Sun Run Training – Week 3, Session 1

Posted in Commentary on November 17th, 2009 by Sacha Peter

I always find the transition when going from 2 minutes of running to 3 to be the second most difficult part of training up your endurance from scratch, and the most difficult is going from 2 minutes of walking between runs to 1 minute.

Since my week 2, session 1 training was a bit difficult, I was worried that I would have not have enough stamina. It is very difficult to predict the energy level you will have before stepping onto the treadmill – sometimes I have dragged myself out to the gym feeling like I could sleep 11 hours and then proceed to have a great training session, and sometimes I have felt so energetic, but when hitting the treadmill I completely run out of gas.

Anyhow, it turned out to be the former yesterday, and I breezed through the session consisting of 21 minutes of running and 14 minutes of walking. I actually felt like cranking up the running speed, but I will only be doing this after I am well established in a training routine.

I always wonder what the variables are involved in terms of how much energy you feel on the treadmill, and sleeping, diet and the time of day probably have huge roles.

At my usual speed of 6.8 miles per hour running and 3.8 miles per hour of walking, this was 5.2 kilometers distance covered.

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3 Responses to “Sun Run Training – Week 3, Session 1”

  1. Declan says:
    November 17, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    You might find this series of videos interesting: link

    Also, have you factored into your training plan the fact that the Sunrun is not until May next year (instead of the usual April)?

  2. Sacha says:
    November 17, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    The extra two weeks of training time will mean that my training period will be longer, but I haven’t explicitly factored it in – I figure if I get to the point in April that I can run 8 or 10km smoothly then I will just be in better shape early May. I guess one factor is that it will be warmer at that time.

  3. Sacha says:
    November 18, 2009 at 1:34 am

    Interesting videos (it appears that some material got cut out between #4 and #5). Take home messages:

    1) 180 strikes/min while running, no matter how tall your legs are;
    2) Foot strikes should be directly below your hips;
    3) Keep your center of gravity constant at all times;
    4) When going downhill, your body should feel like it’s falling and your foot strike should be behind your hips.

    I’ll see what happens on the treadmill.

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