As I embark on my journey to run 10 miles this October, I thought I might share here on the blog how that journey is going. I will be running the Tower of Terror 10 mile race in Disney World on October 4th. I’ll be following Jeff Galloway’s training method for beginners. This past week was the first week in that program! I am by no means an expert on running, but I thought it might help other beginners to see how another newer runner started training for something like this.
To start off with, I thought it would make sense if I gave some background on myself as a runner. I never thought of myself as a runner – in fact, I always hated having to do the one mile run in gym class as a kid! But after college I realized that I needed a good way to stay in shape once I had a desk job and wasn’t so active in daily life, so I took up running, slowly but surely. I’ve been running for about two years. I started on the couch to 5k program and now I use Jeff Galloway to train for races. The longest race I’ve done is a 10k, and I’ve done two of them – the Enchanted 10k in Disney and the Hershey 10k in Hershey PA. A 10k is 6.2 miles, so Tower of Terror will be significantly longer! Right now I try to keep at about a 12:30 min/mile pace or lower, though it can be better or worse depending on a lot of factors, of course.
Jeff Galloway has designed training programs specifically for Disney races, so it seemed a natural way to start my training for this one! Here’s week one:
I had a pretty good week. The weather was nice, if a bit warm, but I’m a little unusual for runners in that I’d prefer to be a little hotter than cold. I also run Monday/Wednesday instead of Tuesday/Thursday because it works better in my schedule that way. I’m in a play and we have rehearsals on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, so I usually get my exercise in those days by dancing. I’ll only run on a Tuesday or Thursday if it’s bad weather on Monday or Wednesday. I use RunKeeper to track my runs, so if you’re looking for a good app I highly recommend it.
Monday was a good day. I did my 30 minutes of running and did 2.7 miles at a pace of 11:38 min/mile. It felt really good! I ran at Valley Forge Park where I work and it was just a beautiful day.
Wednesday I actually did more than 30 minutes because it was National Running Day, and we had been challenged in my Biggest Loser group to do a 5k. So I went for an extra 8 minutes to get up to 3.1 miles.
Saturday was super busy! I was helping to host a bridal shower and a bachelorette party that day, but I’m glad I managed to squeeze in a short run. It was nice for me that this week’s weekend run was only 1 mile, so it didn’t take me long to do that morning before the parties.
Another thing that I do is track my steps using a FitBit. I aim to get between 8,000 and 10,000 steps a day. Sadly, I came a bit under my goal this week since I had a packed schedule and also spent a lot of time in the car driving to my various obligations. I had 60,085 steps for this past week, Monday-Sunday.
All in all not a bad week, and hopefully I will improve this week! I was not feeling well today so I’m hoping I recover soon so I can give my training my all.
How do you train for races? Do you have any questions about running or Disney races?
I know I’m behind but that’s a great first week!
Thank you!