There are 10 weeks to go (two and a half months sounds longer!) so it is time to start getting into a regular training routine.
This week our main objective is to get out on each day of the training program and actually do some jogging.
Don’t be tempted to put it off for another day or another week. Commit to yourself that you will start now. You want to make best use of the coming 10 weeks.
Don’t start out too hard. It is not about speed or power at this stage. If you are feeling pretty good, there is a temptation to push on as hard as possible. Don’t worry; there will be plenty of hard training runs in the coming weeks.
If you start out too hard and too fast, or you start doing a lot of long runs, it is very easy to do an injury. You don’t wan an injury right at the beginning of your preparation.
For me, the temptation has always been to go a bit further and a bit faster than I should do. Over the years this has led to problems such as sore knees, shin splints, sore ankles and feet, a pain in the hip and even debilitating cramps. (Not all at once thankfully!)
If you start out too hard and the physical injuries don’t slow you down, there is a good chance you will burn yourself out too early. By this I mean, your over enthusiastic start will wear you down and because you haven’t been as comparatively active, you are more likely to feel fatigued and you will lose your enthusiasm to get out and stick to your training routine.
Pay attention to your diet and stop eating all the things that you know are bad for you. (Read my post Simple Rules to Healthy Eating.) Now is a great time to think about losing a little weight. Most of us have a little weight to lose. If you are a bit overweight, I suggest aiming to lose around five kilos in the next 10 weeks. This is only 500gsm a week, which should be fairly easy to do if you are doing added exercise and you stop eating lots of bad foods.
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Update April 2013
My City2Surf Training Program is now an eBook
‘How to Break Your Fitness Slump and Comfortably Finish a Fun Run’
My full City2Surf training program is now available as an eBook from all leading online bookstores and contains a link to download the training schedule as an iCal file, so you can import it into your calendar.
Also, feel free to join my free Facebook training group the City2Surf 100 day Challenge.