Almost every 4th of July I run the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. This will be my 8th time running it since I moved to Atlanta 11 years ago. Every year, I cut running from my workouts after the race. Some years I’ll still run here and there for a few weeks after the race, but most years it will be my last run until I start training for the next year. I want to break that habit this year.
Every year, around February-March, I start training to run again. If you’ve ever trained for distance running, you’ll know that when you stop training and running consistently, you lose your endurance for distance quickly. Each year I have to start from scratch, and I’ve found the best programs are the couch-to-5k / couch-to-10k programs. You can find various plans for these programs online, with instructions how to train with them. They are basically interval run/walk programs that start out with short runs, gradually increasing the running times/distances each week. There are distance based programs and time based programs. I have found that the time based ones work better for me personally, but I have done both and either one will get you where you need to be if you stick to the program. There are several Android and iPhone apps out there that will help you with these, telling you when to run and when to walk. The one I use is RunDouble C25K (Android | iPhone). I did pay to get the “10k Starter Plans” upgrade, which is less than $2. You can get access to all the features for $3.20. Some of the programs are free for 2 weeks, so you can try them out before spending any money. But, you don’t need to buy any of them to use the app. You can set up “custom runs” for free, you just have to know what intervals to run/walk for each run. You can get that information from the RunDouble website, here, if you don’t have another source already. To me it was worth spending a few dollars just to have the app tell me what to do for each run.
No matter how you go about tracking your runs, don’t be discouraged or afraid to repeat some of the runs. Every single year there is at least ONE week of training that I have to repeat. Usually it’s early on in the training, but I’ve had it happen later on in the training as well. If I ever cannot complete a training session, I repeat it once. If I can’t finish that one, I’ll start that week’s program over. If I wasn’t even close to completing the session, or I feel like it took too much out of me, I’ll go back and re-do the previous weeks training. This year for me, during week 3, I started getting really bad shin splints. Week 3 on the RunDouble zero-to-10k program consists of 4 reps of running for 3 minutes, walking for 3 minutes. I got through Week 3 Day 1 just fine, but I felt a little pain the last 3 minute run. When I went to do Week 3 Day 2, I didn’t even make it half-way through before I had to stop due to the shin splints. That pain is unbearable, and pushing through that isn’t always possible, nor do I recommend doing so. I took 3 days off, and when I ran again I started with Week 2 Day 1. That session consisted of 6 reps of 90 seconds running, 2 minutes of walking. I went through the rest of the Week 2 sessions, running every other day, and by the time I got to Week 3 I was able to do it with no issues. I just completed Week 3 Day 2 this morning with no pains at all. Hopefully this is my only setback, but I’ve had it happen enough to know that it’s just part of the process and nothing to beat yourself up over.
When I’m doing these programs, I focus on just running for the allotted times, and I try to not think about distance or speed – YET. My initial goal is to be able to run 60 minutes without stopping. Once I meet that goal, then I start paying attention to the distance to make sure I’m actually completing 6.2 miles. After that, I focus on the speed of my runs.
Usually by Memorial Day weekend I can run 10k/6.2 miles without walking. That gives me about 6 weeks to get my speed up. The last few years I’ve really slacked on this, and my finish times for the race show it. I have years where I’m not motivated at all to run, and some years the weather is just not that good leading up to the race. My favorite location to run is a gravel trail, and if it’s been raining a lot parts of it get muddy and/or flooded out. I have found a few new places with paved trails, so I’m going to use them more frequently this year if we get a lot of rain.
I’ll be updating periodically about my running schedule and how things are going, and I’m hoping that you guys hold me accountable for continuing to run and train after the race in July. As I said at the start, I really want to break my habit of giving up on running every summer.
Are you training for any races? Are you training for fitness reasons? How are you doing it? Do you have any suggestions or any comments about running you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!