Tips for a 20 year old getting into running with little experience

Started running when I was 20 too. That was 35 years ago. I had a lot of great races over the years and did some epic stuff I would have never dreamed of I would do.

Don't worry about your times. Just run, read about it to improve your training and sign up for races you are interested in. The great thing with running is that you can adapt it to your lifestyle over the decades. Sometimes you do more, sometimes less.

You have tons of options and you'll probably get a ton of responses. I second the other poster to just run and read more about training and see what comes together for you. But I'll also try to give you simple answers to your big questions.

1. Work at getting up to about an hour a day of running. This is one of my simple benchmarks for myself after coming back from time off, an injury, or just working on other things for a while. When I get up to an hour a day, things just start clicking. And then I'm also ready for more specific training if I want to go there.

2. Sure. You're a healthy, overall athletic person. Those times are fine. And you've also got lots of room for improvement if you want to go there.

3. It might be. But prioritize what you want to do. I've had periods of lifting and getting up near your weight. It's fun. I like it. Feeling strong is a cool feeling. But when I run more, I tend to lift a little less and shed weight overtime. Feeling fast is a cool feeling, too. A few times I've tried to stay strong and lift a lot and also run enough to feel fast. I haven't figured it out yet. It might be possible. It might not. I don't know.

For being physically active, but not running much, your times are good. Definitely above average. It would be different if you ran almost every day and 40+ miles per week. Then it would be below average.

Your weight is perfect for a recreational runner. However, an elite (or at least ambitious) long distance runner would be more like 150-155 lbs and a more muscular middle-distance runner type would be around 160-170 lbs at the same height.

1. You are probably familiar with the typical training plan that has two workouts a week and one long run. One workout is relatively fast intervals (VO2 max) and the other is longer intervals or tempos (threshold). This is what you should build up to be able to do. There are tons of different variations on this them that you can find online and in books. There is no secret formula that is better than all the others. But it is important to eventually have some periodization where you build up your workouts towards a goal race and a lot of variation to keep the stimulus up and prevent workouts from becoming stale. But the best thing you can do is find a training group with runners who are a bit faster than you are. Nothing is better for improvement than chasing rabbits.

2. Times are good. I would expect that you could get down to sub 18 5k within a few years if you stay healthy and train consistently.

3. For 1k-5k, dropping weight from 180s to 160s isn't going to make a huge difference if you are all muscle right now. If you want to get into running 1/2s to the marathon, dropping weight will make a big difference.

For all the distances you specified you'd like to target, 1 mile and above, the vast majority of your training should just be "easy" mileage. You go out an run at a comfortable pace, a good indicator is that you can talk normally. The priority is to go further rather than faster.

Just try gradually increasing your mileage, something like 2 miles/6 days week for a few weeks, then 3 miles/6 days week. If you can get up to 35 miles/week that would be pretty good. Some people like a long run once/week, maybe you'd have an 8 mile day within the 35 mile week. Here is a weekly progression I pulled out of thin air but you can see the generalized trend. 12-12-12-18-18-12-18-25-25-18-25-30-25-35-30-35-35-35........you want to back off a little after each peak and then build to a higher peak.

These "easy" runs build your bodies tolerance to running, and develop your bodies ability to utilize oxygen (denser capillary beds in your lungs, stronger heart, more blood in your body). It is only after you build this fitness that you need to start doing sprint/fast interval type stuff. For somebody looking to be a decent rec runner though, the "easy" mileage is enough, it is usually enjoyable, has many positive health effects and is moderate enough that injuries are limited.

Also, go to a running specialty shop and get fitted for shoes. You'll get great service, the shoes with be "expensive" but not overpriced....you get what you pay for. Ask if they have last year's model or an old color if you want to potentially save $$$.

First thing I'd tell you is to stop doing static stretches. I discovered that if I run a longer, slower warm up and follow that up with dynamic drills, I am so much less injury prone and much more flexible. I cringe when I see HS kids run two laps fast for a warmup and then form a circle to stretch for 20 minutes. Almost all of my injuries were because of similar behavior.

Second, I'd say be wary of trendy things. Minimalists got injured and started wearing Hokas. Then they came back to "normal" shoes when they got hurt again. First it was high carbs, then keto, then paleo. Just be balanced.

Third, don't be afraid to take a day off. Sometimes I just don't feel like running. That's ok. You don't have to run every day to be a runner. In fact, I learned that adding an extra rest day or two can have huge performance benefits. Crazy huh?

Guys, thank you for all the answers!

I definitely will take note of all the info and tips I get here, I'm not really interested in running distances over 10-12K for now, and while I like to run just for fun, while I'm at it, I wanna improve the times too, and get faster over time. I know it won't come just like that, so Iike I said, I'll take note of your advice and use that into my training. I'll probably sign up for some 5 and 10K's in starting January, so until then I just wanna get more used to running in general, getting into the routine of it and trying out all the training advice too. I'll probably train for running 3-4 times a week or so. That's what I've been doing the last couple weeks actually (I was more like trying myself out to see where I was at in general), now I'll just start doing it more seriously and focused.

Thanks again!