1st Race For Life, any tips welcome

[pretty_polly 10]

Hi everyone

 

Sadly my Mother In Law passed away very recently and I have decided to do Race for Life 2012 in memory of her. It will be my first Race for Life and I am not the fitness person in the world due to recent surgery.

 

Any tips for the day and preperation ahead is very welcome.

 

Thanks

[go4it 10]

Hi everyone

 

Sadly my Mother In Law passed away very recently and I have decided to do Race for Life 2012 in memory of her. It will be my first Race for Life and I am not the fitness person in the world due to recent surgery.

 

Any tips for the day and preperation ahead is very welcome.

 

Thanks

 

Sorry to hear of your loss.

 

 

Don't worry about it - it's 5km not a marathon. Walk it if you need to.

 

Start to worry about fitness and training if you plan to do a half marathon or full marathon. 5km is easy (Park Run do it every Saturday morning at Endcliffe Park and Concord).

 

This creates problems with sponsorship - people every year ask me for Race for Life and marathon sponsorship - how can you differentiate sponsorship between a race that is easy and one that is incredibly difficult?

[whiteroses 10]

Tips and advice really depend on what you're planning to do - do you want to run the 5k in a good time, just run the whole way, or run and walk it?

Race for Life is a really friendly event. I've been to several over the years and each one is much the same, in that there's some good runners there, lots of average ones, and hundreds of women who just walk it. There's even people who walk it while pushing buggies, or with very young children.

 

When it comes to tips for the day, the only one I'd give is to have fun. Dress up, take the whole family along, and enjoy it. Depending on which one you do, there'll almost definitely be stalls there and stuff for the children to do.

 

In terms of training, you've got plenty time to work up to running 5k before the summer. It's only three miles - you'll be fine. When I started running I followed a 20-week walk/run plan, with three "runs" a week. At that point I couldn't run for more than two minutes without feeling sick and dizzy.

In the first week I was walking two mins and jogging for one (repeated 12 times), then gradually the running intervals increased until, by the end of the 20 weeks, I was able to run 10k in less than an hour. There's lots of walk/run programmes online which you could follow.

But really, don't worry about it. You certainly won't be the most unfit person there! But you also have plenty of time to get fit enough to really impress people on the day by running it in a good time, if that's what you want to do.

[Whiteballgal 10]

It's a great day. Invest in decent trainers. I did it for the first time last year. Definitely train for it if you've never run before. try to go out 2/3 times a week. Start easy and then build it up. I did shallow down hill to start with and ended up being able to run for 40 mins. I've never done that...

[pretty_polly 10]

Thank you for your comments guys :-)

[katkin100 10]

If you would like to try running the whole thing then check out the Couch to 5k running plan from the NHS

http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/c25k/Pages/couch-to-5k.aspx

 

They provide a series of free podcasts which guide you through the plan over 9 weeks. It starts off with very short bursts of jogging and walking in between to get your breath back. Over the weeks you build up the amount of running and reduce the amount of walking until you can run continuously for 30 minutes.

 

I didn't think I would ever be able to do that when I started but by the end I could and was very pleasantly surprised. The podcasts are great because they tell when to start and stop running and when to walk and give you lots of encouragement along the way.

[pretty_polly 10]

Thanks for this katkin100

[Kthebean 10]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

 

 

Don't worry about it - it's 5km not a marathon. Walk it if you need to.

 

Start to worry about fitness and training if you plan to do a half marathon or full marathon. 5km is easy (Park Run do it every Saturday morning at Endcliffe Park and Concord).

 

This creates problems with sponsorship - people every year ask me for Race for Life and marathon sponsorship - how can you differentiate sponsorship between a race that is easy and one that is incredibly difficult?

 

Its only easy if you can do it!

 

To my friend who competes in Iron Man competitions and P-B-P, a marathon is just an easy sunday run. To someone recovering from an illness, a 5k might as well be a marathon!

 

I base my sponsorship on how hard I think its going to be for the person undertaking the task

[LoopyCool 10]

Most important thing is that everyone's body is different in many ways except one - you'll be amazed by what it can do with a bit of encouragement. Sounds to me like you've got a great goal to help you increase your fitness levels, improve your general health, raise some money for a great cause and do something that's deeply important to you personally.

 

The Couch to Run programes mentioned above are great to get you going, and once you're out there you'll begin to understand your own body better and learn when and how much you can push yourself that little bit further. These programs are as much about confidence as they are about fitness - don't be frightened to repeat a stage/week if you need to so you feel confident moving up to the next level. I would be wary of skipping ahead in the plan and ramping up too quick, especially if you've never really run before, even if you feel strong enough - you can overstress your body and undo all the good work if you go too far, too fast.

 

Finally, and as someone wisely said in an earlier post, proper running trainers are a massive part of feeling comfortable during your run - and they really do help you to avoid common running injuries. There are a couple of really good running shops in Sheffield that can help you find a pair that suit your running style and won't break the bank.

 

Good Luck !

 

- Loops

 

PS. One word of warning - Running is INCREDIBLY moreish !!

Edited January 4, 2012 by LoopyCool
Stry punctuation !