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Starting out as a beginner runner is an exciting adventure; one that is bound to open you up to a whole new world of health, exploration and fitness. Being able to traverse the Earth with nothing but the power of your body is a truly special experience and capability. This article will teach you how to do it right, with the goals of avoiding injury and capitalizing on training time.

What Is Considered a “Beginner Runner”?

You might be wondering at the outset of this article, “Am I a beginner runner?” Well, there’s a couple ways to go about measuring this, in both yourself and others. Be honest with yourself when reading the below metrics. Being a beginner isn’t a bad thing at all, but it is important to know where you stand to help you train effectively and avoid getting hurt.

These aren’t perfect measures by any means, but rough estimates and guidelines that are helpful to keep in mind. They may be slightly more aggressive than what you’ve heard in the past, but that’s because our most important goals are injury prevention and diligent, purposeful training.

The definition of a beginner runner is dynamic and can change over time.

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Experience

The first and most obvious criterion would be experience, i.e. the amount of time someone has been running. Anything under 12 months of consistent running experience is generally considered beginner. Sporadic periods of running over the course of a year (or years) do not count. 3+ times/week consistently for one year—minimum.

Distance

Second to experience would be a person’s tolerance for distance. Many beginners have an initial goal of running a 5 kilometer race, and it’s a great goal! It’s safe to say, then, that if you cannot currently run 5 kilometers straight, you are a beginner runner. The difference between 5 and 10 kilometers is big, but up to 10 kilometers may also still be considered beginner.

Pace

That last note may be particularly true depending on one’s pace. Beginner runners often fall around the 12-minute per mile mark or slower. This can change based on the distance a person is running. 

Consider the below ranges for a 5 kilometer, 10 kilometer, and half-marathon distance. The beginner range stays the same because the focus is on completing the distance comfortably. However, the intermediate/advanced ranges maintain their aggression over the longer distances as the focus switches towards performance.

5 Kilometer

Beginner: 10-12 minutes per mile

Intermediate: 7-9 minutes per mile

Advanced: 6-7 minutes per mile

10 Kilometer

Beginner: 10-12 minutes per mile (focus on maintaining pace for a longer distance)

Intermediate: 7:30-9:30 minutes per mile

Advanced: 6:30-7:30 minutes per mile

Half Marathon (13.1 Miles/21.1 Kilometers)

Beginner: 10-12 minutes per mile (again, the focus is on maintenance over a longer distance)

Intermediate: 8:30-10:30 minutes per mile

Advanced: 7:30-8:30 minutes per mile

Running Form

While you may not be a beginner in terms of experience, distance or pace, it’s possible that you could still be running with beginner technique. The human body is an adaptation machine, and it’s possible to stack huge levels of fitness on top of poor form. Inevitably, though, this catches up with people, often leading to chronic injury that takes a long time to correct.

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Beginner Runner Tips

Whether you’re beginning in the sport of running for the first time or have to “start over” after injury or other absence, we have some tips to help you train with both purpose and intelligence.

Start Slow—Slower Than You Think

It is absolutely OK and encouraged to mix walking in with your runs at the beginning. You want to build volume slowly and consistently. Remember this, running is a mix of impacts, force absorption and propulsion, these things take a toll over the course of literally hundreds and eventually thousands of repetitions each and every time you run. 

Studies show that forces acting on structures like the achilles tendon and ankle joint can peak, respectively, at around 10-13 times a person’s body weight. For a 200 lb person, that’s 2000-2600 lb of force every time your foot hits the ground. We take approximately 1500 steps/mile (750/leg) while running…that’s over 3 million pounds of force absorbed—per mile!

We’re not trying to scare you, in fact, it’s a testament to the amazing capacity of our tissues. That being said, it also underlies the seriousness of taking it slow when starting out. Your body is not used to undergoing this kind of stress, and it’s one of the reasons that runners are some of the most injured athletes on the planet.

Gradually Increase Volume

There is an oft-mentioned rule in the running world…

“Don’t increase your mileage by more than 10% per week.” 

You have to reapply this rule every week. So if you ran 3 kilometers total this week, your volume next week should not exceed 3.3 kilometers. The next week should not exceed 3.6 kilometers. Etcetera. You don’t have to be obsessive and scrutinize your distance down to the last meter, but you’ll want to keep this rule generally in mind when structuring your runs.

We need to give the body time to adapt to the ever-increasing distances and/or changes in pace as we progress in our running ability.

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Nutrition & Hydration

Like a lot of people in the running world, you may have started on this journey as a way of improving your health. Well, exercise needs to be coupled with proper nutrition in order to not only fuel your runs but also improve your overall well-being. Included in this umbrella is ensuring you’re getting enough water throughout the day, as well.

Focus on whole foods, i.e. not man-made. A simple rule goes as follows: If it wasn’t here 10,000 years ago—don’t eat it. Meats, fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts. You’ll lose weight, build muscle, and feel better than you have in years if you move away from the highly-processed foods of today and towards the natural options we were built to operate on.

For hydration, it’s helpful to buy yourself a quality water bottle—one that you actually enjoy carrying around with you everywhere you go. Aim for a gallon (3-4 litres) of water a day. More if you’re exercising, especially post-run. If you find you’re peeing out a lot of what you take in, try adding a pinch of salt to raise the pH level and increase absorption.

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Strength & Mobility Training

Incorporating strength and mobility routines into your training is a great way to mitigate the chances of injury and positively contribute to your running performance. Sports are repetitive (few are more repetitive than running), and with repetition comes adaptive muscle shortening, and repeated strain on certain tissues to the exclusion of others. 

Effective, functional conditioning coupled with stretching and mobility work helps make your tissues strong, flexible and resilient. Strong so they can absorb and produce force, flexible and mobile so they can stretch under load without worry of sprain, strain, tear or other soft tissue injury.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to strength and mobility training for runners, you should join us here at Dynamic Runner. We have thousands of runners worldwide who are running pain-free. Our app and online platform contains hundreds of high quality and enjoyable routines for strength, mobility and injury prevention. Sign up here for a 7-day free trial!

Beginner Runner Schedule

Here is a simple schedule (which takes the above information into account) that you can reference when starting out as a brand new beginner runner. The elements of this schedule can be tweaked for if you’re coming back from injury or after a long absence away from the sport, with the focus being on consistency, gradual progression and injury prevention.

You’ll notice we don’t reference certain distances below, but instead focus on the time you spend running/walking. This is a good metric to use in the beginning, as the focus is on exposing your body to the activity as opposed to how far you actually run. It can be done both ways, so feel free to substitute distances as you see fit (just remember the 10% rule from earlier).

Weeks 1-2

Monday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Tuesday: 20 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 1 minute jog), repeat 10 times

Wednesday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Thursday: 20 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 1 minute jog), repeat 10 times

Friday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Saturday: 20-30 minute easy jog or brisk walk

Sunday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Weeks 3-4

Monday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Tuesday: 25 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 2 minute jog), repeat 8 times

Wednesday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Thursday: 25 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 2 minute jog), repeat 8 times

Friday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Saturday: 30-35 minute easy jog or brisk walk

Sunday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Weeks 5-6

Monday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Tuesday: 30 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 3 minute jog), repeat 6 times

Wednesday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Thursday: 30 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 3 minute jog), repeat 6 times

Friday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Saturday: 35-40 minute easy jog or brisk walk

Sunday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Weeks 7-8

Monday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Tuesday: 35 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 4 minute jog), repeat 6 times

Wednesday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Thursday: 35 minutes of walk/run intervals (1 minute walk, 4 minute jog), repeat 6 times

Friday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Saturday: 40-45 minute easy jog or brisk walk

Sunday: Rest or beginner strength/mobility training

Final Note…

Enjoy yourself! Running is an incredible activity and freedom that you cannot fully appreciate until you do it yourself. It looks crazy from the outside—people running through snow and rain, on mountain trails or the side of the road…who are those people, anyways? Well, now you’re one of them, and we’re so happy to have you here!

Good luck in your training, and if you need help, just send us an email at [email protected]

Written by Eric Lister - Certified Personal Trainer & Corrective Exercise Specialist