When you are out and about it is common to see joggers in parks and on the streets. If you have jogged before you don’t need this challenge but there are some people who haven’t even tried.

You are going to need a stopwatch or mobile phone timer for this challenge. This is going to be a short gentle jog and it’s all about easing yourself into it.

If you have an injury or a particular condition or health worry you should have a chat with your doctor. If this challenge is still a bit jump why not try out walking challenges and build up?

Put yourslf in the mood

Make sure you set aside some time for this challenge. Wear apropiate sporty clothing that will not restrict your movement. You may like to drink a small amount of water before you start.

Now plan your route. Are you going to go around a local park? If not and are going along streets plan a quiter route that avoids busy areas. A route that goes in a circle is good but it is also ok to go in a single direction then half way through turn around and head back.

5 minutes of gentle warm up

The point of warming up is to get your heart rate and breathing up a little bit. This is better than just suddenly going all out. There are many ways of doing this but what I find the best is to start by walking at a fast place (not a comfortable strole). Do this for 5 minutes.

This is just a simple intorduction to jogging and not an all out work out so don’t worry about stretches if you don’t want to – these can come later.

Use your timer to continue at this level for 5 minutes

20 minutes of jogging

After the warm up start jogging. In this challenge you are doing light jogging. You may decide that 20 minutes is too long to keep this light jogging pace up for. If that’s the case then you should alternate between a fast walk and light jogging.

If you do need to alternate then look for way markers along your route, like lamposts, trees or park benches. Set yourself a goal of running past two trees, then walking for next next tree and jogging again.

5 minutes of cool down

After you have copmleted the 20 minutes of jogging then spend a further 5 minutes cooling down. This is much better than suddenly stopping.

Plan your next jog

This challenge is a taster for jogging. Hopefully it proves to be enjoyable. There are many health benefits to jogging but you only get these when you do it on a regular basis. As you do this more often you can work on gradually increasing your pace and distance. The best tips I have seen for jogging are on the NHS website. Following their guide you may even get up to jogging 5k!