Running tips from a garden-variety amateur

I'm no pro. But I've made all the mistakes so I can say I might have learned something along the way in my running career. Take it with a grain of salt. Salt is good to supplement a runner's diet. Here goes with what I learned most:

1. Build up slowly - When I started running again in NZ in 2016. I started with run/walk. This is exactly what it says on the box. Run a bit, walk a bit and with every day of "running" increase the running component and reduce the walking component. Even with a bit of a lay off from running I generally increased my mileage slowly, first increasing the number of runs every week, then including consecutive days of running, then increasing the distance of some runs and then intensity. 
2. Vary your pace - This took me a long time to really learn and I've known others like me who ran every run like it was a race when they began to run regularly. My first regular run-only runs were a 5km loop and then a 10km loop. Each run I looked to better the last. My improvement was fast but my plateau came quickly too. And niggles and injuries came just as surely. Now I always have an intended pace before I start. I have several paces from recovery pace, to easy pace, from steady tempo pace, to threshold pace to 10km pace to 5km pace to 400m pace. Alternating easier paces with faster paces mean the body helps reduce the chance of injuries. Slower runs allow you to go harder on faster run days. And different speeds work different muscles and "energy systems", too. To be an all round runner, you need all round pace.
3. Don't compare yourself to other runners - In line with no. 2. I remember being a hunter. I'd aim for other runners and run them down. Not just in races, but in training too! One of the most important realisations is to "run your own race" and "do your own training". A mediocre runner might speed past an Olympian doing a recovery run. Someone else doing intervals might speed past you when you're doing your time trial. Neither is comparable.
4. Track mileage - Going along with no. 1, if you're serious about your running, keep a record of how much you do every week. Apps do this now but a notebook or a spreadsheet (if you're that way inclined) have their advantages.
5. Race! - Even if you're not competing for things, races are great goals as well as time to push yourself to the next level. I remember the thrill of my first half marathon, effectively the first race of my adult life. After that I had a ball in the Coatesville Classic and it was a regular diet of events ever since. The races that punctuate my running life have really added the colour and the camaraderie. And being a goal-oriented person, I use them to propel and focus my training.
6. Do "core" exercises - Running initially seems to be everything about calves, quads and hammies. But once you get going the more you find that your glutes (buttocks), groin, hips and abdominals are crucial, especially for maintaining form, which in turn helps you avoid injuries and is less tiring to the body over longer workouts.
7. Do dynamic stretches and mobilty work in your warm-ups - It took me about a year to "get the memo" that static stretches (i.e., when you just hold a stretch like you've always been told to do) have not been proven to improve performance, prepare you for action nor prevent injuries. If anything they do the reverse. If you don't know about dynamic stretches, look them up. I do them before every run and I only do light static stretches after workouts and only occasionally. 
8. Run mornings - this might just be me, but it really works: the best way to consistently get out without excuses is to exploit the cooler, less traffic dominated time of the day before 6am. Why? (a) Work/life issues won't even have started for the day to interrupt you. If I only ran in the evening, work or dinner or family would present a big temptation to deal with other things. The morning is mine. (b) Safety. Running down the middle of a well-lit road is always better than dodging traffic running along a foot path during the day. Even if you are on a road with traffic, it's easy to hear approaching traffic when cars are sparse. Street lights are surprisingly good, too. (c) Unfueled training, i.e. running without pre-run food or on-the-run gels. Running like this makes your body rely on its energy stores and increase the availability of the stores. I just have half a mug of coffee and I'm out the door in the morning. If you adjust to running without breakfast it's pretty much the same as running at any other time, just without having to wait for digestion. (d) Energy through the day. It's an irony but early morning running doesn't seem to impact alertness during the day; in fact, it seems to have the opposite effect. I've run the equivalent of a half marathon in the morning and had a fully effective day of work. (e) Better sleep - Running in the evening takes my body a long time to settle back down. Running in the morning means I get good quality sleep first before I wake up.
9. If it's dark, wear a lamp - Generally a good idea unless you are very sure of the terrain and confident of no fallen branches in the darker stretches.
10. Rotate shoes - my wife mocks me for my extensive shoe range but I have found wearing only one pair of shoes has a feedforward reaction where my shoes modify me and I modify the shoes to the point that both are twisted versions of what they should be. Changing the shoes regularly means that the joints are never overused in one way and the muscles have a different challenge with different runs. That's my theory of it. My period of rotating shoes has been almost injury-free. And niggles often disappear with the changing shoes too.

I'll keep it down to ten. Like picking up and mastering anything, it comes with the kinds of subject learning and self-learning that makes life interesting. Enjoy it!