After graduating last week and completing the 5km I was just wondering regarding increasing km and how much is too much too quick?
I'm a week past graduation and went out for a run with my brother on Saturday and completed just over 6km. He used to be a PT and is very fit. He didnt see a problem as long as I was feeling comfortable...today I went out on my own on a new route and actually unintentionally completed over 6.5km in under 45 mins...I am doing too much too quick? I don't want to injure myself but also love the feeling when pushing myself and still feeling good!
Any thoughts/advice greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Written by
universa_2k
Graduate
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Your weekly training plan should include one speed day, one hill day, and one long run day for building your mileage. Any additional run days should be at an easy pace, or cross-train with exercises like swimming or rowing, twice a week. Strengthen your legs for the descents. Prepare your legs with weight training. Strengthen quadriceps and hamstrings by performing leg extensions, leg curls, squats and lunges. And last, but not least, include one or two days of rest each week to give you body time to recover.
Actually! Just a bit of addition. Millsie-J broke down the runs a bit for me. She suggested try week 1 of the C25K programme as the fast run/slow run and to stick to 3k for the hill run for starters.
I would actually suggest not doing any speed work or hill work for several weeks after graduating at a minimum. I dont think the joints and ligaments are anywhere near ready for that loading. A little extra distance fine if you feel comfortable with it but try to observe the 10 per cent rule in general.
Hill work for 3k was ok (mainly because the treadmill read half of that as downhill ). Absolutely crumbled at speed work though. However I DID run faster on run 3 so I guess as long as it's a slow and gentle intro it's ok...? I've learned everything with running has to be patient, methodical, progressive and considered... (ironically?)
a 'hill day' and a 'speed day' in terms of how running training plans define those terms are generally neither slow nor gentle. 'Hill day' is usually hill sprints and 'Speed day' generally fast intervals. Neither of which are suitable for the soft tissues of the new graduate IMO. However chaqu'un a son gout.
Just to clarify the ten percent rule. Assuming you are doing three x5k runs and you want to increase your distance, it is recommended that you do this on one run per week and increase that run by no more than 10% of your weekly total distance. So in your first week you can do 2x5k plus 1x 6.5k. The following week that run can be increased by another 1.65k, etc.etc.
It is not a bad idea to consolidate at 5k ish for a couple of weeks if you are a new runner.
Thanks for all off the replies, once again you've all be really helpful. I think I'll try and stick to the 5k for a few weeks and maybe just try and improve my time a bit and if i feel like doing a bit more distance I'll do it for one run and see how it goes.
I would recommend getting 5k as a core run x 3 times a week and then introducing a "long run"! My first long run was 5.5k, then I did 6, 7, 8 followed by a 10! Still think a long run day allows recovery
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