HOW TO:

START
RUNNING AND
ENJOY IT…
WITHOUT
SUFFERING
BY HY3RID COACHING
HOW TO:

START RUNNING
AND ENJOY IT…
WITHOUT
SUFFERING
BY HY3RID COACHING
PROLOGUE
We Love running. It demonstrates the ability to move
freely, explore new places and be amongst people who make
you happy. There are not many feelings that match running
and getting lost in conversation or lost in thought. The thing
is, running was not something we all loved from the start. For
me, AG, running was part of my life from an early age, I ran to
a fairly competitive level in both cross country and middle
distance athletics. It was during this time, that I hated running!
Every event was extremely stressful, training was a drag, and
I hated every minute of competing. Anyway, needless to say,
when I stopped competing, running took a major backseat.
It wasn’t until I met Amy that my mindset on running
completely shifted. It became a tool to explore cities without
needing to waste day after day trudging from monument to
monument. It was a way of being free and enjoying being
outside for the sake of being outside, not running a certain
distance or speed.
TMT & DL’s journey is very similar, both had a very
negative experience running during their teenage years. The
story is always the same. Whenever you run, you’d run really
hard, which would make them hate the idea of running, which
in turn made them run less, which in turn prevented progress.
Dreading sessions leads to sessions being missed, which
leads to worse results… NO WAY?!
A smiling Amy is also responsible for their love of running,
a mindset switch like no other. Running because it gives you
the freedom to play more games. Not because you need to
offset some calories or because you need to run 5,000m in
some arbitrary time.
It is through this mindset switch we hope to get you to
love running too!
1.
WHY RUNNING SLOW IS BETTER FOR
YOU

W
hen people think about running, usually they think
about the feeling of not being able to breathe. This is
also called suffocating, and is a terrible way to spend
your time. I wouldn’t advise it, unless you’re into that
sort of thing.
When people think about walking, usually they think
about being amongst loved ones in a beautiful setting taking
in nature. Unless they’re a whining 5 year old in which case
walking is the worst activity in the world. Well, each to their
own!
It’s a shame, these two thought process are so different.
Going running, although more challenging than walking for
sure, is essentially the same thing. It’s going outside, for the
sake of being outside exploring. When you go on a long walk,
your goal (usually) isn’t to cover a set distance, it’s simply to
move, take in nature and enjoy the process.
With running however, it’s easy to get lost in the minutiae
of trying to run a certain distance because that’s what the
local race is, or trying to run a certain speed because that’s
what’s considered ‘good’.
If this is your thing, and it probably is if you’ve been
running a while then great, keep enjoying it, but this book
probably isn’t for you. If however you’re yet to start your
running career, and you want to understand why people
actually love running, then read on!!
Running is, for the most part an aerobic activity. That means it
is performed in the presence of oxygen. Not for Usain Bolt,
but we will leave those short bursts out for this book, they’re
performed in the absence of oxygen and are suffering at it
finest! Thus when all things are considered, running and
walking are pretty much the same. One is just a slightly faster
version of the other.
The reason why, when you walk at a normal pace, if feels
like you could go pretty much forever, is that you are able to
continually use the oxygen in the air around you to carry out
the process of producing energy. It’s why, when you’re
walking you are able to hold a conversation with somebody
for the most part. We want to do the same thing with running.
I promise you, it’s not impossible. Of course, when you
introduce hills into the equation, walking becomes harder,
and thus more oxygen is required to perform the task, so your
breathing rate increases and potentially you need to walk
slower to hold a conversation, but I digress.
If you want to improve your body’s ability to deliver blood
to your working muscles you need to elevate your heart rate.
Somewhere in the region of 60-70% of its maximum value is
perfect for this. It allows your heart to completely fill up with
blood, before pumping that blood around your body. If we
work harder than this, it be comes harder and harder to
efficiently stimulate our aerobic system and we begin to tap
into our bodies anaerobic system, the one that produces
energy in the absence of oxygen. Despite the fact this feels
harder, don’t actually want this. By definition, this level of
intensity is too hard to do continually for prolonged periods
and thus we end up shooting ourselves in the foot. We suffer
more, and make less of the adaptations we are specifically
looking to stimulate.

Below is a rough calculation to work out your maximum heart

rate in beats per minute.

HEART RATE MAX = 220 - AGE

By gaining this information, we can start to look at what
constitutes 60-70% of this maximum heart ate number. Don’t
worry though, you don’t need to have a heart rate monitor for
this you just need to remember, if you can talk to someone,
you’re doing great. If you can’t hold a conversation, SLOW
DOWN! So to go through those numbers again using a 30
year old as an example.

HEART RATE MAX

= 220 - 30 (THEIR AGE)
= 190
So, if we want to find 60-70% of this we just multiply 190 by
0.6 and 0.7 to get:

60-70% = 114 - 133

There are individual differences to this of course as these are
based on population means, but I promise you, you don’t fall
far away from these.
So that may seem like quite a lot of information just to
say, don’t try very hard when you run and ensure you can
hold a conversation throughout. But, it is simply because
everyone I have ever spoken to, who has tried running and
not been able to enjoy it or make it stick has always ran too
quick. It’s thus important to understand the reason behind
why, being more cautious and taking it slow is the best way to
start running and to continue to make progress!
Cycling is often used as a clear example of how the best
in the world train their aerobic system. If we take the average
training of a Tour De France cyclist, widely considered to be
the fittest athletes on the planet, we see, the vast majority of
their training is easy. Lots and lots of time spent slap bang in
the middle of 60-70% of their max heart rate. The average
rider heart rate during the 2007 Tour was 133. If you think you
need to work harder than a tour de France cyclist, during the
Grad Tour itself, you need to reconsider! Those guys are
animals and love suffering!
Well, how does Lance Armstrong relate to your running
career? In almost all cases the reason people dislike running
is because they run too quick. If, when you start your running
programme it feels like your heart is going to leap out of your
chest, you can’t breathe and you hate every second of it,
you’re running too quick. It will probably mean a walk/run is
an essential part of your training. That’s fine, remember, we’re
running for the sake of being outside, exploring and
improving our hearts ability to circulate blood around our
body. Not to run 5k non stop. That may of course be a
byproduct, but it should not the goal.
So let’s get in to the programme! Remember, our goal is to
get better at running, not test how good we are at running
each time e head out! If you want to do that, do a park run
each weekend and watch your times stagnate after a few
weeks. Sure, it’ll work for a bit, but it won’t be the. Thing that
gets you to run and stick with it for the rest of your life!
2.
THE PROGRAM
Ok! Let’s start running! Or maybe a mixture of running and
walking. Walking is likely going to very integral part of this
program. So don’t feel like it’s something to be scoffed at.
Remember our goal is to exercise the heart. It isn’t so we can
show all the people who drive past us that we are really good
runners! Those people do not matter one iota, remember
that.
If you’ve got a heart rate monitor, that’s great and feel free
to use it. But i’m going to lay out some techniques you can
use to keep your heart rate squarely in the green zone of
60-70%. That’s working, but you can happily hold a
conversation.

5 BEAT RHYTHM
This is matching your breathing to your strides. It’s weird
and to begin with its really hard. But it is an excellent way to
allow keep your heart rate around a certain level depending
on your stride/breath count. Im only going to lay out 3
rhythms here, there are lots more but were going to stick
around 5 because that’s where we want the majority of our
training to be. It is also worth noting that we always want to
keep our breathing rhythm to an odd number. This decreases
the chance of repetitive strain injuries whilst also decreasing
the chance of a stitch. Win-Win.
All these rhythms are centred on breathing in for an
amount of strides and then breathing out for an amount of
strides. The out breath is always one higher than the in
breath, which keeps us using an odd number, and thus our
inhales happen on the opposite foot each new pattern. The
out breath is also the name of the pattern. So a 5 death
rhythm is 5 strides per exhale.

6 Beat Rhythm (6BR) = In for 5 strides, out for 6 strides

5BR = In for 4 strides, out for 5 strides.
4BR = In for 3 strides, out for 4 strides.

Armed with this, alongside using the talking technique

you’ll be able to know exactly how hard you’re working with
no need for an expensive watch that’s riddled with
inaccuracies anyway. Be honest with yourself on these
though, it’s ok to walk to allow yourself to get your breathing
rhythm back in check, or to allow yourself to talk again.
The lingo you need to understand this program:

1. 5/5 means run for 5 minutes, walk for 5 minutes.

2. 5/5 x 5 means 5/5 for 5 sets. I.e repeat 5 times.
3. Finally, if you can’t quite reach the required run number,
that’s fine! Stop where you are then walk the required
walking minutes and repeat.
4. We are aiming for 2-3 sessions a week. The program
below says 3 but don’t worry if you only make 2. Continue
with the next week as planned. If you miss 2 or more
sessions, stay on that week.
5. If you can’t quite compete the the sessions that week,
don’t worry, just repeat the week
6. Total moving time = Time spent out walk/running. Not
just running.
7. 5BR = Running and talking. You can choose to do either,
but please give the 5BR a decent try. It will help in the long
run.
8. Also, if you hit a hill steeper than 4%, walk up it! Always,
regardless of your run/walk timings. It will spike your heart
rate enough for you to be working hard enough.
 9. Finally, if you can’t hold a conversation, or a 4/5 beat
rhythm you’re running too fast. You’re not the exception to
the rule, just go slower! :D

Week 1:
Day 1: Experiment with 4/5 beat rhythm. All I want you to
do today is move for 20-30 minutes. So head out and jog
really easy, trying to match your strides with your breath in a 4
and 5 beat rhythm. Revise what it is above if you’re unsure.
Listening to music/podcast can make this really hard initially,
for me at least it did!
Day 2: Continue experimenting with a 4/5 beat rhythm,
walking every time it becomes too hard to hold whilst
running. Don’t exceed 30 minutes total moving time.
Day 3: Call a friend or run with a friend! Speak to them the
whole time, walking when you can no longer hold a
conversation. Try to cap it at 45 minutes of total time.

Week 2:
Day 1: 3/2-3 x 5. We are trying to keep to a 5 beat rhythm
during the 3 minutes run time. Make your walk brisk.
Day 2: 3/2-3 x 6. Again trying to hold a 5 beat rhythm.
Day 3: Call a friend or run with a friend! Speak to them the
whole time, walking when you can no longer hold a
conversation. If you feel like it, add 5 minutes to last weeks
total moving time up to a max of 50m.

Week 3:
Day 1: 4/2-3 x 5. We are trying to keep to a 5 beat rhythm
during the 3 minutes run time. Make your walk brisk.
Day 2: 4/2-3 x 6. Again trying to hold a 5 beat rhythm.
Day 3: Call a friend or run with a friend! Speak to them the
whole time, walking when you can no longer hold a
conversation. If you feel like it, add 5 minutes to last weeks
total moving time up to a max of 55m

Week 4:
 Day 1: 5/2-3 x 5. We are trying to keep to a 5 beat rhythm
during the 3 minutes run time. Make your walk brisk.
Day 2: 5/2-3 x 6
Day 3: Call a friend or run with a friend! Speak to them the
whole time, walking when you can no longer hold a
conversation. If you feel like it, add 5 minutes to last weeks
total moving time up to a max of 60m.

Week 5:
Day 1: Run until you can no longer hold a 5 beat rhythm, or
until you can’t sing the words to the song you’re listening to.
Repeat x 4 up to a total move time of 50m
Day 2: Run until you can no longer hold a 5 beat rhythm,
or until you can’t sing the words to the song you’re listening
to. Repeat x 4 up to a total move time of 55m
Day 3: Call a friend, or run with a friend! Go as far as you
like.

Hopefully by now, you’ll realise running is so much more

than an arbitrary distance. Have fun with it, meet new people,
speak to people you love and explore new places! Thanks for
reading and happy running!
All the love
THE CURIOUS TEAM