Training for Your First 5k

I started running in college. There was a jogging class taught by the same professor whose group I was in for my Freshman orientation. He also taught my health class, which was a required elective. He had lost almost 200 pounds when he was in college – by running. And now he was a lean, mean, fitness machine. So I signed up. (I also took a weight training class and an aerobics class with him.)

At the end of my jogging class, there was a race. People were walking faster than me. As a 20-something year-old, it was embarrassing. But I did it. If you’re gearing up to run a 5k race, here’s a few tips to remember.

Why Train for a 5k

After having severely sprained my ankle earlier this year, I feel like I’m starting over from scratch. Ever since I decided which ultramarathon to run four years from now, I feel like I need a fresh start to build up my stamina again. Thankfully the body has muscle memory, so it hopefully won’t be as hard training to build back up to running three miles as it was the very first time I ever ran that distance.

So why should you train for a 5k race? Three big reasons come to mind.

1. If you’ve never run a 5k race before, you should train.
2. If you haven’t run 3 miles in a very long time, you should train.
3. If you want to get faster and win the race (or try to place in your age bracket), you should train.

Training for a race, no matter what the distance, is the smart thing to do to help prevent injuries. Injuries happen from underuse, from overuse, and from accidental missteps (we won’t talk about jumping off escalators - even though it was just a small hop and I was already at the bottom).

 

Build Up Your Stamina

You may have heard of the Couch to 5k program. They take people who don’t run and get them off the couch to run their first 5k. The main benefit of training for a race no matter what the reason (first time, not run in a long time, or want to win), is to build up your stamina so you can feel good about completing the race no matter what your time ends up being.

There are 7 ways to build up your running strength and stamina while training.

1. Increase time (run 30 minutes instead of 20)
2. Increase distance (run 3 miles instead of 2)
3. Increase hills (add hill training once a week)
4. Interval training (run 5.0 for 4 min., run 7.0 for 1 min.)
5. Increase speed or pace (run 6.0 mph instead of 5.5 mph)
6. Cross training (basketball, swimming, yoga, cycling, etc)
7. Strength training (muscle strength is important even for runners)

All good training schedules basically use a combination of the above methods to increase your running stamina and prepare you for a good race result.

Create a Training Schedule

Even if you’re not training for a race, your running routine is, in essence, also a training routine, right? Two factors come to mind when creating a training schedule for your running routine. 

1. What is your goal?
2. How often do you run each week?

If your goal is to go from 0 to 5k, that training schedule is going to be hugely different from one that is for someone with a goal of running an ultramarathon. However, if the person who wants to run an ultra hasn’t run very far or very often in quite some time, then they should start off with the goal of going from 0 to 5k first.

The further the race distance you’re training for, the more important it is to create a strong base. If you run 5 or 6 miles a day 4 or 5 days a week, then you have a very strong running base already. When I was training for my very first marathon, I ran 3 to 4 days a week (including the long run), and averaged 2-4 miles per run (excluding the long run - obviously I built up to longer distances each week for that).

You can easily create your own training plan for any distance when you consider your base mileage and your goal mileage. There are lots and lots of plans online to help you if you’ve never run a race before, but if you have, then you don’t really need someone else’s chart because you have experience on your side. Unless you want to get faster and win. In that case, yes, find a training plan (and maybe a few running partners) to help push you.

Here’s one simple option for training for your first (or next) 5k race. I recommend building up the base first in case you have to adjust things, and then find a race to run because you’ll already be ready and won’t have the added stress of a time limit (or the ticking time bomb as we writers like to say).

A 6-week training chart to build up to 3 miles of running, with a run/walk combo. My goal is to run for 9 minutes, followed by 1 minute of walking (a strategy from Jeff Galloway) for 3 miles. So here you go. And of course – ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.

*R2 = run for 2 minutes. W3 = walk for 3 minutes.

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT
		*R2, W3 1 mile		R2, W3 2 miles		R2, W3 2 miles
		R3, W3 2 miles		R3, W3 2 miles		R3, W2 2 miles
		R3, W2 2 miles		R3, W1 2 miles		R4, W1 2 miles
		R4, W1 2 miles		R5, W2 2 miles		R5, W3 3 miles
		R6, W3 3 miles		R6, W3 3 miles		R6, W2 3 miles
		R7, W2 3 miles		R8, W2 3 miles		R9, W1 3 miles

From there, I can increase distance, increase time spent running, or increase my speed. I can also throw in interval training and hill training. All of which I plan to do to train for my crazy Wild Things Race 50k ultra in January 2027.

Keep writing, keep running.

XO, 

Christie :)

QUESTION: 

How many 5k races have you run? Zero? Forty or more? Share in the comments!

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