Running Your First 10km Race – Part 2

This post is the 2nd in a two part series in which Lim Ee-Van (also known as Stupe) shares how to prepare for your First 10km Race. Read Part 1 here.

With two weeks gone, you should now be able to run 5km in 45 minutes. Week 3 and beyond will help you improve on your stamina plus your speed.

In comes HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training. Whenever you see HIIT mentioned in the program below, you will need to:
1km – slow run/walk
1km – fast run/slow jog
800m – slow jog/fast walk
800m – fast run/fast jog
400m – slow run
400m – fast run
200m – slow run
200m – fast run
100m – slow run
100m – fast run
Finish. That.Is.5.Blardy.KM.Worth.Of.Sweat.

HIIT will force your body and your heart rate to elevate and recover over the series of slow and fast paced walk/jog/run.

The difference between jogging and running

Some of you may ask what the difference between a jog and run is. Well, a jog is a very slow run. It is like a fast walk, you plod lazily in a jog. In a run, you actually lift your feet up to move forward. No lazy dragging!

To determine this, I like to use the “talk test”. If you can talk while running, you are jogging. If you find it hard to talk, you are running and if you can’t talk and felt like killing the person next to you that keeps asking you questions, then you are running fast!

Everyone has a different level of fitness and it is best you find the pace that suits you best.
In no time, you will be able to run the 5km in slightly over 30minutes (wow! That will be a full 50% improvement on your 5km timing of 45minutes!!)

Week 3
Day 15 : Run 3km, jog 2km
Day 16: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 17: HIIT
Day 18 : Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 19: 5km recovery run (by this it means you run at an easy talking pace)
Day 20: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 21: 5km easy run, 1km easy jog (Yes, you are going beyond 5km!)

Week 4 (the fun begins!)
Day 22 : Rest Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 23 : HIIT
Day 24: 3km Recovery Run
Day 25: 6km easy run
Day 26: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 27: 6km Easy run, 1km jog (WooHoo! 7km already!)
Day 28: Rest

Now, you have been officially running for a month and some of you may start to feel your clothes fit better and belt buckles (for men) no longer bite into your belly or those bra straps(for women, obviously) doesn’t bite into your shoulder that much anymore. Congrats!

Keep Moving Forward!
You have four more weeks to your first 10km race. I hope that your diet is a healthy one (see Part 1 for some tips on this) – and you’re not eating junk. If you ask me, it is completely OK to cheat perhaps once a week (but not binge ya). It keeps your sanity in check. Before long, you will realize that, like cigarettes, food is just like an addiction. You need to learn that we eat to live, and not the other way around. If you have been smoking, this might be a good time to start consider quitting as well. (If you have been drinking, possibly, time to stop too! Don’t let all that HIIT work go to waste!)

On to more training!

Week 5 – Week 6
Repeat Week 3 and week 4 but up the distance by an extra KM (meaning, I you need to do a 4km run, 2km jog, – you now need to up it to a 5km run, 3km jog). However, HIIT remains the same, but by now, you will realize that your 5km timing keeps improving and the “I can’t talk” run become “hey, I can hold a conversation with you” run. In other words, your fitness levels have improved. Time to UP THE ANTE! YOU WANT IT. I KNOW!

Week 7
Day 43 : Run 8km
Day 44: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 45: HITT (now see if you can ace it close to 30minutes, YOU WILL be sprinting the last 100m as if you were racing against Watson Nyambek)
Day 46: Easy 5km run (by now, it’s like a daily routine and did I hear PUHLEASE…5KM EASY RUN? Don’t waste my time!)
Day 47: Rest/stretch/strength training
Day 48: Run 8km, Jog 2km (and there you have it, a full 10km run successfully done!)
Day 49: Rest.

Week 8
Day 50: Easy 5km run
Day 51: Easy 3km run
Day 52 : Rest
Day 53: Easy 5km run
Day 54: Rest. Eat a bit more salt than usual. A bit more carbs than usual.
Day 55: Rest. Drink a bit more water than usual. Eat a bit saltier than usual. Eat a bit more carbs, than usual. Rest early. You’ve got a race tomorrow. Prepare mentally. Tell yourself that you had done your best. It is time to reap what you sow (in training)
Day 56 : D-Day. Now go and run your first 10km race. Cut off time is 90minutes. YOU WILL DO THIS and YOU WILL FINISH IT.

One thing I usually do in all my races is to envision how I will cross the finish line.
Hands held high? Smilling? High-fiving? Shouting? Dancing?

I WANT YOU TO ACT IT OUT AS YOU CROSS THE LINE.

Conclusion

Running your first 10km is a mental thing. What your mind set to achieve, your body will follow.
At anytime you feel like giving up… Don’t! Pain is temporary, glory is forever. (ok, I will stop giving corny lines, but you get my drift).

Good luck! If you have any questions, please leave contact me via my blog at http://opstupe.blogspot.com or leave a comment below and we will try to answer them best for you.

I will be doing 21km during the upcoming Standard Chartered KL Marathon (SCKLM) on 27th June 2010 with my wife. It will be her maiden 21km. She progressed from running 10km to something this daring. All it takes is a bit of push and support. Find your muse, work with it.

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: opstupe.blogspot.com or catch him running on highways, bi-ways, or cycling with the traffic in/around Klang valley.

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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.