I’m (now, possibly temporarily) a weightlifter. I’m doing a 10k run on the 20th July. Don’t ask me why. Oh yeah it’s for charity.
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Please could you help me with training for this event. Nothing fancy, just let me know what kind of volume I could get up to. I do about 2 miles a day walk/run intervals (thats about 3200m) and usually swim about 300m breast/butterfly 4 times a week, and bike 2-3 times a week 1/2 hour.
Can I ‘step it up’ and increase volume? I expect you would like some history, I will tell if anyone replies…
depending on how much you weigh you could acclaimate to some more miles at a decent rate of ascent(it sounds like your climbing a mountain but thats the best way i could term it) on the trails or roads, and if you’re “running” and not “racing” the 10k then thats all you really need to get through 10,000m or 6.2 miles.
I believe that at least you should do those 3k in training without stopping if you want not to die all the way through the 10k. You should also extend the runs to about 5k each.
This if you only want to compete once in the 10k. For a moderately fit guy 1 month is more than enough to run a pleasant 10k.
Your legs are probably going to feel very heavy. When you do the 10k run try and stay relaxed as possible. Being efficient will help conserve energy and you’ll hit the wall later. You will also get your second wind (after glycogen is used up & fats become the fuel source) after 15-20 minutes. When you get your second wind don’t pick the pace up. Try and maintain an even tempo throughout.
Drop the pace lots - even walk at times, esp up hills or even slight slops, just walk faster than normal walking - but keep this up, and every 3rd day add 5min more.
Do time wise only, dont worry about distance.
If your doing 15min runs now, by 1month time you’ll be doing 40min efforts, and be pretty close to being able to finnish the 10k.
forget speed - you just need to be able to finnish it in one piece 1st
If you have a HR monitor - even better, try to keep Hr around 65%-70% of your max HR if you know it, if now, 220-age is close enough to your max for now.
Typically, you will find it easy to keep under this figure for the 1st 5min or so, then the pace will slow and slow the further you go - esp at your current fitness levels.
Still follow a Harder / easier format - even if the Harder version is adding on the time. Your easier session might be pool work.
Bike is a good way to get the Heart used to exercise over a time period. Again, use same Hr method as above, but add around 10min per per wk till you can do around 1hr ride at that intensity. On a bike its much easier to slow the pace to keep the Hr Low, and therefore keep moving, i would do this once per wk
wk could be
m - 15min run
t - swim - Rec swim - very easy
w - 15min run
t - 30min ride - rec ride - 60% of max Hr
f - 20min run
s - 30min ride
s - off
Due to the nature of continues efforts, stretch for around 10m after each session so legs dont knott up and give you trouble towards the race.
Them are good workouts, however, one might want to build up a base fitness level 1st - if choosing the 10k - coming from weightlifting background that could drag on for anything from 3 -6months before intervals are of any use.
Dropping weight, gaining O2 fitness and learning to use slow twitch fibers for well over 30min takes time when your coming off scratch.
Learning to run 10k non stop is one thing, doing it with a low (around 70% of max Heart rate average) is another. Esp when you have speed, you take off, heart rate climbs through the roof and stays way up and you hurt the whole way.
Training is going harder than I thought: I can only jog slowly for minutes before having to walk (and the slower I jog the heavier my legs feel). Luckily I can walk the course still, or at least part run it. I weigh 85 kgs now, but will try to cut close to 78 for the race in just less than 6 weeks!
How tall are you? I’m 6’2 90kg right now and running is a harder for me than when I’m lighter. 82kg is a much much more comfortable weight for me to run. If you drop the 7kg, it will make a big difference.
You might also try running on a treadmill for training. Try either every 2nd day, or 3 times a week (but try to avoid running consecutive days for now). A good starting pace is 5.5 or 6 mph and try to build up how long you can do this pace. It will be a bit harder to run on the road, but a treadmill is easy on the joints, especially for a heavy runner.
When you have to stop, what is the reason?
-Legs
-Cramps
-Lack of Oxygen
-General Exhaustion
Just so I understand - you can squat/dl/snatch/c&j some reasonably heavy weights and your legs get tired while jogging?
If I jog slower than 7mph it feels difficult on my legs than when I go more quickly (like 8mph). At 8-9mph my problem becomes O2 but my legs don’t feel it until after I’m already pretty damn tired. I’m not very strong right now.