How To: Train For A 30km Race

Let's get one thing straight first; I am in no way a professional runner.  However, lately I have really started to get into it and am really enjoying it so far.  At the end of the summer I signed up and ran a 12km race up in Haliburton, ON.  As easy as I thought this would be to complete, it is amazing how wrong I ended up being. First of all, I had never run 12 kilometres before in my life.  Secondly, this race was in pure mountains which came as a "pleasant" shock to me once I got there.  I don't know if anyone reading this has ever run on mountain trails before but it is much,  much harder than running on a flat trail or in the city.  The only thing that kept me going was the exhilarating push to not finish in last place.

After finishing this race, I started feeling really confident about my running abilities.  So even though I knew that I was extremely unprepared for that race in the end, I still felt, in my extremely delusional mind, that it would be a good idea to sign up for a 30 kilometre run in March of 2015.  Smart right?  Anyways, so now I have this run coming up and I am in no way ready for it.  However, here are a few tips that I have been using to help me prepare and hopefully they will help you as well:

First step: don't do what I've done so far, which has been to sign up for a run and not train.... But in all seriousness I do have quite a few months left to get on top of this, so I think I'm okay right now.

2.  Find a running buddy.  Does everyone have their running buddy? Good. Mine is my boyfriend, pretty much because he is the only person I know that will listen to all my complaining and whining and still want to keep running with me.  There will be times when you really don't want to exercise, times when you want to quit half way through, and times when you want to break down and cry for signing up for such a big race when all you really want to do is sit down and eat a pie.  But, your running buddy will help motivate you and keep you on track!

3. Plan ahead.  One of the biggest things I have learned since I've started running is that while pushing yourself is good and motivational, don't push yourself to the point that you hurt yourself.  If you know you have a big race running up, spread out your training.  There is no benefit to pushing yourself until you hurt something like your ankle or pull a muscle which forces you to stop running for a couple days or weeks and you end up loosing all the progress you've made (trust me, I've done this).

4. Take your time.  Unless you're planning to win the race, which is unlikely if you're taking advice from an amateur like me, then take your time when you're training.  It doesn't matter how long you take to run the race (unless there is a time limit). Train and run at your own pace until you get used to running longer distances, and THEN you can start increasing your speed.  I'll just be happy if I make it to the finish line on my own two feet before spring hits...

5. And enjoy yourself! Other than the health benefits of being more active, it's supposed to be fun! So have fun doing it. I have such a competitive personality, that I keep myself having fun by having little races in my head against my running buddy.  I'll think to myself, "first one that gets to that next tree wins!" (but I won't tell him I'm racing him so I always win).  It's super fun.

Sincerely,
Alley