Training for a Road Race

The Duke City Marathon is coming up on October 17th. That's only six and a half weeks away! Now is the time to design a simple running program that can take you from where you are now to your goal time or distance. The Duke City Marathon offers: a marathon, a marathon relay, a half marathon run, a half marathon walk, a 5k run, a 5k walk, and a one mile walk for cancer called the Miracle Mile. There are races or walks for all ages and levels to participate in.

We are going to focus our attention on creating a 6 week training program for a 5k race. During the beginning of the training we start off easy, taking the time to ease our body into the work we're ultimately preparing it for. In this model we are going to be training one day and resting the next day throughout the program in order to provide our muscles with adequate time to recover.

During week one we concentrate on walking and completing the distance of the goal race. This is both a mental and physical base for our training. After the distance is achieved by walking we should start to incorporate more running into the program by doing run/walk intervals for about a minute each. We slowly increase the running time and decrease the walking time until 5 minutes of jogging can be performed by the second week.

Once were jogging consistently, the time that we can run without stopping should increase about 5 minutes each week until 30 minutes of continuous jogging can be performed. Intervals can be changed from walk/jog to jog/run and this will help improve your time in the race. During week 5 it is the time to try to push yourself and explore the depths of your mental endurance as this is the last week to push your body and increase muscle and cardiorespiratory endurance.

When you've made it to week 6 the race is just around the corner and its time to focus on getting your body into optimal race condition. Go on 20 to 30 minute jogs to keep your endurance up. When race day comes fuel your body with carbohydrates and healthy fats and drink plenty of water. Good luck with your programs and let the professionals at Upward Motion Personal Training know if you need any assistance.

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