Before you set out I'd like to remind you that your goal this week is running and arriving at the finish, not taking off a few unnecessary ounces or allowing yourself an extra bar of chocolate. No, and no again. Your only target is to get those legs moving and to keep them moving. Regard any weight you lose as a welcome by-product, one of the many which we will gradually take up later.
Start looking forward a day in advance to your first day of running. It is your day, a day when you will discover the untapped energy you have inside you. Passion will wake this energy to life. On this day you will run five minutes in one direction, doing it slowly - and preferably somewhere with very few or no cars. Then, after five minutes, you'll turn around and run back home. That's it. Really? Actually there's more to it than that. You should be delirious - with joy, of course - beating your chest under the shower till the walls begin to shake.Running for ten minutes is no small achieve-ment.
But there's something else that should move you to tears of relief. Are you fully aware that you have now escaped the clutches of laziness? This realization will buoy your spirits until you step into your jogging shoes a couple of days later and start Round 2 - with the same passion.
The most stupid mistake. What mistake can you possibly make when you run? Not only that, a mistake so bad that it borders on stupidity It's a mistake, or, more precisely, the mistake that determines whether you will start crumpling after a couple of yards or clear the highest of hurdles, with ease. A mistake that has spelled curtains for many beginning runners before they've really had a chance to run.
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Winni Mühlbauer - Hörnle Berglauf 2013
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