I'm doing the Race for Life! Training tips please :)

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Sandylou

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Hi Everyone,

I have signed myself up for the 10K Race for Life this year - yay me! :)
My hubby has said that he'll give me £10 a mile if I jog/run it but I am not a runner! I have never been able to run long distances and so I wondered if any of you can give me some training hints and tips please?
I've read that I need to start with 1 min jogging and then 1 min walk for about 25 mins in total and build up from there. Does anyone know of a gadget or app that will time these intervals and let me know when to run and when to walk?

Thanks everyone :)
 
Wow well done!! What a worthwhile cause, when you set up your page, let me know and I'll sponsor you. A cause very close to my heart as I lost my mum to cancer two years ago.

I jogged the 5k last year and used the training plan on the Race for Life website (although I did each week twice as it was a long way away and could afford to do so).

There's also some really good Apps on the iPhone (if you have one), I think there's one called From Couch to 5k so there may be one for the 10k training plan.

You've given me the motivation to get my act together to start training again. Thank you.
 
I am not a long distance runner - I'm an endomorph with fast twitch fibres meaning I'm literally born to sprint and be strong, not for endurance. However, in the summer I'd run 10km every weekend in about 50mins for fun and hardly break a sweat.

How I started? I trained for a 5km run first. I got the distance and then improved the speed. I'm weird in that the faster I run, the easier it gets for me (up to a point obviously). For example, I can't do 5km by running at 10km/hr for 30mins - I'm much better starting at 9km/h and increasing up to about 13km/h at the end. If you're a sprinting type too, this might work but only once you're fitter. Interval training is immeasurably helpful in building up fitness and speed - don't neglect it when doing distances. Most people do, and any personal trainer you'd go to would recommend at least one interval training session a week.

From doing that, I then set the treadmill on low and found that I could already run 10km - just not very fast (65-70mins). I then started to increase the speed on that too as I did with 5km runs, going from low to fairly high speed, then back to low and up to fairly high again.

When it came to outdoors? Well, I always run faster outdoors than I do in the gym: times get smashed by several minutes usually, and this is even more so when 'competing' in charity or fun races.

My biggest piece of advice would be to train to run a bit more than 10km, much as people often train their horses over 1m 20 jumps at home to go do a 1m class at a show. That way it's easier, and you've got fitness to spare, which is a confidence boost! Training buddies are also wonderful if you find your motivation to go out training/to the gym is flagging!

You're doing this for such a wonderful cause, so good luck! 80)
 
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Great cause :)

I did the 5k race for life, and planned to do it in a leisurely walk (i'm no athlete!) My 'training' :o consisted of going for long walks every other day and short jogs (but I am not supposed to jog due to arthritis in my knees) but thought the odd short burst would be ok.

On the day, with thoughts of my dad spurring me on, and the whole atmosphere I ended up sprinting some of it (not much mind) but was amazed at how competetive I was :D I wanted to run past others and beat them to the finish! I had to keep stopping as I was knackered and wish I had taken a bigger bottle of water around with me! I did it in an okay time and was very pleased I did it.

Not much help, but just wanted to let you know that the spirit of the day can carry you some of the way! Best of luck :D
 
My unfit smoking mum did 10k two years ago. She trained by walking for a hundred steps then trotting for a hundred repetively gradually building up the distance. When she did the race she managed to trot most of it with just a couple of walks during it! Good Luck xx
 
I did the 10km last year - I won't lie it was hard going but exams wore me out let alone training! ;)
We walked most of it and it took us 1hr 43m :) and we raised about 200 pounds.
Me and my boyfriend have just started our training again (just to get fitter) and we have been walking for the past 3 weeks anything between 1 - 3 miles a night, and then sit ups press ups and I'm going to start swimming this week. We started jogging last night and did really well - set yourself little targets such as "ok I'm going to jog to that tree" get yourself into a rhythm breathe steady and if you reach the tree and can carry on, do so! :)
you will soon see the improvement - I didn't believe it but I saw improvements in a matter of a couple of weeks!
Oh, and enjoy it! Its a very emotional but fun experience :D
K x
ETA they have water every couple of km, so don't worry too much!
 
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