By Hayden Shearman // One of running’s eternal impediments is that people just don’t like to run. Plain and simple. It's painful, it chaffs, it bounces, it sweats, it smells, it injures.

At face value running doesn't have much going for it for the beginner runner. Hence why only 5.5 per cent of Londoners run regularly. 

So if you're new to running and you've heard all these tales of blissful runner's highs and magical marathon experiences, how do you work your way through the mire to find the elusive pot of running gold at the tip of this seemingly endless rainbow of running pain?
 
As a running coach, I've guided hundreds of new runners to their goals and I'd argue that three things help people develop a lifetime love of running:
1. Running in beautiful paces
2. Running with great company
3. Running with a goal
 
Thankfully, London is a place that can easily meet all three of these goals.

Beautiful Places
Thanks to its flat-to-rolling terrain and its abundance of great parks, it has truly world-class running routes. Bushy Park, Richmond Park, the Thames Path, the Green Chain, Hampstead Heath and I could go on—all of them are fantastic and just waiting for you and your trainers to enjoy their trails.

Great Company
London also has a wonderful running community with over 40 parkruns, 100s of running clubs and running groups to suit all abilities and speeds, and races every other day. There are almost half a million runners in this city, so there are bound to be at least one or two runners out there who happen to share both your running speed and your unique sense of humour! 

Goals
The great thing about running is that you can track your progress very easily. Unlike looking in the mirror or weighing yourself on scales, the stop watch is a trustworthy and objective measure of your fitness. However, before you get to the stage of beating personal best times, it's a good ideas to challenge yourself to complete distances.

After a few weeks of running you might start with completing your first non-stop 5k (or 3mi). Then step up to something longer like 6mi. A great inner city route to do 6mi is to start from London Bridge and run a loop out to Westminster Bridge and back (4.4mi), then complete the figure-of-eight by running over Tower Bridge and back to London Bridge (1.6mi).

Putting Them Together
The fun really kicks in when you combine scenery, company and a distance goal. And with so many beautiful parks around London, why not set about rounding up a few friends to complete a perimeter of the park and gradually tick them off your bucket list?

Greenwich Park (2mi), Regent's Park (with Primrose Hill, 4.0mi), Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens (4.3mi), Bushy Park (6.6mi), Richmond Park (7.25mi)—plus many more (here's a list of park perimeter distances).  

Falling in Love
Now you've got these three weapons in your running arsenal (of scenery, company and goals), aim to achieve one goal on every run you do. So if you're running three times a week, the first might be a social run with a friend chatting the whole way, the next run might be a venture along a canal on a sunny morning or an autumnal explore through a nearby woodland, and the final run of the week will be a parkrun where you either go for distance (first 5k non-stop) or for time. 

Try utilising one of these tools during your three runs each week and keep it up for three weeks. After that I guarantee you'll be starting to get a wee sniff of that elusive runner's high!

Let me know how you get on!


-- Hayden Shearman

By Hayden Shearman. 

I’ve run in cities all over the world, but none (so far) have come close to offering the teeming variety and abundance of London’s parks, woodlands and waterways. Here are five reasons why I feel so strongly:

1. The Empire Gives Back | Contrary to what you would assume, centuries of royalty and aristocracy are far more conducive to creating good running environments than nice, friendly egalitarian societies.

The reason for this is that, typically, the rich are the ones able to keep huge tracts of land and forest untouched by agriculture or industry in order to use the land simply for their own enjoyment. Whether they’re old hunting grounds (like Bushy and Richmond Parks) or private gardens for leisurely summer strolls (like the grounds of Chiswick Park), London is a patchwork of these incredibly old estate grounds.

In the last two centuries these private green spaces have been opened up to the public and, on the most part, borough councils and trusts have done an incredible job of maintaining and improving them.

2. People Actually Use the Parks | Victoria Park was created by Queen Victoria to help improve the life expectancy of East Londoners living in horrible conditions. And even today, it seems engrained in the psyche of Londoners to use the parks whether for eating, walking, relaxing or running.

For a runner, there is always something eerie about running in a city park with no one in it. You want this in the mountains and national parks, but not in the local woodland reserve. You like to see others out running and cycling. It makes the park feel safe and loved, and it reinforces your own sanity, that you’re not crazy going running everyday (even if that’s what the rest of the office calls you!).

3. Wooed by Water | The other great remnant left for London runners from the age of empire are waterways. Canals with their endless and flat towpaths, docklands with their expansive views, and the Thames with its many bridges, tunnels and riverside paths—they all provide the runner with a inviting running terrain and a welcome escape from traffic. 

And what is it about running next to a body of water that is so attractive anyway? Is the air more oxygen-rich? Or is it just the views? Or is it that mentally a body of water takes away the runner’s out-clause? What I mean is that when running between two bridges on the Thames you can’t just opt out and turn back early (that would involve doubling back). The only options are 1) keep running to the bridge or 2) swim across the Thames (the gravy-like nature of the river is obviously a good motivator to choose 1).

4. The Traffic | Above catching the Tube or bus or driving, the quickest way to get around the majority of London is to cycle. But cycling in any busy city inevitably places you at the bottom of the traffic food chain (a lorry is always waiting to cut you off). So this is where the running commute comes into its own.

And Londoners are catching on to this second-fastest and certainly much safer option of travel by their hundreds. In any rush hour you’ll see a solid stream of back-pack-laden joggers heading to or from work.

From my place (when I lived there) to Trafalgar Square was 3.2mi (5k) exactly. At rush hour I could expect to average 8min/mi, so a 25-minute total commute. TFL says that same journey at rush hour would take 42mins minimum using public transport and walking. Their cycling predicted time was 23mins (traffic light dependent of course). If I’m looking for ways to maximise my running training time and reduce the mind numbing commute, London is perfectly set up for running to work.

5. The Parks Themselves | Hampstead Heath has views and hills, Epping Forest has endless woodland trails, Bushy Park has wild deer, Hyde Park is ideal for pretending you’re Alastair Brownlee winning the Olympic Triathlon, Greenwich Park has history and sits on the longitudinal edge of the world, Richmond Park is just simply perfect, and I’m only getting started.

Soft under foot, easy on the eye, relatively fresh for the lungs, and as hard on the cardiovascular as you want to make them—London’s parks are second-to-none.