Mini Marathon Training Tips: Week 3 

Mini Marathon Tips 3

Now entering week 3 of your running plan, we will start to slightly increase the intensity for all levels yet again.
For the beginners, week 1 and 2 were really about getting you moving. This week we will be stepping it up a notch.

Beginner

Session 1 Intervals: 45 second walk followed by 1 minute, 15 seconds of running for approximately 25 minutes. This session will continue to help improve your cardiovascular fitness.
Session 2 Long Run: Like last week, the target here is to run continuously. It is the distance and not the speed that is our focus. See how far you get without having to stop. You are looking to cover 8km in this run with as little stopping as possible. Remember the point you had to stop last week. Your goal is to get further this week.
Session 3 Recovery Session: We will now introduce a steady 4km recovery run to help keep the legs moving an extra day and to enhance recovery.

Intermediate/Advanced


For our intermediate/advanced runners, there isn’t a major difference this week apart from our recovery run being replaced by a 5km time trial. This little increase in intensity will set us up nicely for another jump come week 4. Your recovery run this week is still an option as a 4th session for anyone who can spare the time.
Session 1 Intervals: The intervals will cover a distance of approximately 6-8km – 1 minute steady jog (about 60% of your max), followed by 30 seconds of a 75% pace. This session again should last about 40 minutes including your warm up and cool down.
Session 2 Time Trial – distance 5k: This is a hard session whereby you must record your time. The aim here is to record this and then test and compare against it in week 5.
Session 3 Long Run – distance 10k: Use your long run for consistency and technique – this will stand to you come race day. Take note of your time as you will be comparing against this in the weeks to come.
Session 4 Recovery Run: This is optional so if you feel like you’re up to, go for it! This can just be a 20 minute run, and whatever distance you can cover in this time frame.

 

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