So now you’ve read through the site and maybe even signed up I bet you’re now wondering how the hell this works and how on earth can it be free of charge!

Well lets deal with the latter first, we run this course free of charge because we are passionate about getting others running and most of all because we enjoy it. The guys who will be your run leaders will either be long standing runners from the club or graduates from our previous groups who are looking forward to putting you through your paces as we did with them. Obviously at the end we would love for you to join the club and continue the hard work you will have put in throughout the course so inevitably if you join there is a cost but rest assured at £5 per year the cost is insignificant compared to the health benefits you will gain from taking part.

So how does it work? well quite simply we will facilitate two evening for you to come along and run, Monday and Thursday evenings. You can choose to run as many or as few sessions as you want, you can run one or both sessions each week but ultimately it will be down to you to ensure you put in the required effort to be able to see the course through from start to finish. We will help you achieve your goals but only you can make it happen.

The 10 week course will most likely stretch into 12 to 13 weeks as we will at some point repeat certain weeks dependent on how everyone is doing and we will complete the course by inviting you all along to take part in a parkrun at Kingston Hawker centre.

Now if you’re sitting there thinking you can’t do it, that you’re way too unfit and can’t even run for a bus, think again. Between 2016 and 2022 we have put over 200 people through their 5K graduation at Kingston parkrun and around 80% of those are now active members of Chessington Unity or 26.2 RRC, running every week and thoroughly enjoying it. If you put your mind to it you can achieve anything you set out to do and using our tried and tested schedule we will help you go from Zero to Hero and run your first 5K in early to mid April. The only thing stopping you from doing it is yourself so what have you got to lose except a few lbs and a few inches off your waistline.

So you’ve signed up and have a while before we start the course so I bet you’re wondering what you can do until then. Well the course starts off fairly easy with the first week seeing you run 5 reps of 2 minutes with 4 minutes walking in between. However the walking is best kept to a fast walk where possible so you can get yourself ready for the course by taking up walking and increasing your speed and distance over time.

Numerous studies recommend that the average person should walk a minimum of 10,000 steps per day, sounds like a lot doesn’t it? An average person has a stride length of approximately 2.1 to 2.5 feet. That means that it takes over 2,000 steps to walk one mile; and 10,000 steps would be around 5 miles. For a lot of people 5 miles walking in a day would be a lot more then they are used to but actually if you build up slowly, walk slightly further each day you can quickly achieve that goal and you’ll reap the benefits when you are the course.

There are many ways you can increase your daily step count:

• Walk the dog a little further
• Take  the stairs, not the lift
• Park further from the station or the shops
• Better still walk all the way to the station or the shops
• Get up from your desk at least once every hour and move around for a few minutes

Buying a Fitbit or similar device is a really good way to motivate yourself to move around more, especially when you set yourself step or distance goals and find yourself slacking off. Also make sure you have a comfortable pair of walking shoes or trainers as walking in inappropriate footwear will just cause you injuries and demotivate you!

With Christmas and the New Year on the way we are now gearing ourselves up for our next Zero2Hero course starting on Monday 22nd January 2024. If you are looking to get fit, lose weight or just simply getting into or getting back into running in 2024 we can help. Why not drop us a line if you have any questions or simply register your interest using our online form.

Registration for our January 2024 course is now open, click ->here<- to register your place now!