Jenny Jenkins

Tips on Running a 5K Race for Beginners

Jogging is becoming a very popular hobby. Learn about some tips for beginners who are training for a 5k.

Getting ready for a 5k run does not need any drastic changes to your life style, taking it for granted that you live a reasonably healthy life and are in good physical condition. Running is not just good exercise, but it should also be fun and over doing the training and preparation will not just take the fun out of it but can also result in overstraining yourself and, in fact, reducing your running abilities.

What follows are just general guidelines and can be modified within reasonable limits to suit individual requirements. Just remember that the plan has a focus of getting you ready in 8 to 10 weeks for running the 5k and tampering with it too much can make the plan less effective. The plan calls for 4 days a week of active exercise and training, 1 day of relaxed exercise designed to keep you loose and flexible and 2 days of rest.

Many people tend to ignore the rest days and put in more exercise. They think that the more effort they put in, the faster they will be ready for the 5k run. They also feel that since they are not suffering from any form of tiredness or soreness, they don’t need the rest. Wrong on both counts. Your muscles need rest not just to recover from the exertions of the exercise, but also to build themselves up which they cannot do while being is constant use. If they do not have this chance, their development is restricted and you will not see the kind of results you may be expecting. Also, not feeling too tired or sore is a good thing. It means you are not pushing your body too hard, which can be counter productive. So never ignore the rest your body needs. Keep Mondays and Fridays as your rest days.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are the days when you run. Find a good warm up routine to start the session with. After that, begin your run at a comfortable pace. Don’t be lazy but at the same time don’t push yourself to the point where you are completely out of breath and cannot continue. At first running 1k like this is fine. You can build up the distance slowly. You don’t have to run a longer distance everyday, but a good target to set is to increase the distance by 0.5k a week. Increase the distance more if you are comfortable with it but don’t be afraid to reduce it if you find the 0.5k a week too much. The idea is to run 5k, and whether it takes you 8 or 12 weeks to reach that level doesn’t make much difference.

On Wednesdays do some other form of exercise like cycling or swimming to exercise the other muscles of you body. About 30 minutes per day is fine and using the same principles you can build it up slowly.

Sunday is the day for loosening up. Do a slower run or a run and walk combination over a longer distance than you do on the other days.

You can play around with the days to suit you convenience. Just don’t bunch the exercise and rest days together.

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