Coach Grandi’s advice is to have a cautious approach to running, based on alternating between running and walking
It’s never too late. The words of Maestro Manzi are always valid, even in sport, even at the age of 50. Well, now, however, don’t go straight to the street to run, after wearing the first shorts found at the bottom of the drawer. Calm and chalk. You are young at heart and in spirit, good. The physique, however, does not go hand in hand, you have to have a little patience with him. At age 50, the body produces less testosterone, muscles lose mass and elasticity. They tend to shorten. The pressure rises and the weight increases.
So what to do to get started? Running or walking? –
You are lucky, because you can choose what to do. The important thing is to go step by step. You can decide to walk. Long and beautiful walks, even at a good pace, up to 7 km per hour. Your body and your health will surely benefit from it. But if you choose to run, then you have to let the wisdom and patience prevail that by now, at 50 you should easily master.
If you want to run, walk –
It’s the beginner’s paradox, but it will make you go the distance. Of this he is certain Maurizio Grandi, an athletics and fitwalking instructor, and a great consumer of shoe soles. Among his “walks”, a thousand kilometers on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, more than a thousand on the Francigena (from Carugate to Gargano), over 900 from Trieste to Aosta.
Coach Grandi’s advice is to have a cautious approach to running, based on alternating between running and walking. Starting at 50 means dealing with our fat mass, heart capacity, coordination of movements. Better to tackle one problem at a time.
The program to get started –
A program to start running sees a very mild beginning, made up of walking and running. Start with 1-2 minutes of walking followed by 30 seconds. All for 15-20 minutes of activity. This is the base, then progressively increases the running part at the expense of the walking part: 1 min. run + 1 walk, 3-4 run + 1 walk, up to 15 running + 5 walking.
This type of work can be done 3-4 times a week, and within a couple of months it can lead to running for 20-30 consecutive minutes. Attention, there is no reference to the speed to keep. Don’t think about “how many km per hour”. You have to run according to sensation, without getting too tired. In this phase the important thing is to run as long as possible: the aerobic effort comes after 15 minutes of activity.
The part of the journey remains fundamental because it allows you to keep physical exhaustion under control. Walking allows you to recover the effort, keeping the heart rate around 110-120 bpm, avoiding reaching 160 bpm, which would strain our untrained body too much.
In this first phase of training, it is important to keep other aspects under control as well.
Running attitude: be careful not to hit the heel on the ground and to have good arm movement. Exercising and stretching to lighten muscles before and after running, but also during the walking phase can be helpful.
Adapt your diet to lighten the fat mass. This allows you to recover effort more easily. Imagine running with two bottles of water in your hands. Here, now get rid of that 3 kg and think about how you might feel. Small formula useful to keep our diet under control. Running involves an average calorie consumption of: 1 kcal x kg of body weight x km traveled. So, if I weigh 80 kg and run 5 km, I will have burned 400 kcal.
After this first settling phase, continuing to increase the running part and reduce the walking part, it will be possible, within 6 months, to run for 1 consecutive hour. Does it seem little to you? Maybe, but you will have arrived at it respecting the needs of your body and, presumably, without injury or joint pain. Here, now that you have 1 hour of running in your legs, you are ready for the big question: “How fast should I run?”. You will have entered a new dimension, that of repeated and perhaps competitions. However, this is beyond the scope of this article.
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