TH and F spoke to me about how to train for the race. Enthusiasm is good and will carry us through, but there are pitfalls such as over extending oneself and risking injury. I have always maintained that the key to running is to complete the race injury free in order to have a good race experience. So here's a structured and disciplined training program that you may find useful.
Key principles:
1. Regularize your exercise / training program. For starters, set aside time for three sessions per week. There will only be one session for the long run, and the other two sessions can be 20 to 30 minutes each. The long session will be one hour, extending up to two hours for those training for the half marathon, and about one hour for those training for the 10 km run.
2. 10% rule: Gradually increase your mileage or intensity, by no more than 10% per week. The proven approach is gradual adaption to stress. So for instance, if your long run is currently 5 km, increase your long run distance to 5.5 to 6 km next week, and no more. If your pace is 6 min/km, don't push it up to 5 min/km this week. Note: either increase distance or intensity (pace or speed), not both at the same time. For first timers, aim for distance instead of speed.
3. Run your own race. Since the objective is to complete the race, it does not matter how fast you run. Do NOT yield to temptation. Do NOT compare with other runners and with each other. You run your own race, at your own time.
4. Walk breaks. This approach has been advocated by Jeff Galloway and Amy Burfoot (Executive Director, Runner's World Magazine). The run-walk system works this: run for say 5 minutes, and then walk for 1 minute. The ratio varies from 1:1 (1 min run, 1 min walk) for beginners to 9:1 (9 min run, 1 min walk) for seasoned marathoners.
5. Recovery makes us stronger runners. Always build in a recovery week. Recommendation is to have a recovery week after every three weeks of build up. The distance covered in the recovery week is about 50 to 60% of current distance.
Recommended program:
There will be three training sessions per week. Sat is designated as the long run day. But feel free to swap the sessions around to fit into your schedule. The other two sessions are described by time as well as distance.
[Choose time or distance based on your own comfort level. IOW, don't try to run 3 km within 20 minutes. If you can only run/jog 20 minutes and not cover 3 km, don't worry. Stick to the 20 minutes!]
If you have more time, include another session for either a walk/jog or swim or bike or gym. This is just a rough program for the 10 km race:
Week ending / Tue / Thu / Sat
Oct 12 / 20 min (3km) / 20 min (3km) / 5 km
Oct 19 / 20 min (3km) / 20 min (3km) / 6 km
Oct 26 / 30 min (4km) / 30 min (4km) / 7 km
Nov 1 / 20 min (3km) / rest / 5 km
Nov 8 / 30 min (4km) / 30 min (4km) / 7.5 km
Nov 15 / 35 min (4.5km) / 30 min (4km) / 8 km
Nov 23 / 35 min (4.5km) 30 min (4km) / 8.5 km
Nov 30 / 20 min (3km) / 20 min (3km) / 6 km
Dec 7 / 20 min (3km) / rest / 10 km RACE
Dec 14 / 10 min walk / rest / 10-15 min jog
You'd notice that the two weeks before the race are scaled down. This is known as the taper period, where we maintain the same intensity, but cut down on the distances.
The corresponding long run distances for half marathon training are as follows:
Oct 12 - 8 km
Oct 19 - 10 km
Oct 26 -12 km
Nov 1 - 8.5 km
Nov 8 - 14 km
Nov 15 - 16 km
Nov 23 - 18 km
Nov 30 - 10 km
Dec 7 - 21 km RACE
The other two training sessions each week remain unchanged, but can add 10 minutes more if you feel you can cope. Recovery week after the race remains the same. The recovery week essentially reminds us to take it easy after the race, and to ease back into shape through walks and jogs.
See related post on COSI angel project.
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