If you Google “How to Start Running?” , the majority of results returned give you brilliant guidance on how best to start putting one foot in front of the other. Suggestions include:

• starting with small expectations

• using a run/walk strategy

• getting an accountability buddy to come running with you

These are all well-researched, useful suggestions but I believe that the key to starting and sustaining a running practice is found long before you set foot out the door. Becoming a runner is about taking on a new identity and as such, we need to examine the person we are right now and clear ALL obstacles to becoming someone who runs.

Knowing that starting with 30 seconds of running followed by a 2 minute walk break is great knowledge to have but essentially useless if you always find an excuse not to leave the house in the first place! Recognise any of these?

• I can’t find my trainers

• There’s this really important piece of work I have to do first…which then expands to fill all the time available

• I’ll start running after I have lost a few pounds, it will be easier that way

• I’ve just eaten, I’d better not go out now

• I could go and run but there are other things on my to-do list that “need” done first

• I’m in back to back meetings all day, there’s no time to run

Starting to run, starts with examining your existing habits…

To step into the identity of a runner we need to examine our existing behaviours and habits that have the power to derail our desire to run.

Consider the following questions:

1. What factors have stopped me from starting and sustaining a running habit in the past?

2. Am I willing to address these factors and make small changes right now?

3. What small task/action (that takes less than 2 minutes) can I commit to that will take me a tiny step closer to being a runner in the near future?

Let’s consider an example…

Meet Lisa, Lisa is a busy mum of 2 pre-teens. She runs her own business which requires her to be “on site” during working hours. She also does the admin and book-keeping for her partner’s business too.

Lisa wants to start running to improve her cardiovascular health as she approaches her 50’s and enjoy some well deserved “time out” just for her.

Her reasons for wanting to run are solid and motivating BUT….she has tried to start running in the past, goes out for a couple of times a week for a few weeks and then………well, you know! The overwhelm kicks in. It becomes another chore rather than being the break it was intended to be. Lisa is trying to do too much, too soon. She has limited time and energy but genuinely does want to “become a runner”.

So let’s work backwards from the end goal and identify actions that take 2 minutes or less to complete:

• set your morning alarm for 20 minutes earlier than usual

• Get up when the alarm goes off

• look out running kit each evening before bed

• dress in running kit each morning

• Leave house and walk to the gate and back

Week 1 - Starting with setting your alarm for 20 minutes earlier, do this for a week or so….you don’t even need to get out of bed when it goes off. Just celebrate the fact that you are awake 20 minutes earlier!

Week 2 - Get up when the alarm goes off and just enjoy having 20 extra minutes to yourself.

Week 3 - After the alarm goes off, look out your running gear and put it on your bedroom chair/end of bed. Do this daily for a week or so until it becomes an embedded habit (and you start feeling really silly because you’re putting the kit away again each evening!) You will be keen to add the next “stacked” 2 minute action.

Week 4 - After you have looked out the running kit, put it on. You might need to change out of the kit and into work gear after 2 minutes but…...you’ll be primed to start using the kit.

Week 5 - The next step (literally) is out the front door in your kit and trainers and have a walk to your gate and back in. Your neighbours will think you are bonkers but…….we now have a habit of leaving the door in your kit

Week 6 - After you leave the front door - run for 30 seconds, walk for 30 seconds two times (that’s 2 mins)

Week 7 - Add another 2 rounds of 30 second run/30 second walk

You get the picture, within a couple of months you will have stacked enough tiny micro habits to have embedded running into your daily routine. At this point, it’s likely that the running habit will be sufficiently strong to drop the number of days, but increase the time on your feet.

Now you can Google “How to start running?” and follow all the amazing advice!