Preparing for a 5k in April

For your first 5K, your goal should be just to finish and set a benchmark time to try to beat next time. Run enough so that 3 miles is a comfortable distance--I would recommend 3 or 4 times a week, with a day of rest in between until your legs get used to running.

Mix up your runs so that you are putting different stresses on your body--one run per week should be longer and slower than the others, but even the "fast" runs shouldn't be very fast at first. Endurance has to come first, then speed.

As you build up endurance, you can incorporate more speed work. This can be as unstructured as, "I'm going to run fast from this tree to that mailbox," or as structured as going to a track and doing measured intervals (something you can get specific advice on later). You can incorporate little bursts of speed even fairly early on, but like I said, most of your runs should be aimed at endurance now.

Not sure where you are in your running right now--if you're not at the point yet where you can run 3 miles without stopping, look into the Couch to 5K (C25K) program. Since you're running some now, you probably wouldn't need to start at the beginning, but might be able to figure out a good place to jump into it.

Best of luck! 5Ks are fun.

Hi,

If you've just started running regularly, try three times a week, and you should be trying to build the distance slowly. If you can run 30 minutes without a break, just build up by five minutes every week. Look at the "Couch to 5K" or C25 program (a google search will give it to you) for a good guideline.

My advice to you is to not do too much too soon, because the risk of injury is great. This advice comes from a retired marathon runner who can no longer run for more than thirty minutes. It is advice I did not follow.