Zenhabits

Zenhabits is an interesting blog on productivity and life.

Running

I found these tips from Leo from Zenhabits quite interesting. I still have to designate a long run per week. I think I’ve got no trouble running 5 times a week at least 5km. On Saturday or Sunday, I should run a long run. Probably something like 10K.

Gradually increase your running until you can do 30-40 minutes of running at a time, 4 days a week. Do this increase gradually, as you should be mostly running for 15 minutes at a time by the end of Step 4 … just increase by 5 minutes each week.

Sign up for a 5K. If you can run for 30-40 minutes, you can complete a 5K. Sign up for one (there are races almost every weekend in many places) and participate with the idea of just finishing. Have fun doing it!

Once you have increased your running to 30-40 minutes at a time, designate one run a week as your “long run”. Try to increase this by 5 minutes each week, until you can do an hour or more. This is your endurance run, and it is a key to most running programs.

Once you’ve got endurance, you can add some hills to your program. Add hills gradually, by finding a more hilly course, and eventually adding hill repeats — run (kind of) hard up the hill, then easy down the hill, and do 3-5 repeats.

After hills, do a little speed workout once a week. Do intervals of a couple of minutes of medium-hard running, with a couple minutes of easy running. Make these speed workouts shorter than your normal runs — if you run for 40 minutes, do 25-30 minutes for your speed workouts. Be sure to warm up and cool down with easy running for 10 minutes.

Tempo runs are good workouts when you’re ready. That means a 10 minute warmup, then 20 minutes or so of running somewhere between your 10K and half-marathon pace. That means going the pace you think you can race for an hour, but only doing it for 20-30 minutes.

Run with a group, or run alone. Don’t always run alone or with a partner. Mix things up.

Find new routes. Don’t always run the same routes. Try running on a track, in a different neighborhood, on a treadmill, on trails.

After you’ve done a few 5Ks, sign up for a 10K. Then a half marathon. Then a marathon. But do one step at a time.

How To Go From Sedentary To Running

Given that I’ve started running again, I found it great that Leo from Zenhabits wrote an article about this.

How To Pay Off Your Debts

Who hasn’t got debts? This is a great article on how to do so quickly and efficiently.

Fabulous Friendships By Kelly Rigby

A great article on Zen Habits by Kelly Rigby. She talks about how to get fabulous friendships. As people move around a lot due to their careers, friendships for adults are harder to start and to maintain, compared to when we were children.

Write To Done

Write to Done is a great new blog by Leo from Zen Habits.