The best ways to start running and stay safe while doing it, according to our experts | Canada Voices

On April 30, reporters Alex Cyr and Ben Kaplan answered reader questions on how to get into running, both as a hobby and competitively.

Cyr wrote a series for The Globe on how to prepare for long-distance running competitions and the most common misconceptions about starting to run, and Kaplan is the editor of iRun Magazine and the author of Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now: The Rogue’s Guide to Running the Marathon.

Readers asked how they can run while avoiding injury, what gear they need to get started and why the London Marathon was such a big deal. Here are some highlights from the Q&A.

Learning to run

I’ve never ran in my life before but am interested in getting started for health and exercise. How do I start?

Ben Kaplan: First thing is just, right now, go outside your house and walk around the block. You don’t need new shoes or to eat eight bananas, you just need some gumption. Just try!

So, OK: you’ve walked around your block twice in one week. Now, on your third walk, run to the traffic light. Just pick out little things in your neighbourhood to run between. Give yourself little goals. Keep it fun. Don’t be afraid and don’t be precious.

If you run just for fun, just to pick up the dry cleaning, give yourself a reason to run. But don’t overthink it and don’t buy anything, not yet. Try it a few times. Then try it again. And if you like it, then you can think about entering a 5K and buying new shoes.

Running used to be considered an affordable form of exercise and competitive pursuit. But with the advent of $500+ super shoes, expensive electronic gadgets and expansive lists of recommended daily and race day nutrition supplements, that no longer appears to be the case. Is a lot of this expensive gear needed?

Alex Cyr: Where I think you should splurge: Shoes. They’re more expensive these days, because they last longer and have better, more protective foams. Get a good, $200 pair of shoes that will last you about 800 kilometres. The ASICS Nimbus, the Brooks Glycerin and the Nike Vomero are solid picks. Then, if you’re interested in challenging your best times, invest in a pair of super shoes for races and key workouts. The ASICS Metaspeed Tokyo, New Balance FuelCell Supercomp Elite V5, and the HOKA Rocket X3 are good bangs for your buck.

Where I think you should not splurge:

• Wearables. It’s nice to have a GPS watch, but you don’t need to buy the $1,000 one. Garmin Forerunner 55 does the trick for $220.
• Specialty nutrition. You don’t need much more than carbs before runs and during long runs, protein after your run and water throughout. You don’t need fancy gels to get all of that: household foods often work just fine.

How can I best avoid injuries when starting to run?

Kaplan: Injuries do happen in running, so let’s work on mitigating them. One common preventative measure is stretching lightly before and after a run. It’s great to walk after you finish your run, and walking in general is a good way to stay limber, loose and augment your workouts.

Further: gradually increase how much you run and think about building your core strength. Your core muscles are your abs, back, hips and glutes, and doing planks a few times a week will work wonders. (To be clear, I don’t do this, but one could.)

Five things I do to run injury-free as I get older

I play soccer, so put a soccer ball in front of me and I run. But I actually hate running – tedious, boring, no fun. How do we turn me into a runner?

Kaplan: The same way you love soccer can also be applied to running, sans ball. Just turn it into a game. See how fast you can go between stop signs. Try running the length of a song, then after doing that, try running the length of a long song, or a playlist. Also, racing is a great way for a competitive soccer player to get into running. The thrill of racing with other people and running as fast as you can is something I love and a great feeling. Try a race, but don’t get obsessed with it: think of it as a Fun Run.

But if you add racing to your running vocabulary, you’ll feel more engaged with the sport and the community and you’ll also surprise yourself. I bet you’re faster than you think you are, and it’s also fun when you improve. Running doesn’t have to be boring and tedious – you might also try running with a run crew. I run with BlackToe Running and the group’s become my friends. We share the camaraderie that you have with your soccer team.

Training for competition

How does training for a marathon differ from preparing for other competitions, or even just getting better at distance running? How do you prepare for your own runs?

Kaplan: I’ve been training for marathons for lots and lots of years. The key thing is to gradually increase your distance. What you want to do is find your race, then work backwards with your training: a sweet spot to hit in training is around 34K. I think there’s no secret for how to get better but staying consistent with it, also paying attention to your diet – and these can just be tiny tweaks. See yourself as an athlete so, during training, I might get a water at the movies instead of a root beer and skip the escalator for the stairs.

Marathons are gruelling. Let’s say it takes you four hours – that’s a long time to be on a plane, let alone running. So build up your distance gradually in training, and also prepare yourself mentally: expect that at some point in your race, you will be in pain. It’s unavoidable. But also know that you can handle it and you’re stronger than you think. That’s the message I get from running my own marathons.

Do you have a coach? Would you recommend getting one and what are some things to look for?

Cyr: I coached myself between 2019 and 2024, and then hired a coach in July of that year. Since then, I’ve run personal bests in the 5K, 10K and half-marathon. It shocked me, because I thought I knew enough to just coach myself. That was a mistake: I’d trend towards doing the same workouts, tended to run too much while injured and designed my training plans more emotionally than analytically. I’ve come to believe that everyone who can afford a coach should get a coach.

These days, lots of people are testing out AI coaches. I’m bearish on them: what I like most about my coach is his ability to adjust the workout on the fly based on how I feel, what my race goals are and what else is going on in my life. AI can’t properly adjust for that, at least not yet.

What should you eat while training for a competitive run?

Kaplan: This is highly personal but in general I like to eat things that are easy on my stomach, minimum dairy, maximum carbs. I like the usual things, bananas, bagels, peanut butter, spaghetti, green salad, green tea, chicken, rice. The trick is moderation. Especially when it comes to the night before race day or race day morning – you definitely need enough calories, but no need to overdo it. A healthy approach to eating is always eat until you’re full, and I think keep it simple – nothing new around Race Day, and in general eat what you like and within boundaries.

Running in the mainstream

Why is running having such a moment right now? What sparked it?

Cyr: Even a broken clock is right twice a day; likewise, I’m glad I’ve lived long enough to see my weird hobby become cool!

I think a number of things have made running popular:

• The maturity of COVID runners. Many people picked up running when gyms, pools and other fitness avenues closed down. Five years later, many of those beginners have become dedicated runners.
• Technology: The rise of wearables and super shoes have made running more interesting. Now, runners can perform faster and quantify their efforts.
• Running as a social outlet. On some level, run clubs have become stand-ins for boozy social outings and even dating apps. That’s pulling more people into the sport, too. I wrote about this topic at length last year. I think it aged decently.

Why was the London Marathon such a big deal this year?

Cyr: On the competitive side, Sabastian Sawe of Kenya and Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia became the two first men to break the two-hour barrier in an official race – going 1:59:30 and 1:59:41, respectively. I wrote about it here.

On the participatory side, demand appears to be at an all-time high. This year, rumours swirled about London moving to a two-day marathon system in the near future. About 60,000 people raced on Sunday, but almost a million runners were turned down from the race.

Speed and interest were at an all-time high in London – making it an all-time harbinger of our growing running boom.

Sabastian Sawe’s record marathon time gives hope to everyday runners

Can you contextualize what the sub-two-hour marathon time actually means? How fast is that compared to your average jogger? Did the new shoes from Adidas have anything to do with the run time? Why do these records keep getting broken?

Cyr: To run a 1:59:59 marathon like Sabastian Sawe, you have to hold a pace of 2:50 per kilometre. That’s like running a track lap in 68 seconds, and then doing it 106 times in a row. In other words, this pace is nearly unfathomable for mortals.

We had fellow Globe and Mail contributor and renowned running journalist Alex Hutchinson on our Marathon Handbook podcast this week, and he thinks the shoes may be the single-most influential part of Sabastian Sawe’s performance. You can listen to the full episode here.

I think the world record will be broken again within one to two years. Yomif Kejelcha ran 1:59:41 in his first-ever marathon attempt – at the very least, he will likely improve on that time soon, and surpass Sawe’s world record of 1:59:30.