Welcome to the eighth day of the 30 days writing challenge of this year. You can find a list of all the articles I wrote at the end of each article. Please have a look at the end of it to understand how can you participate in this one.

Why Running?

I ran my first marathon just a couple a weeks before turning 42. Until then I had no idea if I am able to finish one or what benefits running can provide. Since that marathon I ran many other races, more than a dozen of other marathons, a few ultramarathons in the 100k - 200k range and also finished a couple of 24 hours / 48 hours continuous running. The longest end-to-end race that I finished (until now) it's a 222km race around lake Balaton, in Hungary, called UltraBalaton.

As you can imagine, running changed my life profoundly, but I'm not going to talk about how this happened in this article, it will take hundreds of pages (speaking of which, if you're curious, you can actually learn more about the impact of running in my life from my book, Running For My Life, which you can buy on Amazon). Instead, I will try to share just a handful of best practices for anyone who want to take up running either as a healthy pastime, or as a lifestyle.

1. Start Small. And Build From There

When you read all those inspirational stories about people who finished their first marathon, the obvious reaction is to try and finish your first marathon tomorrow. Unless you're a physical prodigy, this won't happen. If you're just a regular Joe, like me, you have to take it slowly. So, don' rush yourself and listen to your body. Otherwise you may get discouraged early and ditch running altogether, or even injure yourself.

2. Hydrate And Eat Accordingly

Running has a unique way of using your body. It requires consistent hydration and a more consistent diet. One of the most common mistakes that people make, especially if they want to lose weight by running, is to combine a new weight loss diet with running. This won't work. You actually need more calories if you start to exercise, so no weight loss diet should be combined with it. On the contrary, you should be extra careful to be hydrated and eat accordingly (especially carbohydrates).

3. Join A Group

It's ok to start by yourself, but your progress will shift dramatically if you join a group. It doesn't have to be an athletics club (unless you really want it, obviously) just a small group of friends will do it. Nowadays is very easy to discover such groups in any neighborhood, so my suggestion is to join one early. You will accelerate your learning and stay motivated.

4. Try A Few Competitions

Even if you're running only recreationally, I suggest to try at least one competition. The kind that gives medals at the end to all finishers (pretty much all city marathons and every popular race are doing that). You may find it way too competitive for your taste, that's true, and it's nothing wrong with staying away from it, but a certain experience of this type of interaction is very useful. You will learn so much about yourself, about what patterns are triggering your reactions and how to become better at being, you know, yourself.

5. Measure It And Learn From It

Technology made running one of the most easy to measure fitness activities out there. There are countless ways to measure your pace and distance, from just a regular GPS-enabled phone (basically, all smartphones are GPS-enabled today) to incredibly sophisticated wrist watches that can even track you heart rate and a ton of other metrics. It's a very good practice to measure your running early, in order to learn as much as possible about your body (and your mind) from that data.

Like I said, I could go on like this for hundreds of pages, but for the purpose of this challenge I think this is enough. I would be happy if you would at least try running and see if it fits with your current lifestyle.

How Do I Participate In This Challenge?

The criteria for @challenge30days account to vote your post are:

• post must be at least 300 words long
• post must be original
• post must be on best practices
• post must use the #challenge30days tag

Previous Posts In The Challenge

• January 2019 Challenge 30 Days - Best Practices For Keeping A Successful 30 Days Challenge
• January 2019 Challenge 30 Days - Best Practices For Selecting Relevant Crypto Projects (Day Two)
• January 2019 Challenge 30 Days - Best Practices For Surviving In The STEEM Universe (Day Three)
• January 2019 Challenge 30 Days - Best Practices For Working Remote (Day Four)
• January 2019 Challenge 30 Days - Best Practices For Working From Coffee Shops (Day Five)
• January 2019 Challenge 30 Days - Best Practices For Learning A New Language (Day Six)
• January 2019 Challenge 30 Days - Best Practices For Choosing A Crypto Exchange (Day Seven)

Steem on!

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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