Life Kit - Peter Sagal Teaches Us How To Run

Episode Date: November 26, 2020

You don't need fancy equipment or a gym to start running. Grab your headphones and some sneakers and let Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me host Peter Sagal tell you how he keeps going.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Hi, I'm Christy Demers-Kroll from St. Petersburg, Florida. I gotta say, I love your show. It's getting me through quarantine. And another quarantine tip I'd like to share with you is to get through without a pedicure at night before bed. Take your well-washed and exfoliated feet, coat them with petroleum jelly, put on socks, go to bed, and voila, in the morning, your feet will be nice and moisturized, but you're on your own for the polish.

Bye. I'm Shirin Marisol Maragi, and this is NPR's Life Kit. I'm having more conversations about running these days than I've ever had before. People in my life are either talking about how running is the only thing keeping them sane or they're smack talking runners who aren't wearing masks and getting too close for comfort. It's strange that I've spent so much time discussing a thing that is so not my thing. But my guest today says he has a spiel that will get most people, even someone like me, to go for a jog and not just one, many. His running philosophy involves the letter G, start gradually, set goals, and find a group to run with. I know you're like, how am I supposed to do the last thing right now? Keep listening because my guest has all the answers. His name is Peter Sagal, and he wrote a book about running, but you may know him as

the host of NPR's News Quiz, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Peter, I'm so excited to meet you. Long time listener. First time caller. Excited to meet you too. Thank you. Thank you. Shireen in a car phone, you're next. I hear you have a whole spiel about why people should start running. I have lots of spiels, but that's my favorite. Is it? Sell me on this torturous activity. I challenge you because I absolutely abhor running. Yeah, a lot of people do. Many of us were brought up to believe that running was punishment. Oh, definitely.

All right, guys, give me two laps. Yes. And we have learned, or at least internalized, that running is this terrible, boring thing that we're forced to do. None of those things should be true. It should be possible that we can just be in our bodies in that moment and just pursue that activity. We live these days in a way that is really strange, evolutionarily speaking. We spend most of our days with other people's thoughts in our brains. We look at screens, we listen to podcasts, and it's gotten to the point, I don't know if you've done this, but sometimes, I mean, we can't bear, it seems, an extended period of time without somebody else's input. Yeah, that's a good point.

And if there's one thing that we, I think, need is a chance to go outside, get out of our heads, into our bodies, move, and just let our own thoughts have a say. So if that spiel worked for the people out there who are listening right now, maybe they're like me and they've noticed that all you fancy runner types also have fancy belts that you can put baby water bottles in and you have this reflective gear and you have expensive running shoes. So if that spiel worked

on them and they're going to do this, are they going to have to spend a bunch of money on gear to get started? No, this is another great thing about running. You don't need specialized equipment. You don't need a hockey stick. You don't need a class. You don't even need to listen to me or read a book like the one I wrote about how to do it. You were born ready to do it. All you need is clothes appropriate for where you are and the weather. You need good shoes, but they don't have to be specialized running shoes. They can be sneakers. They can be gym shoes.

They can be any shoe that is comfortable, flexible, and tight on your feet so that your feet don't slide around in them. That's it. And that's enough to get you started. Yes, some of the stuff that we runners spend our money on is worth it, but there's nothing keeping you from doing it.

Just go out and run. Okay. So you've got your shoes on and they are comfortable. Yep. But they're not loose. They're nice and tight and comfy. Not loose, yeah. Loose shoes will give you blisters.

Don't do that. Okay. So you're ready to go. Okay. Now what? Where do you start if you haven't run in a very, very long time? This is very important. You have to start gradually and you have to set goals for yourself.

Gradually means that you have to give yourself enough of a challenge so that you can feel good about meeting it and that it will give you benefit because we all know we need a little strain on our system to improve it, our heart, our lungs, our muscles, but not so difficult that it's miserable and you fail. There's a saying from, you know, bodybuilding and weightlifting, you know, train to failure. Don't do that because all you'll learn is how to fail. And, and what, there are a lot of, I don't know how many infinite numbers of plans online that go under the generic name couch to 10 K or couch to 5K. Yes, I've seen it.

Just as long as it's a reputable site and we're not trying to sell you anything, take a look. And what you'll find is they'll say, okay, you're indolent. You haven't run in a long time. You're not in great shape. This is how you get started. And what it will do is it will set out goals every day or every other day. And each goal will be a little bit harder, but each goal will give you something to shoot for. Like today, I'm going to walk, run for 20 minutes. I'm going to walk a block, run a block, walk a block, run a block.

And then you're going to go out and you're going to do it the next day or the day after you're going to do a similar thing, maybe a little bit harder. And the first couple of weeks are going to be difficult. You're not used to this, but here's the promise. You will improve faster than you ever thought it was possible. Really? Yeah, you really will. Peter, can I interrupt you for two seconds? Because I always get stuck on that first run. I'm so incredibly sore after that initial run that I just lose the will to get back out there. Well, what is a typical first run for you? I have a little trail over here by my house. And it's about, it's not even two miles. Okay. And so this is what I do. I do this all the time.

Like every six months I'm like, I'm going to start running. Let's, we're going to do this. I'll take that two, two miles. I will not be able to walk for like three days after. And then I never go back out there again. Or I go back out there six months later and I'm like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to try this again. Miserable. So do you try to run the entire two miles out and then two miles back? Of course I do, Peter. Well, you are my great counterexample. Don't be like Shireen. Walking is failure. That's how I feel.

No, wrong, wrong. You know what? If you want to define failure, define failure as giving up after one try. So you don't say to yourself, wrong, wrong. You know what? If you want to define failure, define failure is giving up after one try. So you don't say to yourself, oh, I'm going to go try to run four miles. And if I fail at this, I'm going to be upset with myself and tell myself this is something I can't do and say this sucks. No, you just guaranteed that you're going to fail. So instead, take it piece by piece. You don't have to run the whole two miles and back, run out half a mile, run back, run, walk half a mile. When you finish your first workout and the subsequent workouts, your runs, they should have felt difficult. You put strain, you had to put effort in, you had to think about it. You had to like, there were moments there where you had to say, okay, just two more seconds, I can get through this, but they should have been doable. Okay. And that's by the way, a segue into my second G, which is goal. My usual advice is that 5k. When I said couch to 5k, 5k means five kilometers, and that's a distance, but it's also an extremely common running event. And you can sign up for $30 to $60 or whatever.

And you can say to yourself, there's a 5K in three months. I'm going to get out every day. I'm going to use this program. I'm going to train every day because every day I'm going to think to myself, I'm not just running to punish myself. I'm running to get better so that on that day, I'm going to show up with another group of people and I'm going to get a t-shirt and I'm going to eat a banana and I'm going to run five kilometers. That's 3.1 miles without stopping, which is something that right now I can't do. I'm going to do it on that day. And when I cross that finish

line, I'm going to get a medal. Medals are great. I'm going to get a medal. I'm going to do that. And it's going to make you feel great. Now, the best way to do that, by the way, is to do it with friends. And that's what I mean by group. Running, we most people think of as a solitary activity, and it often is. And it has benefits as a solitary meditative activity. But it's also a great thing to do with other people. And you benefit tremendously by doing it with other people. If your schedule today calls for, say, a two-mile run, if it's just you, you'll probably blow it off.

But if Karen or Bob or whomever is waiting for you at the corner where you agreed to meet, you're going to show up. Or call up your local running store or your local running group. Google name of your town, region, county, running group. They're very welcoming. Nobody will judge you. You'll find that people, there'll be people at your level, even better people just above your level. So they inspire you to keep up with them. What do people gain from running that is not just physical strength? Well, obviously there is physical benefits, but beyond the obvious, one of the things that I have found is that they call running, swimming, biking, endurance sports for a reason

in that you learn to endure. You learn things like if you don't worry about all the miles you have to run and you just think about the mile you're in and what you need to get through that mile and you do that again and again, eventually you'll have run all the miles that you had to run. That if you learn that discomfort is not a reason to stop, but a reason to focus and think and try

to either go through it or relieve it through changing your ways, then all of a sudden discomfort and difficulty isn't as frightening. Yeah. And basically, you learn a lot about yourself, that you can accomplish things that you have been taught and trained and allowed yourself to believe are beyond the capability of someone like yourself. That was really inspiring. That's why I'm here. Even for someone like me who is very skeptical about running.

So thank you for that, Peter. My pleasure. All right, before we go, I want to do something with you and I hope that you're game. Okay. Are you down to play a game? I'm calling Bluff the guest. Sure, do it. Okay, good.

All right, here we go. I'm going to read you three quotes, and you're going to have to guess which one is from the world-famous long-distance runner Haile Gebre Selassie from Ethiopia. Are you familiar with Haile? I am. One of the greatest runners to ever live.

Awesome. Okay, quote number one. Who knew something that made me feel so good would also make me famous? Quote number two, when I wake up at five in the morning, is it just to jog? Definitely not. I give it all of my effort. Quote number three, I actually wanted to be a footballer, but I was no good. So I run now.

I won't lie. It's not nearly as fun. All right, Peter, those are three quotes. And one of them belongs to two-time Olympic gold medalist and long distance runner Haile Gebre Selassie from Ethiopia. Which one was his quote? All right. And you're not, this isn't a trick question. Like they're not all three of them. Nope, nope, nope, nope. I wouldn't do that to you. I could hear him say any of them. All right. All right. All right. Because I do that to people all the time, just so you know. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't put it beyond anybody else. The first one is the one I want to be true. Uh-huh. But the third one could also be true.

I could easily see that becoming a famous quote. But because I'm in an optimistic and encouraging mood, I'm going to go for number one. Number one. Who knew something that made me feel so good would also make me famous? You are wrong, Peter. Oh, you see? That's what I get from being too optimistic. So it's number two.

When I wake up at five in the morning, is it just to jog? Definitely not. I give it all of my effort. Yeah, I could easily hear him saying that. Hailey's not playing. No, none of those guys are. Well, thank you so much, Peter. This was really fun.

Oh, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. For more episodes of NPR's Life Kit, go to npr.org slash life kit. We have episodes on all sorts of topics from how to manage anxiety to how to start a garden. If you love Life Kit and want more, subscribe to our newsletter at npr.org slash life kit newsletter. Also, we want to hear your tips. What are you doing to cope right now? Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email us at

lifekit at npr.org. This episode was produced by Claire Schneider, Megan Cain is the managing producer, and Beth Donovan is our senior editor. I'm Shireen Marisol Maragi. Thanks for listening. Frogs pooping beetles, featherless flying reptiles, stinky chatty cheese. We got it all on Wow in the World, the NPR podcast for kids. I'm Mindy Thomas inviting you to join me and Guy Raz for an animated scientific adventure of the mind. It's Wow in the World from Tinkercast and NPR. Listen now.