Enjoyable exercising when on holiday
Aiming for the Queenstown Marathon, Duncan managed to stick to the training schedule this week, despite being away in Sydney for 4 days. He’s never taken his running shoes on holiday before, but he surprised himself at how it added enjoyment to his holiday. He used the hotel treadmill and got his training done and dusted first thing in the morning, leaving the day free for doing all of those holiday things.
Time trials prove you’re getting fitter!
This week we’re doing the first of what will become a regular “time trial”. The idea is to time yourself every fortnight on this exact same piece of track to measure how much you’re improving, starting and finishing with ten minutes of brisk walking or easy jogging to warm up and down.
Choose a convenient and enjoyable piece of track between 7 and 10 km long, that replicates the gravel tracks of the Queenstown Marathon, and will be exactly the same each time. If you live in Queenstown, I’d recommend the Lake Hayes loop because it’s part of the actual course, it’s delightfully picturesque, and it’s got a typical small hill in it. It’s about 8 km.
Record your times either as a simple list, or you make yourself a graph and proudly stick it on the fridge!
Stretch after each session
I’ve introduced three simple stretches for Duncan to do when warm, straight after finishing his sessions: the quadriceps, calves and hamstrings.
Week four training schedule:
Thursday 10th July
Walk 10 mins, jog 20 mins, walk 10 mins. Small hills.
Friday 11th July
Rest day
Saturday 12th July
Warm up 10 minutes with brisk walk or easy jog. Time Trail Course at your fastest sustainable pace. This could be running all the way, or it is fine to walk parts of it too.
Warm down 10 min walking. Record your time.
Sunday 13th July
Walk / jog 40 mins at a conversational pace (Easy-Medium)
Monday 14th July
Rest day (optional swim or bike or yoga or gym 30 mins)
Tuesday 15th July
Walk 5 mins, jog 20-30 mins, walk 10mins. Medium Pace.
Wednesday 16th July
Rest day (optional cross train eg swim, bike, yoga 30 mins)
Thursday 17th July
Fast walk 5 mins, jog 25 mins, walk 10 mins. Small hills
Listen to your body, if it’s really struggling after 15 minutes on a session, ease up and take it easy or reduce duration to avoid injury. If you’re finding it really easy, go a little further that day if you like.
Next week we’ll discuss research about goal-setting and how you can apply it to improve your marathon goal (or any other goals).