Monday, July 29, 2013

Preparing For Your First 5K Run

Preparing For Your First 5K Run

By Kamryn Mattson


While the last time you ran might have been years ago during high school gym class, you could be just a few weeks away from running your first 5K. Even if you spend your days at a desk and your nights in front of the TV, you can become a runner and much more quickly that you might have thought was possible. This is a step that could change and even potentially save your life, so think about training for a 5K today.

Even if you have no experience or do not exercise at all currently, that should be no deterrent. While you might not ever want to run a full or even a half-marathon, a 5K, which is just over three miles in length, is an excellent goal and easier to attain than you might think. One way to increase your motivation is to train with a friend or even with a small group. Sometimes peer pressure is a great motivator, and it's also nice to have some companionship along the way.

Finding the perfect 5K for you is your big first step. Sign up for a race in your local area that has a date that is far enough in advance to allow you to train properly. You should allow at least eight weeks of training, but if you have really never run before or haven't exercised in years, allowing a few extra weeks might be a good idea. At any rate, if you stick to a plan, you definitely should be ready to race in three months or sooner.

It helps to write out a running goal for each week. Be sure to schedule three or four days of working out each week, as well as two days of rest. Start out slowly, with a warm-up and a five-minute walk at a brisk pace. From there, you should alternate jogging and walking. Consider one minute to 90 seconds of jogging for every two minutes of walking during the first week for about 20 minutes. During the next week, increase your jogging time and continue to increase the jogging time until you are able to run a full three miles without walking. For some, this will only take six or eight weeks. For others, it might be a few weeks longer.

Muscle aches are common as you begin to work out and then add intensity to your exercise. Ensuring that you warm up and cool down properly can reduce the incidence of serious muscle strains and pains. However, using a physiological hybrid shape is an excellent muscle soreness remedy to consider. A physiological hybrid shape is a drug-free, easy-to-use pain relief product that also has been found to speed up healing times.

There are shapes for many areas of the body, from knee support physiological hybrid shapes to lower back support and upper back support shapes, as well as the shoulders and the elbows. They stick directly to your skin right over the sore muscle area and provide support, much like an exo-skeleton. Because they are flexible, they still allow you to move freely and grab extra strength from muscles near the sore area. If your 5K arrives and you have some muscle pain, using this pain relief product can be a helpful way to ensure that you reach your running goal.




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