Ruth Jones

Drop-ins rarely stick; aim for something with the same faces each week - a library book club a community garden or food bank shift and or a casual walking group you start at the same time every Tuesday. When you click with someone, follow up that night with a specific next plan and a date, then make it a repeating invite so people can miss one and still rejoin. Low-effort routines like “bring your dinner and do-life-admin” or a weekly puzzle night do the bonding for you without costing much.

Plateaus suck but they're normal. Keep doing what you're doing and it'll break eventually. Or don't, up to you.

Treat the first month like base-building with easy run-walk intervals three nonconsecutive days a week. Each session can fit your 30 minutes: 5-minute brisk walk warm-up, 20 minutes of intervals, 5-minute walk cool-down. Week 1 do 30–60 seconds running and 90–120 seconds walking; Week 2 do 1 minute run / 1 minute walk; Week 3 do 2 minutes run / 1 minute walk; Week 4 do 3 minutes run / 1 minute walk. Run slower than you think—easy enough to chat, mostly nose-breathing, and if you're huffing, switch to a walk immediately. Keep your stride short and light, avoid hills and slanted sidewalks early on, and add one or two 20–30 minute easy walks on off days if you want extra movement without pounding. If anything feels sketchy, repeat a week before progressing. For warm-up, after that first brisk walk do 30–45 seconds each of leg swings front and side, ankle circles, marching high knees, and a few gentle butt kicks; cool down with a 5-minute walk and light calf, quad, hamstring, and glute stretches. Shoes matter more than speed: retire old pairs and get a comfortable daily trainer with a secure heel, thumb-width room at the toes, moderate cushioning, and a traditional 8–12 mm drop unless you already do well in minimalist shoes. Recovery keeps knees happy, so space your run days, sleep well, hydrate, and twice a week add a quick 10-minute at-home circuit like sit-to-stands or squats, step-ups on stairs, calf raises, glute bridges, and side planks. Mild next-day soreness is normal; sharp or one-sided joint pain is a stop signal—take an extra rest day, back the ratio down, and only increase total running time once the previous week felt genuinely easy.