Sara and I went out for a run today. Three times 12 minutes, with a two minute break in between. It was day one of her second running schedule. The first one helped her to run 30 minutes. This one will double it up.
She has a goal, or better two goals. Goal one is running 10 kilometers in Sussex, Spring next year. That race isn’t just 10k, it also has 400 meters of altitude. If she succeeds there, she wants to run the 11 kilometer Dolomiti Extreme trail run next summer. That one has 680 metres of altitude.
Training schedule
Her goals are my goals. Or better, it’s my goal to get her fit and trained at the starting line. Which means as much as I have to make her a second running schedule. Which is a fun thing, don’t get me wrong. I just have to do it. And that’s not always easy for me. I’m very good at procrastinating. I kind of need a deadline. I think that’s why working at a daily newspaper was so good for me.
So the last couple of weeks, I’ve postponed making her second running schedule. I wanted to, but I didn’t have the inspiration. Yesterday I finally did. I decided to break the goal into two parts. First a schedule to run an hour. After that a schedule to run 10 kilometers.
Easy goal
Okay, running for an hour might mean she can run 10 kilometers. But that’s not important for now. What is important is being able to run for 60 minutes. That’s an easier goal than 10 kilometers. I think focusing on distance is the wrong focus in the beginning. An hour is always an hour, no matter how fast you run. 10 kilometers can sometimes be 40 minutes, but other times more than an hour. It easily leads to competing with yourself. Wanting to be faster than last time. In the beginning you don’t want to be fast. You just want to run. Slow, preferably. It’s all about building your engine. I will tell you more about that soon.
Ardennes
When she’s able to run an hour, we will focus on her 10 kilometer race in Sussex, which means going to the Ardennes a couple of times. We need altitude. The Ardennes is where we can find that. RELATED: The biggest lessons from the Bear Trail I think it would also be good if she’s able to run 15 kilometers by the time she is going to do the race. Don’t tell her, it will freak her out. But if she knows she can do 15k, 10 kilometers is going to sound easy. It’s a little mental trick I like to build into a training schedule.
I did it in her first 30 minute schedule as well. She ran once 4 times 8 minutes. A total of 32 minutes. So when she had to do her final run of 30 minutes in one go, she already knew she could do it. She just hadn’t done it in one go yet. That was the only difference.
I have it in mind for my own training schedule as well. I will run 50 kilometers in Sussex. That means in training I will have one weekend, where I do 25 kilometers two days in a row. If I can do that, I should be able to run 50 kilometers in one go as well. It’s just a little mental thing, but then again, isn’t running as much mentally as physically?
