Wife Mother Runner intervals Archives

Beginner’s 5K Training Plan

March 19, 2021

DISCLOSURE: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS, MEANING I GET A COMMISSION IF YOU DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE THROUGH MY LINKS, AT NO COST TO YOU.

Running is fun and therapeutic. It is also good for your health. It is also a great family activity. I’m going to share with you my beginner’s 5K training plan so you and/or your family can do something together for a good cause and for your own pleasure.

In the past I have shared advice on how to begin running and what you will need to get yourself set up for the sport. Now, I will share some mental preparation and training info to help you successfully fall in love with the sport.

Don’t Be Intimidated

The first step is to believe in yourself. Running is an acquired taste. It can be intimidating at first. A mile may feel like 10 miles, but that’s ok. If you need to take a walk break you can. In fact, that’s how I run. I use the run/walk/run method.

I began running later in life, so I follow a run/walk/run method to help preserve my body and to allow me to run farther and believe it or not, that method of running can also help you run faster! But for now, we just want you to get out and run without worrying about your speed.

Follow My Beginner’s 5K Training Plan

It’s important to have a plan. You can’t just lace up your shoes and run 3 miles right out the door without training. Well, you can, but your body won’t be happy about it. I have put together a beginner’s guide for running a 5K so you have a framework to work from and to know how to safely prepare for running your first 5K.

Download this beginner’s 5K training plan, tape it to your fridge and follow the guidance for a successful race day.

To help with the intervals, you can set up your sports watch for the walk/run interval settings, or you can purchase a simple battery operated interval timer. You can set the start and stop time allowing you to time both the walk and run segments.

Each week you will increase your distance and running time by a small amount. It’s important to take the rest days and to also cross train. Your muscles, tendons and joints need time to rebuild.

Cross Train

Having a strong core and posterior chain is very important to your success when running. Your glutes, hamstrings and quads can become weak when you run and don’t do other exercises. Believe it or not, you end up with “lazy ass” syndrome.

In the upcoming weeks I will also share the different exercises you can do to keep your core and posterior chain strong. The general exercises you can do are squats, lunges, bridges and planks.

Find Your Own Pace

When you begin running, don’t worry about speed at first. To know if you are going at a good pace, the test is usually how you can hold a conversation while running. If you are huffing and puffing while trying to talk, then you are going too fast. Slow it down a little so you can breathe. If you run too fast at first, you will burn out before you reach the finish line.

It is also helpful to incorporate walk breaks into your run. When doing so it helps you to maintain a good pace, allows you to finish your distance on the plan, and makes you feel good about accomplishing something challenging such as running!

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

As in everything in life, comparison is the thief of joy. I know it is hard not to compare yourself to other runners. I want to be faster, but that’s not my actual goal right now. When I train, I am training to finish the race. If you have a speed goal in mind, we will talk about that in the future.

As a beginner, it’s about completing the race and having a good time while doing so. You are also doing it to make you feel good and for better health. Don’t compare yourself, or think that you don’t look like a runner. Anyone can run. Runners don’t have to fit a specific mold. Remember that next time you think you aren’t a real runner.

Listen To Your Body

When you first start running, you are going to be excited to run. If you are like I was, you may want to run every day. That’s not a good idea. You need to pace yourself. One of the biggest mistakes with first time runners is running too fast, and too often. When you do that, you risk developing shin splints, IT band issues, or a stress fracture.

Of course when you run, there will be some discomfort afterwards. It’s important to know the difference between muscle soreness and an injury. If you do feel like you have an injury, be proactive and go see your doctor. It’s better to get it managed sooner than later. If you continue to run through an injury, you will make it worse. Trust me, I’ve been there!

Are You Ready to Run A 5K Now?

I hope this training plan is helpful to you. Please share your experiences for your first race, I’d love to hear how you do! Also follow me on Instagram for my race photos and tips.

My Garmin Debacle

May 12, 2014

So I was running the Simsbury River Race a few weeks ago and prior to the race I was sitting in Kim’s car with her discussing my race strategy. She asked me what my current running pace was. I pulled out my phone and starting to look at my stats and she told me, “Girl, you need to get a Garmin! It’s time to get away from all that phone crap.” (Well maybe not word for word, but that’s what she was trying to say). So I decided to use the birthday money my mom gave me towards a Garmin watch.

As soon as the race was over, I came home and pulled up the Garmin site and amazon.com and did some research. There were two specific things that I had to consider when purchasing a watch, battery life and interval training.

Well, I should have done more research because the first watch I ordered, The Garmin Forerunner 210 could only do interval training in increments of 10 seconds. It’s a nice watch, but I wasn’t really sure if it was going to suit my training needs.

So I ordered another Garmin, the Forerunner 310XT and when it arrive it was the size of a laptop on my arm! I wasn’t too happy about the size of that watch, but it had a lot of features I was interested in like the lap pace and other data on the larger screen while doing the interval training. So I figured worst case, I can wear it on my fitness belt and look at the data as I am running.

The other mistake I made was testing out the watch very little prior to my marathon. I had an epic fail on race morning because I charged the Garmin Forerunner 310, but didn’t put it in power save mode overnight. So when Gail and I got to the lobby on race morning it was dead! So we ran upstairs, she grabbed her watch, I grabbed my Forerunner 210 and we went back downstairs. I used it during the race with the 20/20 intervals, but when we hit 99 reps of intervals it stopped and I didn’t know what to do! I thought I lost all of my data. Come to find out, the data is still in the watch, but I have no idea how to restart the intervals. I did restart the timer but I assumed I was starting at mile 0 again and starting all new stats. We used Gail’s watch at this point in the race, but I was trying to capture as much data as I could because I like to review the numbers after my races.

My most recent purchase is the Garmin Forerunner 220 and so far I love it so much that I wore it as my every day watch.

It is simple to use, the battery life is great and I like the screen and information it provides me during my run. I like that I can select intervals for my own specific times for run and rest, and I came across a walk/run timer built into it today. I am still learning the watch, but it is very easy to use and some time on YouTube will really teach me a lot about it.

The watch is very light weight and is comfortable on my arm. When I first started running with a watch I hated the feeling on my arm. It really irritated me. Ironically, when I was running the Providence marathon with it on, it didn’t even bother me. I charged it when I received it last week and used it twice for running, and as a watch for time and it hasn’t required a charge yet.

The Garmin 220 is a keeper for sure. I already returned the other two watches and have no regrets. The Garmin Forerunner 210 is a nice watch, but when comparing the 210 to the 220 I’m all about the 220. Easy to read screen, cute colors and very light weight.

What I Learned From The Cox Providence Marathon

May 9, 2014

What I love about running is that you can learn something all the time. Always growing. What I learned from this race also came from something Jeff sent me in my follow up email about the race. This past weekend I ran the Cox Providence Marathon with my friend Gail. Here’s what I learned from that experience.

Gail has done several marathons this year and is an experienced runner. So running together for this race was going to be easy for her (I assumed). What I learned was that when you are going to run a race together it’s a good idea to discuss the intervals that you plan to use for race day ahead of time so that everyone trains with the same intervals. Since Gail uses longer intervals, the frequent stop and starts of the 20/20 intervals bothered her legs and hips.

Jeff Galloway also asked me in my race recap email what her longest run was 3 weeks prior to the event. I don’t recall excatly what her longest run was, but this is good information to know to make sure that the person you are running with is sufficiently trained for the race you are running. Since Gail has done multiple marathons in the past few weeks that thought never crossed my mind. In my opinion, she is sufficiently trained. But what Jeff is referring to is for anyone. Be sure you talk to your running partner and make sure you are both trained equally if you plan to stick together for the entire race.

Something else that occurred to me is that we should talk about a bail out plan. If someone is on the quest for a PR and are running with a friend, you need to know ahead of time what the plan is if someone is falling behind or having trouble. When Gail began to hurt I wasn’t sure what to do. We tried to use different intervals to see if we could sync up where she could run her longer intervals and I could run using my shorter ones, but then we were pulling apart from each other. We found a middle of the road interval pace that worked for both of us. But I was on a quest to get a 5:30 marathon finish and she was doing an awesome job of getting me there. Then when things started to slow down we weren’t sure if we were going to make it. But I didn’t want to leave her behind. I am too loyal like that. I also didn’t want to run to the finish alone without her because she helped me get to where I was. So it’s important to talk about the plan of action ahead of time prior to the race and not when someone is having a hard time because honestly, it’s hard to think and make decisions like that on the race course and you don’t want to worry about hurting someone’s feelings during that part of your race.

Despite the rough patch we hit during mile 18 of the race, we found a plan that worked for us and we happily crossed the finish line together and I am so glad I had a friend there to help me and to also experience this special event with me! Thanks Gail! Looking forward to more races and more PRs!

Tag: intervals