Runners have a saying: “My sport is your sport's punishment.”
Lynn Monahan doesn't have the breath to argue. At least not when she's training three days a week to run the Great Race 5K on Sept. 30.
She huffs. She puffs. Her lungs and chest sometimes ache.
Monahan, 54, of Moon is churning through her fourth week of Running 101, an eight-week program organized by Highmark. It's designed for novices like her, who want to take up running but can't seem to surmount the initial pain of sore legs and lungs.
Wednesday, Monahan circled a school track with about dozen fellow newbies. They jogged 200 yards, then ran 200 yards. They doubled this to 400 yards, which equals one loop around the track.
“It's kind of daunting,” she says. “We only went around twice and you're thinking, ‘You've got to go around 12 times to equal a 5K. (3.1 miles). They say ‘You'll get there.' It's just so hard to believe when you're gasping for air.”
Monahan, who has yet to run a mile without stopping, runs with a friend. They share the misery and encourage each other.
“Every week, she'll say, ‘I can't do this.' And then she does it,” Monahan says.
Many gateway running programs have sprung up around the country. Corporations and insurance providers may offer them as a wellness incentive. Running stores can expand their customer base by coaching newbies through their first 5K.
The original Couch to 5K program was founded in 1996 by recreational runner Josh Clark. He created a nine-week program where novices could start in slow, manageable increments and gradually increase the distance. The first week, participants alternate 60-second jogs with 90-second walk breaks. Each workout lasts at least 30 minutes and begins and ends with a five-minute walk.
“Late Night” host Jimmy Fallon is a fan. He uses the C25K app, which can be downloaded to an iPod or Smartphone. In addition to tracking a runner's time, the app features voice prompts that tell a user when to walk or run. There's also a “turnaround” function that lets them know when they've reached the halfway point.
For a sedentary individual, just running for 30 seconds can be a challenge, says Bob Shooer, owner of Fleet Feet running store in Bethel Park. They have about 125 runners in their No Boundaries program, a 12-week regimen that trains newbies for the Great Race 5K.
Those “starting from scratch” may not be able to distinguish between different kinds of pain, he says.
“What they really want to know is, ‘Is this normal, should I be feeling this? Should I run through it?' ” Shooer says. “They're not necessarily fit to begin with, but, by the end of the program, just by taking it small steps at a time, it's unbelievable to see these people cross the finish time at the Great Race.”
Orthopedic surgeon Vonda Wright created the Prima Start Program, a 12-week training course at the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine. It combines walking, running and upper-body training.
This year, Wright trained 30 runners to tackle the 5K that was part of the Dick's Sporting Goods City of Pittsburgh Marathon.
“For someone who really isn't investing anytime in their exercise whatsoever, 3.1 miles is a really meaningful distance,” Wright says. “Once people get that under their belt, they feel they can do anything.”
As in the other programs, the idea is to start off without stressing the body too much.
“If you go full bore and it's three days before you can run again, what's the point of that?” she says.
The Sewickley Valley YMCA features a beginner's program called Train to Run a 3.1. Participants will run in the Sewickley 5K Heart & Sole on Sept. 22.
“One of the things that we want to do at the Y is encourage people to be more active and make wellness more accessible to people,” says CEO Trish Hooper. “A lot of people think a 5K race — or any kind of race — is completely out of their reach. We want to show them by starting small and learning the basics, you can really run a 5K.”
Monahan hopes that turns out to be true.
“Ask me next week, when we are supposed to run 20 minutes straight,” she says.
William Loeffler is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or 412-320-7986.
