Thursday, May 6, 2010

In Training

One of the things I have been meaning to post about is what I have done to get ready for my upcoming 10K. I intermittently wrote about the C25K as I was doing it, but I haven’t really touched much on what I have done in preparation for this Sunday’s event.

During my last week of that first running program I started thinking about how to improve my jogging endurance. I chatted with a couple of Running Room employees, scoured the Internet for resources, and eventually came up with a plan of my own based on the recommendations I was able to amass.

I knew that I only had five weeks from the end of the C25K until this weekend’s race and that I would be pushing it to try and cram all of the training into such a short period of time, but I also really believed I could do it. I carefully crafted what I believed was a doable schedule and immediately started working towards my goal. Basically, I followed the same three days out of seven I had already been doing, but upped the amount of time and made changes to the intervals every two days rather than at the start of each week.

Sessions 1 & 2
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 10 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 10 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 10 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 10 minute run
- 7 minute cool down walk

Sessions 3 & 4
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 20 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 20 minute run
- 5 minute cool down walk

Sessions 5 & 6
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 10 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 10 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 10 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 10 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 10 minute run
- 6 minute cool down walk

Sessions 7 & 8
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 15 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 15 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 15 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 15 minute run
- 7 minute cool down walk

Sessions 9 & 10
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 20 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 20 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 20 minute run
- 5 minute cool down walk

Sessions 11 & 12
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 30 minute run
- 1 minute walk
- 30 minute run
- 6 minute cool down walk

Sessions 13 & 14
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 60 minute run
- 5 minute cool down walk

Session 15
- 5 minute warm up walk
- 65 minute run
- 5 minute cool down walk

I am proud to say that I have stuck with my plan and have had a lot of success with it! The only thing that was off is that I made a mistake and mislabeled my podcasts for the last two sessions so I accidentally did the final one yesterday instead of the fourteenth one. (It just means that I did an extra five minutes of running.) I still have no idea what the results of my efforts will be come race day, but I do know that I pushed myself to do the best that I could and that I feel like I accomplished a lot in a relatively short amount of time.

On the other hand, since completing our 5K program my darling husband – who has pretty much stayed true to his ‘never running again’ mantra for the past month – decided on Tuesday that he wants to do the 10K as well. I have no doubt that he will do fabulously despite the fact that he hasn’t rounded a track since the beginning of April. Hmmm… maybe next time I should just try his approach!

FOOD & BEVERAGES:
- 6 glasses of water
- 1 banana
- 9 inch wood-fired baguette with ham, brie, lettuce, apple and pear chutney, mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard
- 1 wood fired fruit custard tart
- 3 crab cakes
- 2 cups Caesar salad with shrimp, Parmesan cheese, and croutons
- 5 bites of a baguette
- 1 mug coconut steamed soy milk
- 1 gala apple
- 2 small Mandarin oranges

EXERCISE:
- 6 hours of walking around while sightseeing

10 comments:

  1. ahh the HUSBAND APPROACH.
    that happens all the time up in herre too.
    what is it with our men?!

    I shall stick to my slow & steady until I figure that one out.

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  2. I know you will do great on Sunday. Good luck! You look great by the way.

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  3. I am just starting to do consistent 5k's, so this is definitely inspiring. Best of luck and kick some tail!

    Cheers,
    Missa
    LosingEthel

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  4. I know you will have a great 10k! I have another 5k tomorrow. Quick question...on race day do you take walk intervals? I have been reading one of Hal Higdon running books and he suggests walk breaks even on race day...with the idea of faster running time after the walk. Not sure what to do...

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  5. Good for you!! I am going to do my first ever 5K in July and I'm really working at trying to get where I need to be! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  6. Will be mentally cheering for you on Sunday!! Best of luck! I know you'll do well. BRAVO!

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  7. Good luck.. you are going to ROCK!

    How come hubby's always have it easier!!! Well, maybe not AFTER the race! :-)

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  8. Oh my gosh! I just found your blog! THANK YOU for your inspiration. THANK YOU! I need it badly. I will be a follower.

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  9. Yay! I'm so excited (and a little nervous)!

    Jessica, neither my hubby nor I did any walking during the 5K race, but obviously in the training leading up to it there was quite a bit. You can see in this post how I have worked past the intervals to just straight runs now. I don't know for sure if I will be able to go for the whole time during Sunday's race without walking or not, but my intention is to try. I think that it is important to know ourselves with stuff like this; if you think you will do better with intervals than definitely take them. For me, I am going to try to do it as a straight jog, but I won't be heartbroken if I need to slow down for a bit.

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