5-10km in 4 weeks... Any advise?

smokey20

How's all?

Bit of background on me... Decided to start doing bit of running 2nd week of November, after being spurred on by a work colleague just completing the DCM in October.

Started with a couch to 5 k plan which I jumped in to week 2 or 3 as needed to peak for Duncannon 5km Turkey Burner on the 29/12/13.. My first ever road race and finished in 25.25mins... Was happy as I was aiming for under 28mins.

Haven't done a great deal of running/jogging since the Turkey Burner and I am now here wanting to do the Enniscorthy 10km on the 9/2/14, which is 4 full weeks from Monday.

So basically I would greatly appreciate advise or ideally a training plan (simple&easy to follow) that would bring me from 5-10km in 4 weeks.

Maybe I'm been a bit over confident in my running ability, I don't know, or maybe I can do it no bother... Only time (4weeks) will tell..

Any advise/feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks

pconn062

How many days training were you doing when training for the 5k? Are you doing any running at all at the minute?

smokey20

The following is the plan I followed quiet strictly (other than jumping to week 3)... Started from a very low cardio fitness base and peaked the plan on the 29th December... Since then I've prob been out 3 or 4 times ranging from 4-5km each run/jog.

Edit: couldn't copy and paste the plan correctly.. So to answer the question I was running between 3 and 4 days a week. It was a progressive time plan, ie progressively run for a little longer in time rather than clocking distance if you get what I mean.

pconn062

Sorry for delay, the best thing you could do is just try and get out running as often as possible between now and then. You can gain some aerobic fitness in 4 weeks. If you are running 3-4 days a week now at the moment, try adding 1km to each of your runs to give you a bit more volume. Then after two weeks if that goes well, add another 1 km to your runs. Also considering stretching out one of your run every week. Start with 7k and add 1k a week, that way you will get up to 9k before the race. After the race then if this all feels OK and you want to continue improving, consider adding another days running into your week.

smokey20

thanks for the reply pconn... so gradual progression, as always, is the way to go.

I actually ran/jogged 10km yesterday in about 50mins... the Raven Point loop (which is 9 km, however we took a little bit more extreme route which totalled 10km)... My back is a little bit tender to day tho.

So basically we only put limitations on ourselves, I didnt think I would be able for a constant 10km (in a reasonable time), however yesterday proved I can.

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” - Henry Ford

pconn062

Ah right, well if you've already ran 10k in 50 minutes, which is a decent time for a beginner then you're more advanced that I first thought. Still, slow steady progress is still the best advice. Increase you distances and days running very gradually and you can only improve.

beertons

That's a great time for a 10k as a starter. Keep it up.

smokey20

Not necessarily an advanced runner by any stretch of the imagination... Just a little gung ho and determined, but thank you for the feed back and I will note general slow progression is the key.

I will aim for the 10km on the 9/2.... Might also start Hal Higdon's Novice 1 Half Martahon training plan at the start of Feb, so as I can peak to run the Wexford 1/2 at the end of April.

Cheers