@pessh: I went from couch potato to runner some years back. While I'm not an expert, I can offer a few tips from my experience with the early days.
1. The first month is gonna suck! You know that runners high people talk about? Yeah you're not gonna get much of that. At first. But don't give up, once your body gets used to it, you'll love going for a run.
2. Don't feel bad about having to stop and walk even if you've only been running for 5 minutes. If you can try and don't stop completely, just walk until you feel like you can run a bit more. When you find you can't run any more, find an arbitrary landmark and push your running to that "goal line" (like a lamp post or crosswalk or big tree), make a silly game of it.
3. It's about time spent active, not distance. When I started I did 2k and at least half of that was walking, and I felt like death after. You have to get your body used to being active for a longer period of time before you start worrying about doing 5k runs.
4. You don't have to run every day (in fact you most probably shouldn't, going for runs 2, maybe 3 times a week is good enough early on.) but try and go for a walk on days you don't run. Just some form of activity, even if it's a leisurely walk. A good time to listen to podcasts! Don't push yourself too much, your body will need to recover if you're not used to this kind of activity at all.
5. FOOTWEAR!! DO NOT BUY THE CHEAPEST SHOES! You'll be miserable, you might do actual damage to your feet and legs, and you'll disappoint the Space Pope! You don't have to buy top of the line, but you'll never enjoy running on crappy shoes. Look for sales, you'll probably find decent prices of last years models around these times. And go to a store and try on shoes, it really important to get good shoes that fit properly. As someone who hates going shopping for clothes, shoes are the one thing I'd never order online (unless you've tried on the exact same model in a shoe store).
6. It takes time, and progress sometimes seem to stagnate. You'll lose interest and want to give up, those days it's important you kick yourself in the butt and get out the door even if you just end up going for a walk. You might get sick easier when you start out, so take those days off, but don't hesitate to get back out there once you're feeling better.
Everyone is different, so don't be afraid to mix it up, try new things, find what works for you. Just remember: The first month is the worst, it get a whole lot better form there on!
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