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 4 – Building up your intensity and volume
You’ve made the half-way mark in your training and now you’re a fully-fledged runner! You may still need breaks, or find it can take a few mins to break into a stride, but you’re half-way there. This week we’re going to work on slightly increasing your intensity and volume.
Beginners
Session 1 – For your first session this week, start your training week with a 45 second walk followed by 1 minute 15 seconds of running for approximately 30 minutes.
Session 2 – Like previous weeks, the target here is to run continuously. Again, this running session is not about distance or speed but should be used as an exercise to measure how far you can run without having to stop. You are now looking to cover 8.5km in this run.
Session 3 – Following on from 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.
Intermediate
This week for your long run, try to slow down your pace but extend your distance by 2km. This will stand to you when it comes closer to race day. The increased distance will get your body used to running for longer and the 10km will seem a smaller distance.
Session 1 – Intervals training will be a bit different this week and it is best to do at a track or 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.
Session 2 – This will be your recovery run for the week. Start out with a 20 minute run, and aim to track as far a distance as you can cover in this time frame.
Session 3 Long Run: Again, your third training session this week will act as your long run. Aim to cover the full 10km distance.
Nutritional Tips This Week: Adding more protein to your diet
This week, Bodybyrne gives up five top tips to adding more protein to your diet:
Tip 1: How much protein do I need?
Most guidelines recomment that we need at least 0.8g -1.2g of protein for every kilogram of body weight. Therefore if you weigh 60kg you would need between 48-72g of protein a day.
Tip 2: Where can I get protein?
Good sournces of protein include chicken, fish, lean red meats, eggs, nuts, beans and seeds. Typically 1 egg will have around 13g of protein, whereas a chicken breast or salmon fillet will have about 20-25g.
Tip 3: How can I get more protein into my diet?
Low fat cheeses such as cottage cheese are good as they contain more protein per calorie compared to full fat cheeses. Glenisk Organic Natural yogurt, lentils and quinoa are all great sources. Sneak protein in by adding kidney beans or chickpeas to recipes or adding nuts and seeds to salads.
Tip 4: Protein supplements
Protein shakes are a good option if you are really struggling to get protein into your diet. Some research has indicated that eating protein within 30 minutes to 2 hours after a training session helps to repair muscle fibres and helps aid muscle soreness. Whey protein is great as it’s great for muscle recovery.
Tip 5: Include protein in every meal
Very often we will take meat and protein out of our diets and over-eat carbohydrates. Make sure that you are getting some protein into every meal and snack you are having to prevent hunger and cravings.
Need a quick protein fix to get you started? Try whipping up this protein power smoothie.
