Building Up to Run A 10K

[kriss]

So I've been wanting to take up running in an effort to trim some weight and I figured it'd be a good idea to start training for a 10K since I'd like to eventually get to where I can knock down 6 miles on the daily. Anyone have any solid plans that have worked for them? At present, I've just started out by doing a mile a day which is pretty simple and from there, I figure I'll just add a half a mile each week to my daily run until I'm up to 6 miles a day by the 1st week of December. Simple enough, or am I missing something?

Proper diet and such goes without saying - I've been kicking oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, lentil and spinach soups, made a huge pot of vegan chili yesterday, etc, etc.

[BuzzersonKillwell]

There are a whole bunch of programs out there, Couch to 10k being a pretty popular one right now. I'll skip the content of those since you can easily find and adapt them to suit your needs. Here are a few things I found to be true that aren't covered in a logistical plan. I've always been fairly active but this year my wife wanted to train for a leg in the marathon. At lot of this is derived from that process.

The one fitness related thing I'll say is consider mixing in some moderate interval training, or really hilly days, to help set some context if your not super active. I think a lot of first time runners don't have a lot of context for when they are pushing to hard or not enough. Some intervals gives you that context and allows you to better understand the effort your putting in and how long that particular effort can be sustained. If that makes sense. Plus they help lower your recovery time.

1. Get a pair of good shoes. Have someone help you find the right shoes for your feet.

2. Don't do distance every time. Make the weekend, or a time that works for you, the time to gauge progress. Mix in shorter runs during the week, at a quicker pace if you can.

3. Time those shorter runs, over a long period progress can be hard to gauge. I remember how proud she was when a three mile run felt really hard one day, but it turned out we ran it three minutes faster than normal. Didn't feel like she was getting better often, but clearly she was.

4. Find a friend. It'll be windy, 55 degrees and a light drizzle in Chicago. You won't want to go. Having a partner makes it much easier to motivate.

5. It's ok to walk. Some days are going to be easy, some are going to be really hard. There won't be a lot of rhyme or reason to it. You'll crush five miles and struggle on 3. The mental battle is way harder than the psychical for a lot of people. Do what you can, keep at it, and don't worry if you don't have it some days. Stay positive.

6. Eat enough. I think people get tempted to under eat and over work to double your weight loss effort. If you feel gassed on a lot of runs you probably ain't eating enough.

7. Learn to breath. Specially deeper breathing. Don't focus too much on syncing your footfalls at the start, just get your breathing right. It'll all work out. If you are breathing really ragged you going too hard for now. Slow down, you'll get there eventually. http://www.marathonguide.com/training/coachmindy/everybreath.cfm

8. The first mile always sucks for me. Even if your doing five consistently. You'll want to stop, just keep going.

Lastly, if your running a larger, organized race don't get too nervous before hand. You'll be surprised how much the race atmosphere boosts you.

Good luck buddy. My wife went from not being able to run a mile to knocking out 6'ers pretty easily but it took a while. Pretty much a year. But totally can be done.

EDIT: We originally had the same plan but felt some weeks we could add more distance so we did. Once you hit the 3 or 4 mile mark it becomes easier. If you can do 4 you can do 5 and so on. Generally speaking, a 1/2 mile a week increase was achievable for us.

[malestudent15]

you shouldn't increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% a week. Also learn to love hills throw in some hill sprints once or twice a week 6 x 8-sec hill sprints. Do one long run a week where the pace is slower than your goal. Through in some tempo, interval, and fartlek runs.

How many miles are you running a week? and How many days do you run?

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

Over the past year I have become a pretty decent distance runner (I am happy with where I'm at and that is the most important thing). It all started because of a 10K race I signed up for last fall. I trained for about 5 weeks for that. I think the farthest I went before the race was 5 miles and that was hard. I finished the 10K and was like, that wasn't so bad I want to go further now. This spring I trained for about six weeks and did a half marathon. The farthest I went before that race was 9 miles. This summer I trained the entire summer with my girlfriend (she is doing the Milwaukee Marathon in two weeks with her mom). We joined a running club in Milwaukee where they facilitated "long runs" on Saturday mornings. The schedule for the summer was something like this: 6, 8, 10, 6, 12, 14, 16, 10, 18, 20, 12, 8, 26. This weekend was the last 12 on the schedule and I did a half marathon race instead. I went from 2:10:27 to 1:52:44.

To start I think there are a few things that will help. Get a good pair of shoes. Go to a running store that can do an analysis of what you need.

Next get in a habit of running. From what you're saying your base is like 1 mile right now. So during the week you should run 1 mile twice and try for two miles on the weekend (if you have a day with more free time you can use that too, I just do Saturday because I have nothing going on). Rest after long runs. Then the next week run one mile two times and shoot for 2 1/2 for the weekend. Then one, one, three. Then 1 1/2, 1 1/2, 3.

Try to find a partner to run with. Especially during long runs you will get bored. They will also make sure you don't take a day off.

If you sore keep running, if you are injured stop. You said one of the reasons you are doing this is to lose weight (me too). If you push too hard and get injured you won't be able to do anything so be safe.

Before a race I make sure to not run for 3 days prior. If you have trained well your legs will feel real fresh from taking a break. During training though you can't really afford to skip three days.

Don't smoke and minimize drinking. Seems obvious but there are people that train hard, but continue to do these things and they are just selling themselves short.

[malestudent15]

I'm not sure about not running 3 days prior to a race. I could see resting the day before or maybe 2, never 3.

[mattalica17]

might want to do less

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

I'm not sure about not running 3 days prior to a race. I could see resting the day before or maybe 2, never 3.

Here's how I approach it. If the race is Saturday morning the last time I'd run is Wednesday morning. Usually I can't run in the mornings during the week so that gets bumped to Tuesday night.

For a Sunday morning race the last time I'd run is Thursday morning. This becomes Wednesday night.

This isn't scientific, but my legs always feel strong when I take off that much time.

[malestudent15]

Glad it works for you, but I wouldn't do that. How many miles do you run before the race?

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

Well I did 20 (my longest ever run) on Saturday the week before this race. Tuesday I did 2 and Wednesday I did 3. I wouldn't normally run 20 for a half marathon, but I am doing marathon training.

This was the amount for the Saturday runs this summer.

6, 8, 10, 6, 12, 14, 16, 10, 18, 20, 12 (13), 8, 26.

During the week was pretty consistent 4-6 miles on Tuesday and Thursday. Ran a couple of single miles for time to make sure my top speed was getting better. It did. From 7 mins at the beginning to 5:45 at the end.

I am done training now. Gunna take a week off everything and then start next week swimming/biking for a month to give my legs time to heal. Then I'll start back up with 2 and 3 mile runs to see for my legs feel. My knee has been bothering me the last three long runs. If the short runs don't give me any trouble I'll get some new shoes and start training again, if they hurt I'll be going to a doctor.

[jerseydave77]

Good luck Kriss. I'm down 14lbs (9 more to go) in the past 4.5 months or so. I've been training to cycle distances again as well as for Sprint Triathalons. The running is the hardest due to my knee but I've slowly built myself into pulling 30+ mile rides easily. I'm also doing training sessions consisting of 1/3-1/2 mile swims, 10 miles on the bike followed then by 2 miles running. I'm off on the running part as I need to get up to a 5K but slow and steady is working.

With dieting for me its a) portion control and healthy foods and c) healthy snacks. I've cut coffee down to one cup a day from in upwards of eight (which is down from 15 in 2002). I keep a bunch of bananas at my desk at all time so that if I feel hungry I can put something good in my body. I have no discipline. If it's on my plate - I eat it. If I'm snackish I will always go for crap if its available. Knowing this about myself has helped a lot in curbing bad habits.

Anyway, I'm feeling great and sounds like you're well on your way. I am in for my first timed 30 mile ride this weekend and can barely contain myself over being in radically better shape than I was less than six months ago.

[icecream]

you should also check out hiit cardio, or tabata. less time consuming,more weight loss.

Obviously running is some of the best cardio but your heart rate doesn't have much variation

so if you do intervals it's constantly changing.

keep up the good work though man try different paths,make mixtapes to not discouraged.

some days you just know it's good to take the day off.

Unlike weight lifting if you really wanted to although not recommended you could do cardio every day of the week.

also mapmyrun.com has a free app for your phone thats a little useful.

and livestrong.com is good for calorie tracking, recipes, and a very helpful message board. also a free app

Food is extremely important in weight loss as is water.

-Make sure you find a set of stretches on youtube there are plenty.

-at some point check out "pose" running landing on the ball of your foot rather than your heals and less damaging to your knees. Youtube it

-Shoes as stated get some good shoes AVOID thick chunky soles Asics make a highly recomended tai chi shoe

http://www.amazon.com/Onitsuka-Tiger-Fashion-Sneaker-Womens/dp/B000F9W4MI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348521533&sr=8-1&keywords=onitsuka+tai+chi

[enjoyadrian]

I also recommend going to a shoe store and getting your feet checked out. They looked at my feet, what type of arch i had, had me run and help put me in a pair of shoes that are just awesome. Now when I run i find myself lasting longer than when i used a pair of nikes or adidas i bought from academy or something.

[jordan999]

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51122/10K-Novice-Training-Program

Get shoes that are comfortable for YOU to run in. Analysis is a good start but my friend I helped train through his first marathon runs in $30 Avias because they were affordable for him and ended up being comfortable, lesson=use what works not what someone else tells you.

Follow the plan above and you won't be injured by December, unlike your current plan.

[kriss]

To answer the question, I'd like to do this six days out of the week. As I'm literally JUST beginning at this, I'm already coming across sore legs and such the day after I do a run, which I assume to mean that I'm doing something right? It's nothing overwhelming where I can't walk by any means, just some indication that something's going on.

As for the plan above - starting out with 3 miles right off the bat would be murder for me, I think. It seems THAT would leave me injured more than simply adding a half a mile every week or two...

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

To answer the question, I'd like to do this six days out of the week. As I'm literally JUST beginning at this, I'm already coming across sore legs and such the day after I do a run, which I assume to mean that I'm doing something right? It's nothing overwhelming where I can't walk by any means, just some indication that something's going on.

As for the plan above - starting out with 3 miles right off the bat would be murder for me, I think. It seems THAT would leave me injured more than simply adding a half a mile every week or two...

I think what he meant by follow that plan was to supplement your training with other activities and only run three days a week not six (you can adjust the actual mileage to something you are more comfortable with). Running everyday can be done, but can lead to: burn out, plateauing, muscle & joint fatigue.

[jerseydave77]

Ok - anyone want to share their favorite running album? For some reason I find running through Ignite's "Call on My Brothers" to be a great motivator. Not sure why but it works.

I'm going to do my first 5k October 21. I've always hated running as opposed to distance cycling but I feel the pull to doing full training to hit the goals I am targeting for Spring.

(Great Thread - keep sharing links and start posting up post-race photos)

[partysmasher]

Awesome thread!

I took up running about 18 months ago purely to get a different form of exercise and got absolutely hooked.

I did the exact same thing as you - signed up for a 10k (and took charity donations as sponsorship) to make sure that i stick with it. Financially i was able to throw myself into it, i went out and got some really nice running shoes from Nike and a couple of shirts and shorts and dri-fit running socks, this, again was to make sure i had enough invested in it that i was guilted into making myself do it.

Started off super slow, just jogging 5 or so km at a pace that would allow me to keep up a conversation and gradually built up the distance, i just concentrated on keeping this pace and building distance over the next few weeks, three runs a week of 5-8km for a couple of weeks then managing a 10k shortly after. The key is to ignore getting a good time until you can actually run the distance, just concentrate on keeping a slow, consistent pace to the point that you finish a run and feel like you can easily keep going for a good while longer. Then aim to up the pace during the next week and so on.

Someone mentioned doing short distances as a quick pace and i'd totally back this, it'll bring your pace up over longer distances if you stick to it and allow you to build the ability to speed up mid race in order to claw back a good time. Bearing in mind my fitness was reasonable when i started 18 months ago i've gone from a 1:01/10km to a 46min/10km and 22min/5km in that time and if i can run a 10k anyone can!

The only other things i'd recommend from experience are: get the Nike+ app to keep track of your runs, it's cheap and while it can be hit and miss, it still does a pretty good job and will motivate you! Also, keep eating normally, you don't need any extra food to run these distances as long as you're eating three healthy meals a day, you will be fine and will definitely lose a fair bit of weight but don't eat in the two hours before a run unless you enjoy the feeling of being about to shit yourself or throw up. Oh and STRETCH!!!!!

Good luck dude!

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

Ok - anyone want to share their favorite running album? For some reason I find running through Ignite's "Call on My Brothers" to be a great motivator. Not sure why but it works.

I'm going to do my first 5k October 21. I've always hated running as opposed to distance cycling but I feel the pull to doing full training to hit the goals I am targeting for Spring.

(Great Thread - keep sharing links and start posting up post-race photos)

Hardcore is great for running. Blacklisted, Frostbite, Terror, Expire, Champion, Down To Nothing, Cold World. If it has Posi/Motivational lyrics that helps too. Such Gold "Four Superbowls..." But it's been years/Since I stood up and said/"It's time to face my fears" that line always pumps me up.

[roadmonkey]

Ok - anyone want to share their favorite running album? For some reason I find running through Ignite's "Call on My Brothers" to be a great motivator. Not sure why but it works.

I'm going to do my first 5k October 21. I've always hated running as opposed to distance cycling but I feel the pull to doing full training to hit the goals I am targeting for Spring.

(Great Thread - keep sharing links and start posting up post-race photos)

My go to running albums are Himsa - Courting Tragedy and Disaster, Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin, At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul. All the songs on there pump me up nice and really help me push with their speed. Plus the slower interludes and songs help with some more resting periods

[pickrunner18]

Don't make your training schedule too strict. Running a mile a day is probably too much at first because you're not used to it at all. Run one day then take one or two days off to recover because you'll be pretty sore. Once you get more used to running (maybe in your second week), try going for two days in a row, or extend a run by a half mile.

Having a more relaxed training schedule like that will bring less pressure and make it more fun.

Kind of a testimonial to that: I just trained 3 weeks for a 5 miler and cut my mile pace from an 8:30 to 7 flat by race day. I ran about 12 times over the three weeks at distances ranging from 3 to 6 miles. Point is, you'll get in shape pretty quickly no matter what. Just don't push yourself too hard, and definitely find someone to run with.

[jordan999]

To answer the question, I'd like to do this six days out of the week. As I'm literally JUST beginning at this, I'm already coming across sore legs and such the day after I do a run, which I assume to mean that I'm doing something right? It's nothing overwhelming where I can't walk by any means, just some indication that something's going on.

As for the plan above - starting out with 3 miles right off the bat would be murder for me, I think. It seems THAT would leave me injured more than simply adding a half a mile every week or two...

You're sore because you're running 6 days a week. You should only be sore after track/speed work or your long run, and even then, if you are sore you are pushing too hard in training and its going to take away from your next run. Only elite/professional runners run 5+ days a week and they can do it because they get a lot of rest, planned nutrition, and most important, impeccable biomechanics.

If you've been putting your body through 6 days of running a week, you can do 3 miles easy. Remember, this is training and should be run at a conversation pace and if you have to take a break and walk for a minute, do it, the time moving is what you are looking for.

That schedule has 7.5 miles the first week, split your runs down to 3 days, and add a half mile to your total for the week and you'll be there in 3 weeks. The fourth week scale it back 1 mile on your week total and then start the program, you'll feel great.

Again, 6 days a week is your biggest mistake. Go hit the gym on your days off if you need to be active.

[Shitty Rambo]

I've been an avid runner for over a decade. I'll cut the fluff. If you want your runs to be effective focus on time. The duration is what is important. Not distance or speed. Those will increase with your endurance over time. Aim for 30-45 minute runs.

Try not to run more than 5 days a week. It's bad for your legs and you will more than likely fuck yourself up overdoing it in the beginning. 2 days than a break should work for the first couple months or so.

Most importantly BUY RUNNING SHOES AND LACE THEM CORRECTLY!

Your shoes should be lose enough for you to slip them on and off without tying. If you have any discomfort than look into alternative lacing techniques. I have a high arches in my feet so I have to parallel lace my shoes (http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-267--12334-0,00.html).

Listen to music or podcasts to keep yourself preoccupied. Only use one headphone or keep the volume low so you are always aware of traffic and dogs