Morning run benefits are always fixated on people’s minds that they forget they must learn how to run/jog efficiently and effectively to improve and avoid injuries. Especially for beginners and some experienced runners, you might be making mistakes while carrying out your early morning run, which you need to learn is a mistake.
For instance, many runners make the mistake of taking too much mileage too soon without realizing its negative impact on them. There are other mistakes newbie runners make while starting, and below, we will discuss some of those mistakes and how to address them.
Note that some of the things you will see below apply to you differently, so you might have to experiment to find exactly what fits your needs while running.
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Taking Much Mileage Too Soon
A morning jog is one of the exercises to improve running speed, but it must be done following expert guidelines. Overloading your body as a runner can lead to an injury, so you should reduce your mileage to what your body can take.
Especially for newbies with huge running ambitions or experienced runners coming back from an injury, you should curtail the workload you impose on your body. Even if you are preparing for a new race, it is more of an expert recommendation to start small and increase your mileage over time.
As said above, some of the points made here apply to you differently, but you should increase your mileage by 10% as each week passes by as a beginner. Don’t be carried away by morning run benefits; forget to prevent yourself from getting injured.
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Warm Up Incorrectly
Whenever beginners hear of exercises to improve running speed, they think of the warm-up before the actual running; but they often need to include how to do such warm-ups properly. Warming up can be done before and after running, but doing so before running is very important to get your muscles ready.
However, warming up before your morning jog must be done correctly, or it can lead to muscle cramps and other injuries. Engage in dynamic stretching instead of static stretching as you warm up for your morning run.
Static stretching is when you stretch and stay in a certain position for a long time, while dynamic stretching is when you make active body movements from time to time. Dynamic stretching is preferred because it helps you not injure your muscle or tear a tissue before running.
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Not Keeping A Workout Log
As a beginner, you cannot remember everything that happened while training, especially for a long period. A training/workout log can be either manual or digital; you can keep a workout long using a notebook and a pen or use a digital app or watch.
One can derive many benefits from keeping a workout log, from helping you improve your running speed to helping prevent an injury. When you keep a training log, you can track down the events that led to an injury and then look for ways to prevent such an injury from happening.
Also, a training log can help you find a particular trend or action that helps to increase your running speed. For a more detailed training log, you can also input the kind of food you take each day and how you perform after eating such food.
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Not Treating Injuries Properly
When you talk to successful athletes about running, one of the things they point out is taking good care of the body. Taking care of yourself is essential if you want to continue with the sport for a long time; taking care of the body includes how you take care of injuries.
Most people don’t care about those little injuries they get when engaging in exercises; however, those little injuries, if not properly treated, can affect how you run. It is much better when you employ the services of a physical therapist, with whom you will get expert advice on how to treat any injury.
While hiring a physical therapist might take some dollars, you will only reap all morning run benefits available if you take care of yourself properly. It is to your detriment if you don’t take care of your injuries while engaging in any sport, as it can affect you in other areas.
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Running too Fast or Slow
It can be weird to learn that as a runner, there are times you need not run too fast or too slow; this is why your running practice should include slow runs, speedwork, and steady state. These three types of running practice can be used depending on your experience and the running you will be engaging in.
One of the misconceptions that beginners have while running is that you learn how to run by running very fast; this is false. In the beginning stage of running, it is recommended that you start with steady-state runs and slow runs before proceeding with speed workouts.
Speedworks is recommended after you have spent months practising slow runs and steady states. You should train using the speedwork technique to increase your pace and speed for races and marathons.
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Wearing Improper or Old Footwear
Especially for beginners engaging in morning runs and workouts, anyone can do the activity by just pulling out any shoe. This seems wrong because only some shoes can be used for running, and those ones used for running should be replaced when they are old.
If you play soccer, you don’t use soccer boots for running because they are footwear specifically designed for soccer. When you buy such footwear, replace them whenever they are old to avoid picking up a terrible injury while running. Buying a pair of running shoes might be costly, but you need to spend some dollars to get full morning exercise benefits.
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High Expectations
Beginners usually believe they can easily participate in the next marathon that will come up once they start engaging in morning jogs. Others believe that once they start running for a week or two, they can easily reach the level of Usain Bolt.
Setting high expectations when starting any sport is not recommended because becoming an athletic expert is dynamic. It is much better if you keep your expectations low and then strive to progress as time goes by.
Conclusion
Morning jog/run is something that most people engage in, and it has many health benefits. However, many runners, especially beginners, often start on the wrong foot and make mistakes.
Above, you will discover some of the running mistakes you have been making and how to correct them. When you consider all the recommendations above, you will see an improvement the next time you engage in running.
