First Race, FITTEST Race- Week One Training Plan

As promised, I'm writing a series on getting ready for your first race.  Perhaps most important to successfully training for anything is having a plan in place- and that's where this post comes in.  The following is a schedule for the first week of your introduction to running.  The total duration of my beginners' 10K plan is two months and the remainder of the schedule will be posted next week!  Today's post goes in-depth into each type of workout that will used throughout the plan.

In my last post, I asked you to run/jog/walk a 5K, time it, and divide by 3 to get your starting mile pace.  If your average mile time was under 8 minutes, follow plan A when noted.  If your time was 8-12 minutes per mile, follow plan B when noted.  And if your mile time was over 12 minutes on average, then follow plan C when noted.

Before and after every workout, walk for 5 minutes- even if you don't think you need to!  Warming up and cooling down are essential for preventing injury and reducing post-workout soreness, so it's really in your best interests not to skimp on them.

For days that call for cross-training you may choose your favorite cardiovascular activity- swimming and biking are probably the most popular options, but the *best* exercise is one that you truly want to do, so if you prefer Zumba, playing tennis, or even just the elliptical machine, that's fine too.  Cross-training is important because increasing variety will decrease your chances of sustaining an overtraining injury or becoming bored.

On the days labeled as 'strength training' days, you will follow the routine that I'll be providing on Wednesday that contains exercises specifically designed to improve your running ability and technique.  

Each week has two 'rest days' and it's important that you take them!  Even if you're feeling up for more, your body needs time to rest and rebuild.  If you're really wanting to train every day, use your rest days to work on flexibility using the stretching routine I'll be providing on Monday and/or just do an easy cross-training day.

So without further delay, here's the first week of your FITTEST beginning running schedule:

Day 1:  Interval Run- 30 seconds of high effort followed by 1 minute of recovery.  Warm up for 5 minutes, complete 15 rounds (About 23 minutes), then cool down for 5 minutes.  Each group's high and low intensity activities, respectively, are:

Group A- Sprinting/ Running

Group B- Running/ Jogging

Group C- Jogging/ Walking

Day 2: Cross-training- An hour of your favorite non-running exercise.

Day 3: Timed Run- a quick and easy, even-paced run.  5 minutes of walking to warm up, 20 minutes of running at your own pace, followed by 5 minutes of walking to cool down.

Day 4: Rest Day!

Day 5: Long Run- 5 minutes of walking to warm up, then 50 minutes of running (or jogging (or even speed-walking)), and 5 more minutes of walking to cool down.  Don't worry if you can't run quickly the entire time- just go at your own pace, whatever that may be, and challenge yourself to keep moving!

Day 6: Strength Training- Be on the look-out for this routine on Wednesday!

Day 7: Rest Day!

As you can see, the schedule doesn't start on any particular day of the week, so you can tailor your training to your schedule.  If you want your rest days to be on Friday and Monday, then start your training on Tuesday, etc.  Good luck on getting out there and hoofing it!  Don't forget to visit me on Monday for your flexibility routine designed to improve your run!

Have a FIT, fun weekend & feel free to ask questions in the comments!

Happy trails,

Sarah