I have never ever been a runner, but I have a friend who's been running since she was very young.
I'd ask her this, but she really can't relate because she's never "not been able to run"

So I can run but not very far. I can run maybe a block, and not a city block. Like a short block maybe the length of a small parking lot. and then I'm winded. Like panting heavily winded. If I push past that, I get this awful pain in my side that I'm told is normal for out of shape people. I just have no stamina. Its the same on a treadmill at the gym. On the bicycle machine at the gym I can go for 10 minutes at a 5 or 6 level of resistance no problem. But even running or jogging on a treadmill or track for more than 45 seconds is exhausting.

Last semester was so embarrassing for me. We had to take a fitness test at my college (part of a weight training class) and one day we had to run a mile and a half. The whole time I would run for the short distance past where my teacher was standing, then walk the rest of the way.

But I know its one of the best ways for cardio, and I really want to be able to run a mile continuously.

Does anyone have experience with this? Or tips for overcoming this?

I am pretty fond of couch to 5k (C25K) for beginning runners. I will be finishing week 4 tomorrow from never having been able to run for any length of time before I started. If you can walk for 30 minutes at a pretty good clip, you may be able to go right into week 1. One of the main secrets I was given is to jog slowly at first so that you can last through the jog sessions of the workout. But if the one minute run intervals of week 1 are too much, you can always scale those back to whatever you can do and work up to the 1 minute run intervals of week 1 and continue from there.

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

http://c25k.com/

Yes the pain in your side is normal. it's your body telling you it's out of shape. lol. I used to run 6 miles a day, then i got married, had kids and became overweight and out of shape so when i finally decided to lose weight i had to learn how to run all over again. I mean I "knew" how to run, just my body was not into it anymore. and omg the pain in my side!!! lol!!

I suggest intervals. Even if the intervals are short. like run for 20 seconds, walk for 1 min, repeat 5 or 10 times. Then try to kick it up a notch (like run for 30 seconds) the next week. your body will build endurance pretty quickly...but you don't have to kill yourself to get in shape. Start where you are at. you don't have to workout for an hour, just set a goal (like 5-10 intervals), and then you can add an extra interval, or add seconds to the time you run for every week. i'm currently at 9 min running/1 min walking for intervals and i do that 3x. when you get to a reasonable amount, then you can add in endurance training (running at a steady pace for the entire workout), but intervals are the most useful in the beginning I think.


Remember to stretch really well after every workout or you'll be sorry later... just my experience. running can really kill flexibility if you aren't diligent in stretching.

I have never ever been able to run. I started walking last year, worked myself up to about 2 miles. I started in May and by the end of the summer/early fall I could do a mile with jogging/walking in a whopping.... 18 minutes. Yesterday for my first time EVER I jogged a mile without stopping to walk. It took me 15 minutes. Its not very fast but I DID it. I slowed my jog time down from 4.5 to 4.0 and I was able to just push through.

My advice would be to not expect it to happen over night but just keep pushing yourself. I had a friend who told me to run 1 min then walk 2 min over and over and it was so tough at first but then it got to be easy enough that my run was lasting longer than my walk.