To run well, you need to eat well and rest

Welcomeand welcome to the last level of the Beginner Program. If you have come this far, you have shown determination and great willpower. Above all, I like to think, you also had fun doing it, otherwise you would not be reading these lines.

Think of this level as that of a video game but without the final boss. To get this far is to have gained awareness, and that is to have internalized running so that it becomes an integral part of your life. You are ready for a holistic approach.

Olicosa?

“Holistic” is a somewhat overused term in recent times, yet it has a very beautiful and appropriate meaning. It comes from the Greek and in fact means “all, whole, total.” and helps explain why having a – precisely – holistic attitude is good and right. We are so used to focusing only on urgent aspects of our lives that we forget all the other, equally important aspects. For example, think about how central work is to everyone-everything is made to revolve around that, so much so that sometimes you have the perception that you live to work and not work to live. Yet work is not everything; on the contrary, there are also family, affections, friendship, self-care, and passions. And sports.

What I mean is that we all on average live an unbalanced life in favor of one aspect that does not define us. You have to find a balance somewhere. A holistic attitude is one that, for example, allows you to find a balance between all these aspects: work, affections, passions, personal growth and care of your body, etc.

For running it is the same: you cannot just train, you have to base your body care on a triad: training, nutrition, recovery/rest.
It’s not enough to rock your workout and then eat and drink profligately and sleep like a rock star (i.e., not sleep) because the effectiveness of exercise relies on the cooperation of careful nutrition and sufficient rest.

If you notice, these are three complementary activities: by working out you burn off the energy that you recover by resting and take in by eating. It is a cycle that must never be broken: if it does, something breaks in the delicate balance.
And if you think about it, it’s not even that difficult to put it into practice: you just don’t give in-as we often do in our daily lives by giving too much space to work-and let one of these three components take precedence over the other: if you just eat you put on weight and load your body, if you work out without replenishing you get exhausted, if you just sleep-well, you don’t catch any fish, that much you know, right?

Small attention, big changes

How to integrate this change of perspective into daily life as much as possible? You will be surprised to find that it is simpler and more natural than you might think.
For example: do you know that the physical activity you can do is not just working out? Just apply a few simple tricks:

• Between the stairs and the elevator, always choose the stairs, as long as you don’t have to climb 40 stories or have a broken leg. If you use the elevator to go down you deserve a good disqualification!
• Always move by walking and avoiding cars and vehicles as much as you can. If the route you need to cover is a few miles, you can get to your destination by leaving a little earlier, not neglecting that in some busy cities you can get around faster on foot than by vehicle. If you prefer, use a bike (bike is the fastest urban mode of transportation ever)
• If the destination is far away and you have to use transportation, don’t get off at the last useful stop but a little earlier and cover the last stretch on foot
• Are you on the phone a lot? Don’t just sit there! You can easily talk while walking on the spot, they are compatible and manageable activities at the same time
• if you mostly sit at work, get up at least once an hour for a few minutes.

If you use a smartwatch, check in the evening how far you’ve gone even if you just walk to the office while you’re phoning or, in general, how much you do by favoring walking over car use.
One last point: if you live in a medium or small urban center, the electric single-path even no, come on.

Power supply

It would be foolish to think that we could address such a gigantic topic in a few lines, and this installment of the Guide would be in danger of becoming endless.
I point out just a few articles that you can find among our pages that can help you learn more about this topic.

• Sports and nutrition as a lifestyle

• Running and gaining weight: what am I doing wrong?

• Proteins, these unknowns

• Calories are not all the same

• Everything (or almost everything) about metabolism)

• Feeding is not eating

A general and always good advice is to avoid eating (and drinking alcohol) in excess. As always, measurement is the best way to have a balanced relationship with food.
I personally approach the issue with these simple rules:

• when I eat I always think about how hard it is to run and I never forget that it takes you very little to gain a pound and a lot to shed it
• I avoid encores
• I get up from the table with a slight urge to eat some more, never forgetting that they eat more with their eyes than their bellies (and if you want a trick to fool them, read here).

Rest/recovery

This is also a very large chapter. On theimportance of sleep there is no doubt: it is said to be the highest form of meditation and, more simply and from a biological point of view, the time we devote to it is the time taken by the body to regain strength and “repair itself,” rebuilding muscle fibers put to the test by physical activity and recovering from small injuries that you may not even be aware of.
In more detail, recovery, sleep, and nutrition are linked in a perhaps less obvious but equally important way: recovery is accelerated by restful sleep and the intake of a proper calorie intake that is rich and varied in nutrients. Should any of the elements in this equation be missing, the solution is less immediate and takes longer: if you do not rest, it will take you longer to regain your energy, just as if you do not feed yourself mindfully and consistently. And by the next training session you will have little strength and a noticeable drop in motivation.

Migliora il tuo allenamento utilizzando il recupero

Concluding

Do you remember when you started running? It has not been all that long, but many things have changed. Or rather: you have changed. You started to see life and yourself or yourself in a different way. You proved you could do something you didn’t think you could do.

Now you have awareness of your abilities and can aspire to the real next level. No, it’s not (not only) about more speed and better times but a new perspective on your own life: now you no longer see yourself as a one-dimensional creature who just works. You have more size and more passion. Most importantly, you realized that wanting to love yourself doesn’t just mean working out and then continuing to do what you’ve always done, like eating profligately and getting little sleep.

Running has changed you by showing you what depths you are capable of. You have begun to think holistically: now you see the whole. Or at least you catch a glimpse of it, which is already a good start.

Until the next (and last) installment!

THE GUIDE TO START RUNNING

1. 1. The thing you need to do if it’s your first time running

   2. Shall we start running?

   3. What shoes do you really need for running?

   4. How to always be ready to run

   5. The tricks to make running less strenuous

   6. How to dress for running in all seasons

   7. How to avoid getting hurt by running

   8. Seven tips for always wanting to run

   9. To run well, you need to eat well and rest

   10. Running faster and longer

(Main image credits: halfpoint on DepositPhotos.com)