How to Train for Your 1st 5k

A lot of people want to run a 5k as either a way to get back into fitness or as something they can check off their Bucket List. In order to run a 5k in 30 days for the first time, you need to know how to train for it. These steps are meant for the average person who thinks running to the kitchen for dinner is exercise! To begin training, make sure you have good running shoes and buy clothes that wick away moisture from your body to reduce chafing.

How to Train for Your 1st 5k

After you have laced up your shoes and are standing outside wondering if you can do this, remember you can! You will need a watch or use your cell phone’s timer function. Start out by walking for two minutes and then run for 30 seconds. You can do anything for 30 seconds! After that first sprint and you try to catch your breath, walk it out for two minutes. You want to walk for 2 minutes and run for 30 seconds for 20 minutes on the first day. If you are finding that after two minutes you are still really winded, go ahead and walk for 3 minutes then run for 30 seconds. Do this interval for the first seven days and run at least three times that week with five times being preferred.

The second week, you want to increase the time out on the pavement to 30 minutes. If you are still having a hard time, keep the same split times. If you are feeling stronger, run for 45 seconds to a minute and walk for a minute. What tends to happen is that after three days of this same routine, you will notice that your body has become stronger, can do more than it could the day before and hopefully, want to do even more! Keep increasing the time running in either 15 or 30-second increments, depending on your fitness level. Keep your walks to one minute though.

By the third week of running 4-5 times a week, your body has become conditioned to this new exercise. At the beginning of this week try running for 5 minutes then walking for 1 minute, running for 4 minutes, walking for 1 and on down until you are running 1 minute and walking 1 minute. You will be surprised that at first it will seem impossible to run for 5 minutes at a time, but your body just might enjoy it. Keep working on these splits and see if you can reduce your resting time to 30 seconds.

The key is to increase the amount of time running while reducing the time walking. On average, a super-fast runner will compete a 5k in less than 30 minutes and an average runner under 40 minutes. Most people that run-walk a 5k will finish in less than 50 minutes.

During the last week with the 5k looming at the end, go out on the first day and see how long you can run before you have to walk – can you do 10 or 15 minutes or is 5 minutes the max? When first training for a 5k, you want to worry more about time than distance. You will want to rest and not run at least 48 hours before race day. On race day, go out and run the splits that you were last training at and know that the excitement from being out there will propel you to the end. Enjoy it! You only get one first 5k – and you will want to remember every moment of achieving this goal you set out for yourself.

More Fitness Tips:

• Ways to Get Fit on a Budget
• 8 Yoga Poses to Help You Detox
• 10 Simple Changes to Help You Lose Weight
• How to Make {and Keep} a Fitness Resolution
• Indoor Exercises for When the Weather is Bad
• 6 Steps to Getting Back on Track with Fitness and Exercise
• Sneak Exercise Into Your Day so Your Body Doesn’t Notice

Kristi Trimmer is currently running half marathons across the U.S. and blogging about her journey. At the beginning of 2012 she couldn’t run across the parking lot and in 2013 she ran 10 half marathons. Follow her journey on DragonflyRunning.com as she shares her running adventures and helps to motivate others to make positive life changes that include eating healthy and having fitness be a part of the lives and not a dirty little word.