Planning to Run a Race

don't run anymore, but i used to. good rule of thumb when training is, if you can't talk more or less normally while running, your pace is too fast. a few other things that come to mind are, drink water before or after, and *do not* run in rubber suits--people suffer heart attacks doing that.

Uh huh. For a day or two before the race, get warmed up. Then stretch and cool down. Do not run hard immediately before racing.

Winthorpe - How's your running going?

My advice:

1) Do not overtrain. If your muscles are just sore and stiff, you may be able to start out easy and warm up into a good run - but if it feels like something else is wrong - like in your knees, don't run that day. If you're running and something starts feeling wrong - stop running immediately and walk back to wherever. This has been really hard for me to learn, but I have set myself back enough times that I've finally gotten it through my head. If you look out on the web, you will find lots of training plans out there for races of different distances - but do not stick rigidly to anything. Listen to your body. Running injuries are sneaky over-use ones that will creep up on you if you aren't careful. Running only two or three times a week is enough to get to where you can finish a 10k race. If you can do more, great - but it's better to do only that than try to do more and set yourself back.

2) During your training, in addition to conditioning, you want to figure out how to pace yourself as well as possible in the race you're going to run. If possible, train on the actual route of the race. If not, try to find a route to run that's similar in both distance and hilliness. Pacing yourself on hills is way different from pacing yourself on a track. Not all of your training runs need to be 10k, but I think you should try to get some in before the race. For pacing, I pay attention to my number of strides per breath in vs. my number of strides per breath out. Most people breathe in for two strides, out for two strides. Other people do 3/3. I start out with 3/3, shift to 2/3 after I get warmed up, but use 2/2 for going up hills and when finishing strong at the end of a route. Find what your breathing needs to be in order for you to maintain your pace over 10k, and use that to make sure you don't go too fast and blow it in the race. Figure out what a good "final kick" distance is for you at the end of a 10k run. That's the distance you can go ahead and give it your all at, knowing you wouldn't be able to continue that effort past the finish line. For me, it's about 2/10 of a mile. On the race route, learn where the halfway point is and where that point is where you can start your final kick.

3) Don't run too hard in the week before the race. You want your body to be conditioned, but well recovered from any previous run. Pay attention to how well you recover from runs during your training to judge what to do during that last week. For a 10k run on a Saturday, I would only do an easy paced 4 miles on the previous Wednesday and nothing in between. Something else might be better for you.

4) Don't eat within the two hours before the race. If you eat two hours before, make it something that's easily digestible. Drinking before the race is OK, but you don't want to be sloshing around or have to go to the bathroom at the wrong time either. Double-tie your shoes. DO NOT start out too fast. Adrenaline and other runners starting out faster will make you inclined to make this mistake - resist it. Ignore what the other runners are doing and stick to paying attention to your breathing for pacing. Running a consistent pace is the best, but failing that, running the first half of the race slower than the 2nd half ("negative splits") is your best strategy. Starting off slower than you feel like in a 10k race (to compensate for the adrenaline rush) is probably a good idea. It is far more fun to be passing people at the end of a race than to be sucking air and having other people pass you.

Good luck!