Where injuries are concerned the golden rule is this: if it hurts to run, stop, and walk back home. Don't run if it hurts. Just in case you may have misunderstood this point, please allow me to clarify a bit more: don't run if it hurts, unless you want the pain to get much worse. Too bad, you'll have to take time off training, until you're fully recovered. Only then is it safe to ease back into running again.
The same principle applies if you're feeling ill. Again, "listening to your body" will tell you if you should run or not. My rule of thumb here is that if I feel like going out for a run, I'm probably healthy enough to do it; if I feel run down and plain miserable, I take a good rest and allow myself time to recover.
This subject, i.e. having to take time off training due to injury or illness, and how to ease back into normal training, deserves a future section all by itself.
Off days
Sometimes, for no apparent reason, you feel more tired than usual and don't seem to be able to get a satisfactory rhythm in your run. There could be various reasons for this. You may have had a particularly tiring day, didn't sleep well, the weather is humid, or there may be a different reason altogether. The "off day" is an unexpected factor that could strike on a training run or during a race. You'll just need to sweat it out, puff somewhat more than usual, and look forward to a better day. Make sure you have not been overtraining during the past few days, in which case you should ease back on your training.
Don't let the odd bad day discourage you too much. In the next run you'll probably feel on top of the world again.
Week 7 (minutes of running at an easy pace, starting on Monday): 0, 50, 50, 0, 50, 0, 60
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