At New Year we offer an 8-week Beginners/Returners Course
If you’re wanting to start running – or return to it after a break – we would be delighted to help you on your way. Our Beginners courses have proven popular and successful. Many of our brilliant club members came to us via a Beginners Course. If you’ve heard about the course (or been along to one before) you will know that it’s a great deal of fun.
Booking is essential
Places on the course are limited so that we can maintain safety. We need to ensure sufficient leaders are available and each runner has support and phyical space – so we simply have to restrict the size of group.
What Is The Beginner’s Course?
The course welcomes runners and would-be runners of varying abilities. We will encourage you according to your current fitness and your goals.
Our Beginners Training Schedule is endorsed by England Athletics (EA) and the whole course is designed and led by EA qualified leaders and coaches. It provides a perfect opportunity for new or returning runners to improve fitness and gradually ease into running.
“I’d Like To Run But…”
…I’d be too slow… I can’t run very far… I’m too unfit… I’m too old… too busy.
We can’t help much with that last one – but the others are often myths.
Beginner’s running courses are designed for people who can already maintain a fairly brisk walking pace for at least an hour and want to gradually build aerobic fitness so they can jog or run further and/or faster without discomfort. How far and how fast – well that’s entirely up to you.
The 8-week course provides:
- Encouragement and support for your fitness goals
- A recognised (and realistic!) training plan
- A friendly, group setting with the visibility and safety of running with others – and loads of encouragement
What to Expect
- Structured running coaching aimed towards new and returning runners who want to develop running fitness and form
- Separate training groups tailored to your fitness level
- Coaching by qualified (and very supportive!) leaders
- Group running where no one gets left behind
- Suitable for all adult ages
- End goal is to run a minimum of 4 miles by the end of 8 weeks (as this will enable you to continue with the regular 4 mile club run on a Thursday evening).
Completion of the course will be celebrated at Warrington parkrun at the end of February and/or the High Legh 10K in March.
Motivation
Starting off running within a group of like-minded people can be great for motivation and safety. Knowing that others are there – and that the course will still carry on without you – can help get you out of the door when the weather is rubbish or your motivation is lacking.
Having a clear goal to aim for is a great way for anyone to start a new venture. Whether you aim to run a 5K parkrun, or the High Legh 10K, the course will offer training and support to get you there.
Tuesdays and Thursdays?
We encourage beginners to run three times a week and the course offers you two of them (Tuesday and Thursday evenings – usually 7pm – 8pm).
Thursdays will start at 7pm from Lymm High School; Tuesdays will be based at Victoria Park athletics track in Latchford. If you cannot attend both, or cannot attend every week that’s not a problem, just come to the sessions that you can get to. We’ll give plenty of advice about adding in your own sessions to your schedule.
Preparation
Anyone starting the Beginners Course must be able to walk at a brisk pace comfortably for 60 minutes. If you are already jogging or running a bit that’s great – everyone’s starting point is different.
Throughout the course, we will encourage you to run (or to run/walk to start with) three times a week. To help protect and prepare your body for running we encourage you to start NOW with walking. Getting out for a brisk walk or power walking a few times a week is perfect preparation.
Hint: check out our Power Walking webpage – or the walking plan on Runner’s World.
High Visibility – Safety Stuff
January evenings are dark! We ask you to wear suitable bright high-viz running gear AND carry a head or chest torch; you need to be easily seen – and you need to be able to see where you are running.
How much will it cost?
Joining the Beginners Course is free when you register to join Lymm Runners (and to existing club members). Club membership for 2024 costs £20 – and there are no additional weekly/session fees. Once registered, you get the benefit of our brilliant 8-week course; you get to share the journey with others also starting (or restarting) their running. AND… you still get club membership right through until 31st March 2025!
You may want to consider the option of joining England Athletics (EA) for an additional £19 a year. In addition to a wealth of online advice and information, EA membership provides additional insurance and your EA race licence (which gives you reduced entry fees for certain races). EA membership is optional.
Still Not Sure?
Joining a running club can seem a bit daunting if you’re not yet running – or not running very far. And how can you know if you’ll enjoy it / stick with it etc?
Don’t be put-off; we are a friendly bunch of runners, we are not all super-fit or super-fast, and we celebrate all those who are willing to give running a go.
As for not being sure if running is for you – well nobody can ever be sure, but if you want to contact one of our Beginners Leads and find out a bit more please email us: beginners@lymmrunners.org.uk
“Daunting at first but met some new best friends and now run for fun”
“55 and never run in my life. Went to learn to run but unexpectedly found a wonderful group of friends.
1 year later and we do 10K for fun. Amazing change to my life.”“Lymm Runners gave me the confidence to believe in myself that I could run. It’s become a life changer for me – I love it
and have made the most wonderful friends along the way!”“After drunkenly signing up one night to the beginners course, I forced myself to the first meeting and ran (albeit slowly and not very far).
Fast forward two years and I’m running for fun helped along by some fellow beginners who have become such wonderful friends.
Thank you Lymm Runners.”“The best thing I’ve done in my 50s! Fun, fitness and friends. Lymm runners are supportive, encouraging and a great team.”
Legal Stuff
We take data privacy very seriously. Please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Lymm Runners is a local running club affiliated with EA. We are organised by a committee, and sessions are led by EA licensed-run leaders and coaches – all of whom are volunteers. Our public liability insurance is provided by EA.
We follow EA guidelines on best practice and have some basic rules that all club members must accept. Our Code of Conduct and Health & Safety Policy are based on common sense but please make sure you are familiar with them. All policy documents, Club Constitution and risk assessments are available from our Policy documents page.
Bookings for our Beginners/Returners course typically open in November