My friend talked me into running in a 5 K on October 9th. I've been going to the gym religiously since February (except I've kinda slacked this month, no motivation). Anyway, I can do the elliptical all day, ride the bike forever, and walk on the treadmill for miles but when it comes to actual running I lose my lungs at .5 miles. I know that is because of me smoking. I'm going to try and lay down the cigarettes.
My question is, what is a good training program for me to get up to 4 miles by October. I know the 5 K is only 3.1 but I want to be able to run more.
I did .5 mile last night, tonight I plan on trying to make it a mile. What's so funny is that I'm not that bad of shape when it comes to anything else besides running.
Also, if your training for a 5k, I'd skip on the machines for a while. Your trying to get good at running, just run. As others said, try walk/run combinations. You'll be surprized how fast you will be making gains.
It's only about 3 miles. You have plenty of time to build up. Run 1/2 mile and walk the other 1/2 at a brisk pace. Add a half mile to the run each week and match it with a fast 1/2 mile walk at the end. You will be up to an easy 5k by the end of Sept.
Hi there, I did my first 5K last year. I had shed about 50 pounds going down to about 210 but I was still about 30 pounds overweight. I figured what the heck. At the time I had never run more than 1.5 Miles at a time but figured I would get juiced up during the event and survive.
First things first would be your running style. I was never really trained or shown how to "run" so when I started running I was running how people do on TV. Kick my legs up high (touching my hamstrings). This may be bad advice but it seems to me that isn't how real people run. I try to emphasize on just moving my feet as little as possible, taking "smaller" steps. The amount of energy this saves compared to kicking legs wildly is amazing. But if you've ever engaged in a physical activity in your life you probably know this already (I was a pretty seditary computer nerd without any experience in sports, etc...)
A 5K won't really tap into your long term energy reserves or anything so eat a nice breakfast and drink a lot of water. No need to do anything extraordinary nutrition wise.
Eventually you're going to hit a point where you are in the groove. I was amazed at how involved my hips were in the running movement. When I crossed the finish line my hips literally continued to involuntarily sway back and forth as though I was still running, they were so "locked in" to the running movement.
And the best advice of all (if you're a heterosexual male): get behind a group of lovely ladies that all have spandex pants on. I got behind a group of 3 young ladies all with lovely, lovely derrieres and kept pace with them the whole 5K. It was a wonderful 30 minutes. Good luck and pick up a T-Shirt!
Tuesday - ran .5 miles, walked 1.5 miles, then ran 1 mile.
Tonight (Wednesday) going to go to Y and do the elliptical. I was told not to run more than 2 days in a row. Is this right or should I go ahead and run again???????
shit lady smoking really isnt that big of a deal, only for the first mile or so id say. Half of the ARMY smokes a pack a day, and we still run our asses off. Hell I got a buddy who ran 2 miles in just over 8 minutes, and hes a chain smoker. its more of a mental thing. Just get out there and run as much as possible before the event, you can never run too much in my opinion. Also every time you run push a little harder. You know, go an extra few hundred meters, or time yourself and try and shed a minute or 2. Main thing is just dont quit, youd would be amazed at what your body is capable of so long as your mind keeps telling it what to do. good luck