Training for the Capital 10K

In the last several months I have been running more and more, some for stress relief, some so that I can loose weight, and mainly because I signed up to run a 10K (6.2 miles for the non-runners). Prior to signing up for this race I mainly ran about 1.5-2 miles and 2 was really rare so I knew that I needed to step up my running but I wasn’t quite sure the best way to do that. Here are a couple of the things that I did to get ready:

1- Build time into my schedule for longer runs. I read, in Glamour or Self, that we all have the same number of hours in the day so not having enough time isn’t actually a good excuse for not running. So I started scheduling my runs, as in, I put in on the calendar like a meeting so I couldn’t skip it. I also made a point to not cancel my runs, I don’t cancel on my friends so I am trying to stop canceling on myself.

Running gear

2- Get better gear. It turns on that when you run a long time (over 45 minutes) you start to get chafing and other terrible things. I have begun investing in running gear: better shoes, better pants, seamless tops, and socks. Most of this gear is crazy expensive but I find that if I feel cute I am more willing to hit the pavement.

3- Make baller playlists. This seems kinda silly but I will tell you that running to songs that pump me up make it easier to keep on running when I am getting tired. I am loving pop songs, early 90s rap music, and classic 80s songs. Again this is an investment but totally worth it.

4- Keep running. I opted to bring up my miles pretty quick, I added about a mile a week for 3 weeks. The routes around my house are about 2-3 miles and that involves lapping the same area twice, which gets boring. I found a 2.5 mile track (total of 5 when you run out and back) and started driving out there to run, this forced me to run since the car was pretty far away.

I loved the race, it was both fun and miserable. I am currently looking for more races to run and a good method to keep my running up.