First, thrilled to say that so many of our teens are showing fantastic improvements in their pacing, confidence and ability to challenge themselves. It's fantastic to see. I'll also put in a quick plug that this Saturday, we'll be holding our Teens Run Yonkers 5K+ in Tibbetts Brook Park. We'll start at 9:00 at the flagpole in front of the Pool House. We'll have t-shirts, finisher medals, and snacks for all participants. Hope you can join us

So in the continued quest to get you off the couch and running, we're at our next tip...

Use a running program

To me this is really all about goals. Lots of folks will tell you "Set A Goal". Well, yes, that's absolutely what you should do. But running, particularly when you're trying to hit distances - longer ones all the time - is all about setting a series of mini or weekly goals. And that's really what a running program delivers for you.

While it's exciting, powerful and can be considered the classic SMART goal to say "in 6 months I will run a marathon", in reality you're saying for the next 24 months, I will increase my long run to 6, then 8, then 10 etc. They are all the mini goals you need to hit in order to hit that 26.2 in six months. Again, training program.

There are running schedules all over the internet. And they're all pretty good. The bottom line on all of them is that they will do the following:

Increase your fitness
Help you lose weight - if that's what you're looking to do
Give you a slow and sound build-up thereby reducing the risk of injuries

What's really critical is to NOT do too much too quickly. Many beginning runners try to do too much running too soon and stop within weeks because of injuries. You don't want to do this! Particularly on long runs, you want to find "your pace" - that's the one that just feels right (you know you can breathe and everything). In easy terms, it's that conversational pace that would allow you to run and still carry on a conversation. Bottom line, slow steady build ups will let you complete your best race.

By the way, Teens Run Yonkers uses a fairly easy to follow training schedule based on starting in mid-March. If you want to look at it for reference, you can find it here: http://www.teensrunyonkers.org/events.html - just click on "Half-Marathon Training Schedule.

So, as the old well-worn saying goes, have a real plan because (yes, you've heard it before) IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, THEN YOU PLAN TO FAIL!