You have visions of running like a world class athlete. The reality is you have as much grace as Bambi on ice. Not to mention after a few faithful sprints you’re gasping for breath and realising that the trek ahead is going to take some training.
Well, we’ve signed up with Glenisk who are supporting the Marie Keating Foundation team at this year’s Flora Women’s Mini Marathon. Glenisk have gathered a team of experts including Aveen Bannon of the Dublin Nutrition Centre and the fitness trainers over at Bodybyrne to provide us with nutrition and training tips for the lead up to the marathon. From stretches, nutrition and posture to mapping your route – we’ve got you covered.
Week 5 – Increasing Intensity and Strength
You’ve hit week five of your running plan and now you’re fighting fit! Taking on the challenges of a runner and building up your distance, we want to increase intensity a couple of notches and throw in strength elements based purely on body weight circuits for both levels.
Beginners
Session 1 – For your first session this week, change your walking intervals to slow jobs for recovery. For 45 seconds slow jogging, follow each set with 1 minute 15 seconds of running for approximately 30 minutes.
Session 2 – Like previous weeks, the target here is again to run continuously. Again, this running session is not about distance or speed but this week you are aiming to cover the full 10k distance. Note your time as this might be your first time hitting the distance – be proud of your achievement!
Session 3 – As with last week’s training, again aim to include a steady 4km recovery run to help keep the legs moving an extra day. This will also help enhance your recovery from the week’s training.
Session 4 – This session is aimed at increasing your body strength and core. This will be a short 20 minute session, and will work in maintaining posture throughout the 10k run.
Perform 4 sets of each exercise with the desired reps below.
Circuit:
1) Body weight squats – 10 reps
2) Push-ups – 10 reps
3) Body weight lunges – 10 each leg
4) Plank – hold 30 seconds – 1 minute
5) Back extension – 10 reps
Intermediate
Session 1 – Again intervals intervals training will be best practiced somewhere that you can mark out 200m and 400m. For this session we will do 5 sets of 2x400m followed by 4x200m taking 30 seconds after each run and 3 minutes after each set. It should look like: 400m-rest (30 seconds)- 400m-rest- 200m-rest-200m-rest-200m-rest-200-rest 3 minutes that will be set 1 complete.
Note all times and see how you compare with last week.
Session 2 – Again a steady 4km recovery run will help keep your legs moving an extra day and enhance recovery.
Session 3 Long Run: Again, your third training session this week will act as your long run. Try run for a little longer than normal if you’ve been mastering the 12-15km an hour – see if you can increase this by 2-3km or roughly 15minutes. When it comes to race day, the 10km will seem a lot easier after adding in these long runs.
Nutritional Tips This Week:
- Stay consistent with your meals. Now that you are five weeks in, you should be well used to your training and nutrition but it is important to stay consistent. Try to eat all main meals at the same time each day and keep your snacks spaced evenly between main meals to keep your blood sugar levels steady.
- As the intensity of your workouts increase you may find your energy levels a little lower if you are not fuelling your body correctly. Listen to your body – if you are lacking in energy during your workouts as the intensity has increased, you may need to slightly increase your carbohydrate intake pre workout.
- Make sure you are getting some good fats in along with some protein about an hour before bed on heavy training days. This will help speed up your recovery as 80% of muscle recovery is done while you are sleeping.
- We can’t stress this enough – it is vitally important to stay hydrated. The more intense your training gets, the more your body needs. Weigh before training and after training and replace the loss with water straight after.
- Make sure you get a full-night’s sleep while training. Any less than 7.5 hours per night can have a huge effect on your energy levels but also on your recovery and progress.
