Gearing up for a 10k Training Program

Last week I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Lindsay Heller for an upcoming episode of the Slimming Down Dad Podcast. Our discussion revolved around running and Lindsay’s training routine for the upcoming New York City Marathon.

The more we talked, the more I realized that my current cardio routine doesn’t really have a purpose other than to burn calories on days that I’m not strength training. In the days after that interview, I thought long and hard about changing my cardio routine so that I was running with a purpose.

On Sunday morning I found my way over to Runners World and began looking through the variety of free training programs that they recommend. Initially I was going to start at the beginning and train for a 5K. Since I can already run 3.2 miles, I thought that perhaps I should set my sights a little higher.

Training to run a Half-Marathon was appealing but I thought that might be pushing it a bit too much. The happy medium between the two was a 10K training program. I can cover 6 miles on the treadmill but running outside is much more difficult.

With a realistic goal in mind, I took a hard look at the Hal Higdon Novice 10K Training Program. I liked that the milage seemed doable and that the weekly milage increases weren’t going to leave me wiped out for my Starting Strength Routine.

The current outline doesn’t work for me but I think juggling a few things around just might work. If I stick to my current Strength Training schedule on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I can adjust the running days to fit on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Saturday would become my rest day and I could work Stretching and some light Cross Training into the days that I’m Strength Training.

Since I’m not training for an actual 10K Race, I’m not under a time crunch to complete the program. This allows me to stretch the training out to 10 or 12 weeks and take a more gradual approach to increasing my milage each week.

I may setup a mock 10K Race for myself when the program is complete. If I go that route perhaps I’ll extend an open invitation for a virtual race / fun run to anyone that would like to participate. It would be under the honor system and there would be no awards, but it would be free and a fun way to come together as an online community.

Would you be interested in taking part in a
Slimming Down Dad Virtual 10k Fun Run?