Athletics Australia
accredited coach
THE Father’s Day Eaglehawk to Bendigo Run For Dad is a challenging run that requires some training.
For the novice runner considering doing 6.5 kilometre run, five weeks is around the minimum time required to train to run the whole way.
With assistance of the girls from 3T Fitness, the week one program – and those that will follow over the next four weeks – have been put together to steadily build a weekly volume with a mix of runs over a time and building distance.
The program is intended for someone with limited running experience with the aim to be able to run continuously for up to eight kilometres in five weeks.
We will present the program with weekly instalments up to the last two weeks before the Bendigo 6.5km Run for Dad Fun Run on September 2.
To assist with your progress it is recommended that you keep a daily log of your training.
Day one of the training week is recommended to be Sunday. What better way to start the day than to get up that bit earlier and go for a 10 minute jog before breakfast?
Before the jog make sure you have a good drink of water. No additives, plain water out of the tap.
Next, take at least 10 minutes to do some warm ups. Begin with a five minute walk then do a series of movement exercises.
Try some lunges over 10 metres, ½ high knees, karaoke, backwards running. These are aimed at warming the body, and as they are a variety of movements dynamically stretching muscles in more than one direction.
WEEK ONE. This program is a guide.
DAY 1. The starting point is going for a 10 minute jog. This could be from your house or the car park of a park.Begin with a slow jog. If after just a few metres you feel you are forced to stop, listen to your body and stop, walk 10 metres and then start to jog again.
Don’t worry if this happens time and time again. What really matters is that you are out there getting fitter and are working towards your goal.
After five minutes no matter whether you are jogging comfortably or jog/stop/walking, turn around and jog back to your starting point.
Whether you found this difficult or a breeze is not particularly important, the important thing is that you did it.
Reward yourself by heaping praise upon yourself. Remember to enter today’s run in your training log.
DAY 2 Rest Day. Today you will be doing no running. It is important to realise from an early stage that rest is just as important as training.
Trying to run when tired does not lead to improvements, and is likely to lead to injury.
DAY 3 Repeat day one. Go for a 10 minute jog. If you stopped the first time, see if you can manage to run more. Stop if your body tells you to do so, and remember that you will soon get to a position where a 10 minute jog will be easy.
DAY 4 Repeat day two. Have a rest day. Be patient if you are finding things a little too easy.
DAY 5 10-minute jog.
DAY 6 Rest day.
DAY 7 10-minute jog.
After seven days you will have managed four days of running or continuous movement.
Next week we will be looking at gradually increasing our running but still listening to our bodies.
Some will have done all four runs without having to stop for a recovery. If this applies to you, move straight to week two.
If you have had to stop at all on the runs then delay going to the week two program until you can manage four of the runs (with a rest day in between) without stopping.
It does not matter whether it takes a number of weeks before you are running on alternate days without a break, the important thing is that you are doing it and developing your running ability.RUNNING PACE
The start of this schedule is jogging. As your fitness level improves you will no doubt feel an urge to speed up.
This is fine, however you do not want to be running flat out or find yourself gasping for breath and getting into oxygen debt.
The pace you should gradually work towards is one at which you can still talk comfortably.
This will be just slightly slower than your marathon pace.
If you find this too slow for your taste please read the articles on improving your running.
Bear in mind that a day’s hard training should be followed by a recovery day.
After reading the article you may now feel able to embark on preparing for the Run For Dad.
If you are not already a member of a running club you may think of joining one. The main benefits are on the social side, and include finding people to run with at your pace, being able to attend organised training sessions, participating in events in club colours (whether as a fun runner or serious competitor) and obtaining support, encouragement, advice from other runners and coaches.
Good luck with your running, I hope that you attain your goals.
Next week we build on the program and include a feature on the places to run around Bendigo.
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