Running tip #3
If possible, never run from home. Especially beginner runners. You may be disciplined enough to get out the door in the first few weeks of a new training regimen but, trust me, after a long day of work (or play :)) around week #3 you will walk in the house and choose a bowl of chips and salsa over that same dull, likely-paved, neighborhood loop that starts from the bottom step of your front porch and ends at the top of your driveway – where you then must return your boring trash can to the garage. I know it’s not environmentally friendly, but new runners should get in the habit of driving to their workout site. Pick a local park, the track, a running store, a trailhead, someone elses’s house … and drive there in your running clothes with water bottle and towel in the backseat or trunk for afterward. If you are a commuter, pack your car with a running kit in the morning and stop off at your workout site halfway between work and home. DO NOT GO HOME first, because (as a certain winged-footed, Atlantan friend of mine once warned, while he was dragging me back out on the dance floor at a post-Peachtree bacchanalia) if you sit down, “That couch will eat you!”