Running Your First 10km Race – Part 1

Seeing how more than a handful of my clients have signed up for the upcoming KL Marathon happening on the 27th of June, 2010 – I’ve got long time blog-buddy Lim Ee-Van, author of the blog Incoherent Ramblings to guest post on dailymuscle.com on how one can get started on their very first 10km race. This is Part 1. For Part 2, head over here.

Commonly known as Stupe, to me, he is someone I look up to as having achieved a good balance between family, career, fitness – and life. He is a well known personality in the local scene of triathletes, an engineer, proud father of two and husband to a beautiful wife. He is also a 3-time Ironman finisher (an Ironman event requires you to complete a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bike and a marathon (26 miles 385 yards, 42.195 km) run, raced in that order and without a break). So without any further delay…

Running Your First 10km Race

By Lim Ee-Van

You have a dream. You want to get out of that couch, hide the controller, start eating healthily, buy a pair of running shoes, don the best technical wear, get off to the road with the dream to run where the road takes you.

10 minutes later, you call it quits…

There is no way you will want to put yourself through those 3km you oh-so-promised-yourself as your new year resolution five years ago. You hate the pain. You hate the sweat. You do not see the reason to do it anymore. You get back home, slump on the couch and exercise your fingers – munching on junk food again. Sounds all too familiar?

But since you busted hundreds of ringgit to buy those shoes and fancy gear, there is no way you will want to let them to waste right? So, you now have a mid-quarter resolution; “I WILL DO MY FIRST 10KM RACE”. Which, brings you here to this blog post you’re reading…

Running 10km (especially if it is your first race) can be daunting.

How is it that some people can run 10km in 21minutes and 1 second? (the world 10km road race record by Micah Kogo of Kenya on March 29,2009 in Belgium). “It will take me a whole day to do 10km”, some of you may be saying…

Now, you can start by telling yourself this instead :
“I will run the 10km and finish it, it is my first time, timing is not important. It is utmost I finish the 10km. I will finish. I must finish”.

Part of any race is the mind game. You need to get the negativity out. Those fast runners are fast because they choose to stay focused and train hard. The amount of effort they put in to run 10km in sub 30minutes are most probably the same effort it would take even myself to trek across the Antartica. But you are not planning to break that record no?

So… negativity out? Told yourself “I WILL DO IT” ? Good. Next comes the easier part – Training.

So, just how do one run his or her first 10km?
10km is the distance if you stay in Taman Tun (TTDI) and you run to the McDonald’s in Bandar Utama and back. (10km is not even 50% of the walking I do going up and down Midvalley on the weekend for a shopping spree).

Assuming you have a very basic fitness level, you should be able to safely walk 1km within 10minutes.

In order to run your first 10km, you must be able to run non-stop for 5km. If you can’t run 5km non-stop, don’t fret. Here is a very easy basic 2-week plan that can get you started to run your first 5km.

The Program

Week 1
Day 1: Walk 5km
Day 2: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 3: Run 1km, walk 4km
Day 4: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 5: Run 2km, walk 3km
Day 6: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 7: Run 3km, walk 2km

Week2
Day 8: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 9: Run 4km, walk 1km
Day 10: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 11: Run 5km
Day 12: Rest/stretch/ strength training OR treat yourself to ice cream (NOT!)
Day 13: Run 5km (to show that the Day 11 wasn’t a fluke :P)
Day 14: Rest

The idea here is to “cheat” your body and mind to make it think you are not doing anything more than you can’t. The human body is a highly adaptive ‘machine’.

However, if in any event you can’t finish the first 2 weeks, stick to the plan and tell yourself “I WILL DO IT”.

It will be tough. But once you succeed in doing your first 5km continuous run, you will be on ‘high’ heaven.

Also, this complies to the strength training principle of “progressive loading”. Your body will ache, no doubt, which was why I created the program to have a full day rest in between the cardio workout. By the first week, trust me, you will be hoping you can run the full 5km after breaching past the 3km non-stop running… and if you can do it, by all means, go for it!

Now, after two weeks, you have a good 5 – 6 weeks to prepare for your first 10km (assuming you target the date of the Standard Chartered KL Marathon on 27th June). What’s next?

To run longer
After week 2, you may feel as if you could conquer the world. Finally, you can run to McDonald’s, have that value meal and get your wife/husband/partner to pick you back. After all, you deserved that treat, no? Wrong.

Remember, you are what you eat. You are committed to run your first 10km. Do your body a big favor, eat properly from Day 1. As your body burns carbs for energy, you have to replenish the burnt fuel with good quality food (by this, I don’t meant go and eat abalone or have birds nest for meals).

For example, you could eat oats for breakfast. Skip coffee/tea (or caffeine), or limit the intake to once a week. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Hungry? Snack on nuts and/or raisins. Drink milk or soya bean.

Bring your own lunch – bring simple sandwiches minus the unhealthy dressing. My personal favourite is dipping the bread in olive oil and balsamic vinegar (but I don’t do it often). Hungry between meals again? Skip those ultra fat muesli bars (loads of sugar and trans fat!) and munch on nuts or drink more water. Hydrate. It’s all in the mind.

As Malaysians… dinner CAN be challenging. The char kuey teow, the mee rebus, oh those mouth-watering pizzas. Skip. Skip. Skip. Settle for brown rice with veggies and good lean protein (such as chicken, eggs, beef). Choose chicken breasts over drumsticks if you have the choice (drumsticks are notorious for hidden fats between those meat, else, why do you think they are so smooth and deliciously juicy?) Don’t even touch those chicken wings. Go for prime cut if you take beef, skip those fatty sirloins no matter how much the menu said “the meat is a marbled wonder that promises succulent heaven with every bite”.

Skip supper.

Boring? Can kill you already? Just remember, you are what you eat. Now, think of the glory of running your first 10km race non-stop. It IS within your reach.

Once you can manage this, it is time to continue with the easy part. Yeap, more training.

End of Part 1. Click here for Part 2 of ‘Running Your First 10 km Race, which covers training for week 3 onwards.

About Stupe
Three times Ironman Triathlon finisher (swim – bike – run : 3.8km – 180.2km – 42.2km). Multiple marathoner (8 under his belt so far). Lost count of the 21km and the 10km he did. However, he has a humble beginning, his first 10km race was done in 90minutes – that was almost 8 years ago.
A father of two toddlers and an engineer by profession, Stupe inspires to be a semi-pro triathlete, a semi-pro photographer and semi-retired within the next 10 years.
You can find his (mis)adventures over at his blog: http://opstupe.blogspot.com or catch him running on highways, bi-ways, or cycling with the traffic in/around Klang valley.

This post was written by...

Noel Chelliah

Noel Chelliah, ACE-CPT, ACE-LWMC, has been recognized as one of the Top Transformation Experts in Malaysia. No stranger to being overweight himself, Noel has gone through a life-changing transformation himself, from fat, to fit. In 2010, Noel founded the DailyMuscle Body Transformation Camp, which today helps hundreds of individuals exercise and practice healthier habits. In his spare time, Noel serves the community with various programs that promote a healthier lifestyle, and enjoys playing with his dogs.