Safe Running Tips

Fri 26 Feb 2021

 

Safe running with Helen Treece -
Springwood Leisure Centre Wellbeing Advisor

 

I hope that you are all keeping fit and active and using your allocated ONE A DAY exercise wisely. 

 

For some of us (including myself) there is the daily challenge of what to do. Is it walk the dog, Go out on my bike, go for a run. How do we manage the once a day restriction when we have dogs, children and work at home to do?

 

My version of this is to take my dogs out to my local fields and designated footpaths and find a hill. I simply then do some hill reps whilst the dogs either join in or sit and look at me like I am a crazy mad person.

 

If you have children and need to run then the option is to get the kids out on their bikes and you run with them.

 

Your exercises right now doesn’t have to be high heart rate outside on the daily head space, in fact it is a great opportunity for those of us who have had races postponed or cancelled to use this time wisely for aerobic base building which can take months to achieve. Go out for your daily quota and do a fast walk with the dogs, slow steady run or bike in that aerobic zone. Save the higher heart rate workout for those daily HIIT sessions we are posting. 

 

Useful tools are:

 

STRAVA where you can find many local maps of routes that other friends have completed that live close by. These can be downloaded and followed.

 

RUN MY ROUTE great for mapping a road and then loading in into your Garmin

 

GARMIN can create a route for you

 

OS MAPS and VIEWRANGER online are great to load up and follow the local footpaths in your area.

 

If being alone on your exercise is what is worrying you then there are still options:-

 

  1. Go with your partner, if they don’t run, walk with them to a beauty spot or park and then while they sit on a bench you can do some interval or hill session
  2. Pick a loop route local to your home and run or walk the first loop steady then try and beat your time on the next loop and repeat. Maybe select a 1k loop for ease. Or do as a running colleague of mine did in a local park draw a picture with your run on STRAVA
  3. Do a virtual run with your running mates. Agree a time you are going out and set up a social media online chat group and then run together at the same time and chat. Make you feel less alone. 

 

Whatever you do try not to waste this daily allocated time as we have a beautiful spring just blooming. Take the time outdoors to relax and take in the sunlight that is so vital to our wellbeing

 

Above all – STAY SAFE, SOCIAL DISTANCE and afterwards STAY AT HOME

 

Helen - Springwood Wellbeing Advisor