My first 10K

Quoted message said:

I'm a 24 year old guy who started running about 3 months ago.

You should be pretty tired by now.

Quoted message said:

I'm not
that phantaical about it,

Or proper spelling either...

jwwceo said:

Hello all,

I'm a 24 year old guy who started running about 3 months ago. I'm not
that phantaical about it, running mostly just to maintain fitness and
for relaxation. I usually run for 25-30 mins about 4-5 times a week.
Anyway, just for fun I decided to try out a 10K and I finished in 52
mins and 8 seconds. I was just wondering if this was any good for a
novice runner who runs as little as I do. I was also wondering to what
level someone like myself would ever be able to improve to. The idea
of running a 40 minute 10K seems very impossible right now, but if
others have made similar improvements I'm sure I can too.

Also-is it bad t eat before a race. I had like 3 orange slices and a
glass of gatorade before the race thinking it would give me some
fuel..but it gave me a cramp. What's the expert take on this??

Thanks

James

Keep it up. It's entirely possible that within a year you could get to
42 minutes for a 10k. Don't make the mistake of running too fast or too
many miles at this point. You are going to see rapid improvement and it
is going to encourage you to run too frequently or too fast or both.
You have to resist the temptation and keep working on building up yor
miles per week gradually, with easy to medium effort runs. I try to
change one of the following per week...

1) total miles/minutes/hours per week
2) long run length
3) continuous days running without a complete day off.

number one and two is where you use a 10% rule based on the last week
you focused on those aspects. number 3 is something I don't really try
to do, but I pay attention to it.

[email hidden] (jwwceo) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hello all,

I'm a 24 year old guy who started running about 3 months ago. I'm not
that phantaical about it, running mostly just to maintain fitness and
for relaxation. I usually run for 25-30 mins about 4-5 times a week.
Anyway, just for fun I decided to try out a 10K and I finished in 52
mins and 8 seconds. I was just wondering if this was any good for a
novice runner who runs as little as I do.

It is in the ballpark of average for someone who is novice.

Quoted message said:

I was also wondering to what
level someone like myself would ever be able to improve to. The idea
of running a 40 minute 10K seems very impossible right now, but if
others have made similar improvements I'm sure I can too.

A reasonably fit runner in their 20's should be able to achieve a sub
40 minute 10k. It takes a good training program but there is no reason
why you shouldn't be able to do it. I improved my 5 mile time by 16
minutes.

Quoted message said:

Also-is it bad t eat before a race. I had like 3 orange slices and a
glass of gatorade before the race thinking it would give me some
fuel..but it gave me a cramp. What's the expert take on this??

Everybody is different but for me the shorter the race the less likely
I'll eat before the start. A 10k just falls inside the "too short for
me to eat" time. I get nauseaus if I'm racing with anything in my
stomach. However if I was racing for 52 minutes (I'm long finished my
10k in 52 minutes) I'd probably have a nibble of a bagel or something
like that.

Hope this helps,
Andy

Quoted message said:

Thanks

James

In article <[email hidden]>,

(jwwceo) said:

Hello all,

I'm a 24 year old guy who started running about 3 months ago. I'm not
that phantaical about it, running mostly just to maintain fitness and
for relaxation. I usually run for 25-30 mins about 4-5 times a week.
Anyway, just for fun I decided to try out a 10K and I finished in 52
mins and 8 seconds. I was just wondering if this was any good for a
novice runner who runs as little as I do. I was also wondering to what
level someone like myself would ever be able to improve to. The idea
of running a 40 minute 10K seems very impossible right now, but if
others have made similar improvements I'm sure I can too.

Also-is it bad t eat before a race. I had like 3 orange slices and a
glass of gatorade before the race thinking it would give me some
fuel..but it gave me a cramp. What's the expert take on this??

Thanks

James

hey, congrats on your first race! and on joining the world of running.

52 minutes is respectable, not bad at all for a first-timer. my first
10K took me about the same amount of time. with some more specific
training, i have gotten that down to about 45:00, and though i haven't
done any 10k's in a while, i'm sure that time time could go down with
some more hard work.

40 min. is not impossible for you. it'll just take time and practice.
learn how to train for that distance so that you can see improvement
along the way. it'll happen if you stick with it.

as for the food thing, i would never eat citrus before a race. i have a
nervous enough stomach prior to races, and citrus would just upset it
further. this varies depending on the person. you'll have to experiment
to find food combos that will agree with you. also, it's a good idea to
leave plenty of time for food to settle in your gut before running.

best of luck,

Cam

(jwwceo) said:

Hello all,

I'm a 24 year old guy who started running about 3 months ago. I'm not
that phantaical about it, running mostly just to maintain fitness and
for relaxation. I usually run for 25-30 mins about 4-5 times a week.
Anyway, just for fun I decided to try out a 10K and I finished in 52
mins and 8 seconds. I was just wondering if this was any good for a
novice runner who runs as little as I do. I was also wondering to what
level someone like myself would ever be able to improve to.

good work. did you finish exhausted? totally? probably not.
so you could have gone a bit faster. but so what? you
entered. you finished. that's great for the first race.

check the results and see how you did relative to others.
this'll tell you if you're doing average or not-so-good.
but it really doesn't matter.

you are where you are. and you can get better if you want to.
just train. and be sure to schedule the same race for next year.
then you'll be able to see your improvement.
....thehick