Skip to main content

How to Train for Your First 5K

RCM Training (aka Me) had a big weekend!

One of my many activities included speaking at the How to Festival hosted by the Louisville Free Public Library. My friend Amy put me in touch with the lovely library folks and they asked me to give a presentation on How to Train for a 5K.

I was really excited.

A photo posted by Rennay Cooke Marshall (@rnay225) on

So in case you missed it, here are my 5 tips for getting to your first 5K...

1. Figure Out Your Why

Answer the question: Why do I want to do this? Think about what you want to gain and what you’re willing to sacrifice.
Exercise can’t be done for somebody else

2. Pick a Course that Plays to Your Strengths

This is directly related to your why.
What kind of atmosphere works for you? A fun run? A smaller yet more competitive field? A large family-friendly event with lots of energy?

3. Commit to Training

Find a plan, follow the plan and trust the plan. Whether it’s online, with a coach or with a group, you’ll need some kind of plan and strategy to get through the event.
Schedule training into your day ahead of time to ensure it gets done. If you have a work meeting early one morning, you’ll need to train later or maybe even on a different day. Don’t leave it to chance.

4. Learn to Listen to Your Body

The surest way to avoid injury is to listen when your body talks. If a pain is specific, stop what you’re doing to cause it.
Go to the doctor if pains persist.
Rest when the plan says to whether you need it or not. Better to rest when you don’t want to than rest because you have to.

5. Have Fun

Remember, you choose to do this. You want to do this. If it’s not fun, why do it?

I had the full presentation recorded which I'll get uploaded to my YouTube channel this week. If you go to it now, please don't judge me. I haven't actually done anything to it yet!

For those of you who just want the Clif's Notes...

Comments

  1. Look at you!!!! So proud of you. I know you probably don't look forward to being a speaker in front of a group of strangers but you look so confident! LOVE IT! You Trainer you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an honor that you got to do that! And you did great girl!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I Hate the Ironman

I figure it's about time to put this out there and I'm pretty sure if you know me really well, you won't be surprised by any of what I have to say. I've been having a lot of issues lately. I've been working hard with my counselor to determine who I really am and what brings me true joy in life and it's been surprising, frustrating, difficult, fun, exhausting, enlightening, exciting and hard....to sum it up in a few words. I spent some time in Puerto Rico back in March and finally got back into doing some writing while I was out there. It wasn't anything long and certainly not anything particularly newsworthy but it made me feel good. I enjoy writing. When I was young I used to write short fiction stories on my mom's computer whenever I had free time and though a lot of them remained unfinished, they were always fun for me and surprisingly effortless to compose. Blogging has never quite been the same as my true writing and I've been working hard t

A Sad Announcement

It is with a very heavy heart that I make an announcement. Because this is where I spend so much time recapping my races and weight loss struggles and successes, it seems that this is where the announcement needs to be made. I told The Colonel earlier this evening when I got home from school close to tears and I need to make it official before I change my mind. I will not be doing an olympic triathlon this year. Sounded much more serious than that, didn't it? Well all joking aside, it is serious to me. In my mind, I'm now a quitter. I'm a wimp. I'm giving up on my goals and soon will start giving up on all of them. This isn't the case of course but for now it's really hard for me to be rational. I am a goal setter and rarely has there ever been a goal I didn't *eventually* reach. So for me to seriously and actually "give up" is heartbreaking. I'm also abandoning my quest to lose 40 more pounds this year. It would be great if it happened, but I

Marathon Bucket List

I know the title can be misleading so to clarify, this is a bucket list of marathons I'd like to run. Not just a really long bucket list. I'm keeping it to a top 10 because any list longer than 10 is just too long. This post was inspired by my new blog friend Eat Pray Run DC . If you haven't read her blog, you should, because it's prettier than mine. Anyway, here we go, in no particular order... 1. Marine Corps Marathon People who have run it never shut up about it so it must be great. Plus it's in DC and hello, Marines. Ooo rah. via 2. New York City Marathon Since I was born in New York and lived there for a bit it holds quite a place in my heart. It's another one of those epic races people can never say enough good things about. My only hesitation is that I'll really need to get over that thing I have about bridges. (get it? "get over"...bridges...) via 3. Boston Marathon - as a charity runner of course Let's get one th