What Happens in the End to Those who Remain Committed to Running?
To be committed to running isn’t something easy. Weather, soreness, time…… any small factor could become the reason you give up.
However, after being committed for some time, you’ll discover that it is changing your life step by step.
Run for 1 Year
Transforming from 90 kg to 65 kg
“In the past 365 days, I ran a total of 285 times with an accumulated distance close to 1,523 km…….”
The Forerunner 245 on Mr. Chen’s wrist recorded every step he ran and also witnessed the change in his weight. This is the first time in 20 years, he has been able to break away from “bloating” (in Mandarin, bloating sounds a bit like VP of a company) image from the mouths of his colleagues.
It’s always quite difficult to start. Mr. Chen looked up a lot of information – – “How to Lose Weight?”, “How Much Should One Run per Week?”, “Precautions,” etc.
Because of being overweight, he decided to start with the elliptical trainer, with the ultimate goal of being able to continue for 30 minutes. From 10 minutes to 20 minutes, and finally achieving the goal, being soaked with sweat time after time, the weight began to slowly fall.
However, he soon encountered a bottleneck. Mr. Chen asked someone who had succeeded in losing weight before him and realized that weight loss requires exercise and also dietary control. Weight is able to gradually decrease when consumption is greater than intake.
At the same time, this predecessor even taught him an effective know-how in weight loss – – monitor heart rate, keeping the heart rate within the aerobic zone.
The exercise level of the elliptical trainer no longer satisfied Mr. Chen’s current state, so he decided to start running and purchased the Forerunner 245, which has the ability to display the current heart rate zone.
In the beginning stages of running, Forerunner 245 was a great help for him. There are many workouts geared towards fat loss and weight loss in Garmin Sports, all you have to do is choose the corresponding plan and import it into the wristwatch.
Following the plan, from 0 to completing his first 5 km, Mr. Chen got started quite quickly. He also broke the records that were recorded in the watch time after time, including pacing, heart rate, time, calories burnt, distance, and other data.
Enjoy Running with the Forerunner245
This process wasn’t always smooth-sailing, because he was always running alone. There was a period of time when he became tired of running.
However, things were different with accompaniment. He often participated in the competitions within Garmin Sports. Through competing and encouraging each other, he gained the motivation to persevere.
For Mr. Chen, the best gift this year was being able to say goodbye to the big belly and losing weight from 90 kg to 65 kg. In addition, he also met many like-minded friends.
Unlocking Garmin Watches with Garmin Sports for Free
For those who want to lose weight, he has summarized two experiences for people to refer to – –
Step by Step
For people who are in a hurry to lose weight, the most common mistake is to believe that if they insist on high-intensity training, then they will lose weight, so they blindly increase the amount of exercise. In the end, this brings unnecessary harm to their bodies and also makes them tired of running.
Under normal circumstances, according to each person’s actual situation, everyone can increase the amount of exercise by about 1 km each week and maintain for 2-3 weeks on this foundation to achieve a progressive effect.
Pay Attention to a Balanced Diet
The basic principle of weight loss is having more consumption than intake, and understanding the calorie value of food and exercise does help.
Running for 3 Years
-Successfully Becoming Healthy because of Running
Ms. Wu is engaged in a career in new media. Covering the news and writing articles are already a part of her life. Apart from bedtime, she’s almost always with her computer and cell phone.
Working on the front line of the network, she’s always kept on her toes. However, insomnia, headache, fatigue, and other symptoms began to creep up on her, and her health also started to worsen.
Ms. Wu decided to start by maintaining regular exercise, and the simple running exercise became her first choice. It’s been three years since she started.
Being busy with work, running has taken up most of her spare time. “How to arrange her time between work and exercise” became her greatest problem.
Fortunately, the Body Battery and Menstrual Cycle Management functions in Garmin Vivoactive4 Series helped her a lot, which was one of the reasons why Ms. Wu chose it as well.
Being able to know the current state of physical energy margin in a timely manner, it is easier to know whether to rest or exercise after work. In addition, it will inform the coming of the menstrual period ahead of time, so as to make arrangements for the times of exercise.
Being committed will always bring about results. Regular exercise combined with the sedentary reminder and pressure index of the wristwatch helps her to prevent staying seated for too long, as well as to remind her to perform deep breathing in times of high stress.
Over time, she noticed that the symptoms of fatigue, bad mood, and headaches that often occurred in the past have now left her.
Long-period, long-distance running has also taken away some problems for Ms. Wu. When running, sometimes she felt pain in the knees and soles; this was especially apparent in the latter half of the workout.
She later gradually learned that running isn’t just about running, but also about strength training. So in her running plan, she also included the training of muscle strength.
Training could be started at any time by just following the on-screen animated guidance on the watch.
It isn’t easy to be committed to running. Regarding how to develop the habit of running, Ms. Wu has something to say:
Write Out the Plan
In the very beginning of running, you can write or print out a monthly/weekly schedule form and mark a “v” for each completed day. Check regularly and record the reasons for not having completed a day.
Listen to Music while Running or Occasionally Change the Route
Most of the running process is quite boring; however, you can search for some external stimuli to help you. For example, you can listen to some “up-beat” songs while running. Ms. Wu’s Vivoactive 4 is full of her favorites.
You can occasionally try new routes, as different scenery can bring about different feelings.
Integrate Muscle Strength Training
The body is a system where numerous muscles, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue are integrated with each other. Just running won’t make you stronger. On the contrary, you may even get hurt due to too much training.
Strength training is like the foundation of a building. A house can be built only when the foundation is stable.
Click here to understand more about Vivoactive 4
Running for 6 Years
Running has become an integral part of life.
For those people who have been running for six years, running is like a part of daily life. If they don’t run for a while, their bodies will protest.
Dr. Liu is such a person. He meets up and trains with the running team every other day and participates in 3~5 marathon events each year.
Prior to this, Dr. Liu’s best marathon record was around 4 hours, and in order to beat his Personal Best(PB) , he started to train intensively. Loving research, he continued to analyze sports data and learn from others’ strengths in order to overcome his own weaknesses and to improve his own running abilities.
His Forerunner 945 is his source for sports data. With the aid of the wristwatch, he adjusted his own running posture.
Through strengthening the joints, muscles, and core stability, Dr. Liu gradually increased the stride frequency, decreased the vertical stride ratio, and even gradually improved his running economy.
Because he is usually busy with work, he values the quality of running training more than stacking up on the volume of training.
So, after each workout, he will immediately check the training effect displayed on his watch to see if this training quality improved and this data is also used as a basis to adjust the next workout.
The reward from each observation and record was received on the score. In the recent target competition, he successfully beat his own PB and his time improved to 3 hour 30 minutes in the full marathon.
After the intense emotion, it’s time to return to the basic period:
Mainly focused on aerobic endurance, the keys to this stage are “slow” and “long.” This is mainly to establish a good physical foundation. Normally, Dr. Liu will train for about an hour at an intensity within 70%~80% of the maximum heart rate, which is the “Aerobic Endurance Zone” on the watch.
When the weather is bad outside, he would switch to an indoor gym. He would add on strength training to reduce the probability of injury due to increased running volume.
Occasionally, he would perform interval running exercises on the treadmill to further improve his running ability. Dr. Liu will draw up a workout in Garmin Connect and import it into the wristwatch, so all he has to do is follow the instructions.
Becoming Stronger with the Forerunner 945
This year is his sixth year in running – – 5km, 10km, half marathon, and full marathon, he remembers each time frame very clearly.
He enjoys the joy brought by self-discipline and also longs to be able to keep on running. For him, running isn’t just merely a hobby, but also an integral part of life.
From a beginner to an experienced runner, Dr. Liu has gone through every single stage. He has some suggestions he wants to give to those who just started running:
Maintain a Good Running Posture
During the running process, the upper body should be kept stable and upright. The fall point should be kept close to the bottom of the body’s center of gravity. Both of the legs should be lifted and stretched and the hips should move along with the swaying of the legs.
Listen to Your Own Voice
It is recommended to stop running immediately if you experience discomfort or unusual fatigue during the running process. After having rested, you should start from low intensity and gradually return to your original daily performance.
If you want to improve your performance, just doing aerobic endurance is not enough.
When we want to improve our performance, we would often first increase the daily jogging distance, increasing from 5km to 10km, and even to 15km. However, after a period of time, the benefits of long-distance jogging will gradually decline. During that time, new stimuli need to be added to the workout to further improve and this could be interval running or repeated short-distance running.
Whether you’re a novice runner, a sports enthusiast who has been running for three years, or even a serious runner who has been running for more than five years, Garmin will always by your side for various sports.
※The above characters are purely fictitious.
