It's Week 3 of Ju-ju-'s Magic Running Plan!!! 😄

[roseabi]

Heyup, superstars!!!

Sorry this post is a bit late!

How is it all going? Did you have fun squatting last week? How are you finding the longer runs? Tell us all about it in the comments 😊😊😊

See the pinned INFO POST for all the Magic Running Plan details, and some useful links:

healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...

★★ THIS WEEK’S RUNS WILL BE:

Distance runs (to be completed in any length of time)

★ 3.5 km

★ 5 km

★ 7 km

Timed runs (for those not yet ready to do the distances in the 10k Plan. )

★ 15 minutes

★ 30 minutes

★ 44 minutes

Please make sure you are warm before exercising - have a 5 minute+ brisk walk before you begin your run, and if you are going to try some faster intervals within the run ideally you should have been jogging for at least 5 minutes before you start them. After your run is over, finish off with a nice, reflective, cool-down walk.

★★ HERE'S JU-JU- HERSELF! Talking about a cool strategy for tackling longer runs:

youtu.be/nqFDd1FL-tA(Not working as expected?)

★★ THIS WEEK’S OPTIONAL STRENGTH EXERCISE IS BRIDGES!!!

Bridges are a great exercise for the gluteals, hamstrings, and lower back! And you get a bit of a lie-down while you're doing it - winner 😄

★ Here is my information about bridges - I have concentrated on elevated bridges (with feet up on the sofa) as they will give you the best bang for your buck (or butt), but feel free to keep your feet to the floor if that works better for you!

drive.google.com/file/d/1kl...

★ As previously, do your exercises up to three times a week - I suggest straight after your run when your muscles are still warm, and then everything is done and dusted for the rest of the day 😊 But if you feel too tired after your run to do that, by all means do your exercises later, or on a non-running day!

★ Do up to 20 bridges

★ After your bridges, slowly and gently gently lower your spine to the floor. Bring your knees toward your chest, hug them with both arms, rounding your back. Relax and gently rock side to side for 30 seconds or longer - feel good!

★ ALTERNATIVELY: now there are a few strength exercises to do, you may like to start thinking about putting them all together into a workout. It may be better to do these on a non-running day, once or twice a week. Do a quick warm-up first - an nice simple one is just to march on the spot for a minute, lifting your knees high and swinging your arms strongly. Then work your way through each exercise, and repeat if you feel ready (take a few minutes break first).

★★ HILL RUNNING!!!!

Hill work is fabulous for improving your strength, stamina, and running form. Running uphill vs downhill changes the load on different parts of the body, for example you will feel your hamstrings (back of the thighs) working much harder going uphill, whereas on the way back down your quadriceps (front of the thighs) really come into play.

I thought that this week I'd share some ideas about incorporating hills into your runs.

★ Of course you can choose to take some (or all!) of your runs on hills. You may even have no choice 😊 You may well find that you will run out of breath going uphill and eventually need to walk, but these walk breaks will reduce as you gain fitness. A good idea to help push yourself to run further is to pick a landmark up ahead and promise yourself a break when you get there. You may find that when you do get there you can pick another landmark and keep running further!

★ Another great thing to try is 'hill intervals' or 'hill repeats'. At their simplest, all you need is a short uphill stretch, which you can run up, then walk or jog back down - and repeat.

Here is an article about hill intervals which is useful because it goes into some detail about gradients.

PLEASE DO NOT WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT THE SPECIFIC GRADIENT OF A HILL - JUST PICK ONE THAT FEELS REASONABLY STEEP 😊😊😊

In summary I suggest you begin with:

- One or two 8-second sprints up a hill which feels reasonably steep to you!

- Walk back down the hill and wait until you feel fully recovered before going up again

- Increase the number and/or length of intervals as you feel ready

runnersconnect.net/sprint-t...

Here is another article with some more advanced suggestions:

runnersworld.com/training/a...

★ If you don't live near any hills you can use stairs instead for an excellent workout!

★ Enjoy your hill runs! To my mind there's nothing like getting to the top of a hill, enjoying the view, and then having a blast running down again 😊😊😊

★ Speaking of DOWNHILL RUNNING! You can Google for and find much advice about how best to run downhill. I admit I am not the bravest going downhill on technical terrain (working on it!), but my tips would be: Keep glancing down to check where you're stepping, but try to face up and forwards as much as possible, keeping a nice relaxed upright posture; make aeroplane arms to help with balance!; be a little bold with your strides - small steps are necessary if it's really steep, but otherwise try and keep it much the same as on the flat, otherwise your quads will suffer!

Enjoy your running this week, and remember to treat yourself!!!

ju-ju-, UnfitNoMore, and roseabi xx

November 24th, 2019

Last week's post:

healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...

[tiggs1 Graduate10]

Thanks Roseabi... I did my 7km run last night to start this week off with the long one. I really enjoyed it although it took me 48 mins so think I may be going a little slow?

Tuesday is going to be my 5km run and then on Thursday I will do my short run and aim to do this one with some hills!

Happy running folks!

[roseabi in reply to tiggs1]

Running at a comfortable pace is most important for the long run, doesn't matter how long it takes you.

Well done, and enjoy those hills!!

xx

[Hidden in reply to tiggs1]

Well done. I agree with rosabi, getting through without injury is more important than time. That will come.

[motherduckling Graduate10]

Thanks for posting this roseabi!

I have just come back from my long run (44mins on the timed run) and I think it was psychologically the hardest one yet - I kept just looking at my watch waiting for it to end. Its runs like these that make me question whether Ill ever get to 10K.... but I mean I did still finish the run so I am sure it is possible! The tips from Ju-ju will also come in handy for next week I think....

And now I have 2 shorter runs to look forward to aswell - it does always motivate me when I have a plan so I know that if I complete it today my future self will thank me!

[roseabi in reply to motherduckling]

"And now I have 2 shorter runs to look forward to aswell - it does always motivate me when I have a plan so I know that if I complete it today my future self will thank me!"

I absolutely love this!!!!

Very well done to you. You were doing a difficult thing, and sometimes when we are doing that all of us find ourselves really looking forward to finishing - I know I do!! But you are right - you did it!!!!

Enjoy your shorter runs, superstar 😍😍😍

[trogdelight Graduate10]

Thanks Roseabi. New territory for me this week: I have never run 7K in my life and have never done a bridge. Still, started week 3 with my second fastest parkrun with my son and feeling positive about getting to 10K.

[roseabi in reply to trogdelight]

So you should be - awesome work!!!

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate]

We finished week 2 today with a lovely run along the seafront

Squats i do 10 a day so this week increased by 1 a day am up to 18 now and will stop increasing

Looking forward to the bridges

Have fun running everyone

[roseabi in reply to SueAppleRun]

Marvellous!!!

[Saxart Graduate10]

Thanks Roseabi, I had a really good week last week. Tried a new parkrun Pomphrey Hill for my hill training. I managed to run the 6km. interval training with my running group and Tabata. Yesterday I managed a new pb and take off a minute from my parkrun. Looking forward to trying the 7km..

[roseabi in reply to Saxart]

Wow, look at you go!!! Excellent work xxx

[FatterPenguin Graduate10]

Due to other commitments i realised I would struggle to fit in three runs this week. So this morning i got up at 5am so I could run 5K before work!

What has happened to me? 🤣🤣🤣

[roseabi in reply to FatterPenguin]

You have become a running superstar!!!!! 😍

[marmalademonster Graduate10]

I've repeated the 6k today in the drizzle, splashing through puddles and having a really great time! I watched Juju's little video before I went and the counting....it's a game-changer! Every time I got to a little bump/uphill/incline I just began counting and tah-dah! There I was at the top! And the chunking too really helped. I've always chunked in my head, but I tended to do it in quite long stages to road junctions whereas today I chunked up to little landmarks, past the station, up to the corner etc.. Much better! Anyway, a time of 41 minutes and it felt really good all the way round. I would have gone on and done another K to make the 7, but I had to get back to go and pick the dog up from the vet and I'm quite happy to stick another week in now as I feel I'm really beginning to settle into the challenges.

My only problem now is that I tend to "gear up" mentally for the longer runs and tend to think of the short runs as, "only 3k" or whatever it is that week. Then it's the short runs that I find difficult! Any ideas?

[roseabi in reply to marmalademonster]

Well done!

If you can prepare yourself for your long runs, I'd say you can do the same for the short ones. Maybe try thinking something like "I get to do a lovely easy 3 km today, I can take my time and look around me, and just really enjoy myself!"

Alternatively, take a look at the suggestions for interval runs in the info post - perhaps if you spice up your 3k runs with some faster intervals you may enjoy the run more?

healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...

[marmalademonster Graduate10]

Intervals sound a really good idea! Or a bit of hill work maybe. I always plan my routes so they're flat-ish so I might gear myself up for a bit a climb on Wednesday and see how I get on.

[roseabi in reply to marmalademonster]

Awesome - have fun!

[Hidden]

I started my week yesterday with the 8k including a rather long hill, which nearly had me turning around 3/4 of the way up but I persevered and got all the way.

The run went fine despite raining for the second 4k. I was absolutely soaked! 😂.

It was a steady run 55.28 mins so I’m happy with that. I care more about completing the runs than how long it takes.

The strength exercises are going well but I need to really focus on them for the next few weeks as I did have some calf and knee pain yesterday. Feeling fine today though after lots of stretching.

Have a great week everyone. You’re all doing brilliantly.

[roseabi in reply to Hidden]

Great work!!!

[Cosmo501]

Really excited that I set off yesterday aiming to do a quick 5km, and ended up running 8km, and even feeling like I'd be comfortable to go for 1 - 2km. So so relieved to be breaking through a difficult patch. I started the last 2 magic plans and never made it past 8km... illness related.. so maybe this really is 3rd time lucky! I just could not believe how good it felt. A real breakthrough for me

Wishing everyone else well for breaking through some barriers too this week!

[roseabi in reply to Cosmo501]

Brilliant! That 10 km will be yours xxx

[Hidden in reply to Cosmo501]

That’s great, well done. You’re nearly there! 😊

[Hidden]

Hi. Probably a stupid question but how do you fit intervals/hill running/sprinting into the plan because it sounds like some of this involves walking, recovery time etc?

I though the runs were meant to be continuous running until you hit the distance, 5k, 6k etc.

[roseabi in reply to Hidden]

Walking breaks are fine if needed.

I'll address this point in an addition to the info post tomorrow..

[Hidden in reply to roseabi]

Thanks so much.

[Cosmo501 in reply to Hidden]

Great question... I was wondering the same!

[roseabi in reply to Cosmo501]

OK, I have added some notes about walking to the Info post (scroll down to the paragraph about warming up, and read from there) - hope this addresses your questions Hidden !

xx

healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...

[Hidden in reply to roseabi]

Thanks so much I’ll take a look.