How to start running again after 50

You ran once. Cross-country, a marathon in your thirties, a few 5Ks with the kids. Then work and knees and life. Now you want it back. Good. Here is how the people in our crew did it, written from training experience, not as medical advice. If you have a heart or joint condition, clear it with your physician first.

The mistake everyone makes

Running the way you remember running. Your heart and lungs come back in weeks. Tendons, bones and the small muscles in your feet take months. The runner who goes out at their old pace on day one is the runner who is on the couch with a sore Achilles by week three. After fifty, the program is patience.

Start with walking, then walk-run

• Weeks one and two: walk thirty to forty minutes, four days a week, at a pace that makes conversation slightly harder. This is the tendon-conditioning phase. Do not skip it.
• Weeks three to six: walk-run. One minute easy running, two minutes walking, repeated ten times. Every week, add thirty seconds to the run interval and take thirty off the walk.
• Weeks seven to twelve: continuous easy running, twenty to thirty minutes, three days a week. Easy means you can talk in full sentences. Almost all of your running should feel this way.

Three things that keep older runners running

1. Strength work twice a week. Calf raises, step-ups, single-leg deadlifts, and a plank. Ten minutes. This is what protects the knees and hips that carry every step. If you are also lifting, see how to start strength training after 50.
2. Two easy days for every hard one. Speed comes later, if you want it. Most people over fifty who run for life never need it.
3. Shoes that are less than a year old. Foam dies. Replace them before your knees tell you to.

Heat, sun and what to wear

Fort Worth summers run early in the morning or not at all. Run at first light, carry water past forty minutes, and wear fabric that moves sweat instead of holding it. Cotton loses. Our Performance Tee is a four-ounce moisture-wicking crew with UPF 44+ and odor control, and the Athletic Short is a light quick-dry running short with mesh pockets for keys and a phone. Both are made to order in the USA and cut for the way people over fifty actually run: upright, steady, in it for the long haul.

Sign up for something

A 5K on the calendar twelve weeks out turns "I should run" into "I run on Tuesdays". Bring a friend from the Greybeard Club. Nobody in our crew runs alone for long. Still in.