Cardiovascular fitness improves slowly over months, and years... so you won't improve your fitness with only 10-days to go. You don't want to turn up on race day fatigued. Reduce the distance of your training sessions and shift your focus to mobility. Freshness rather than fitness.
If you want to know how many litres of water you should be drinking each day, I created my own little calculation:
● Divide your bodyweight by 27 (e.g. If your body weight is 70kgs: 70kgs / 27 = 2.59 ... That's 2.6 litres of water everyday)
● Add 250ml for each coffee
● Add at least 1-litre per hour of exercise
The purpose of stretching is to improve your flexibility, and flexibility (like the two points above) improves slowly over time. Use the next 10-days to stretch each night before bed while breathing deeply to help you relax for a good night's sleep.
Be aware that most of us complete daily activities in front of our body (activating the muscles on the front side of our body) and then when we think to stretch, we mostly stretch the back side of our bodies (hamstrings, lower back, upper back and shoulders). Generally speaking, if you stretch to open the front side of our body (chest, front of neck, abdomen & hips)
Captain Running Man shows Clancy Koala how to stretch his hip flexors before this years City2City Fun Run
Give yourself a chance of a stress free finish, and maybe even a decent race time (which makes you happier afterwards) by having solid a race plan. Breakdown the run into blocks. If you're running the 10km for example:
0-3km: You could treat the first 3km as a warm-up, taking it easy and enjoying the energy of those around you. Watch your pace and try to run slower, like driving a car in gear one. Save yourself some energy (petrol) in this stage.
3-6km: Hold a conservative pace, find your second or third gear rhythm. Try not to get too carried away... the last 4km are the hardest, so you still need to conserve your energy and keep your heart rate down
6-9km: Build the pace just slightly, this is where many crumble and don't have the training or the energy to perform when it counts... but you can!!
9-10km: Bring it home with whatever you've got left for an awesome personal best time, or bring it home with a smile on your face knowing you've managed to run the entire distance with a smile on your dial
In a following blog post, we'll provide more tips to remind you of what to do and bring before the event, however it's a good idea to start preparing yourself now, so you have a stress-free lead up to the event.
Visualisation techniques can help massively. Take a little moment, every now and then, and visualise yourself on race day. Some ideas might be:
● A calm sleep the night before.
● An early wake up and a well planned pre-race routine in Albury's QEII Square.
● The first few km's where you're enjoying the buzz and energy of running down Dean St.
● The harder part of the race where you need to pace yourself, imagine playing the smart game.
● Logistics of pick-up after the race in Wodonga.
Also, get yourself prepared:
● Check your running shoes. Don't change anything (don't run in new shoes).
● Check that you have washed your favourite pair of running socks & running clothes.
● Keep an eye on the weather forecast, plan your post race clothing etc.
As a junior, he participated in many local fun-runs as a member of the Wodonga Athletic Club, and studied a Bachelor Of Applied Science in Human Movement. He later went on to win two consecutive World Championships in Triathlon over the sprint distance in 2009 & 2010.
If you have any questions about getting ready for the Hume Bank City2City, please send Jai and his team of fitness coaches a message on Instagram: www.instagram.com/unlimitedfitness.com.au
Good luck to everyone participating in the Anytime Fitness 10km event. We will see you at the finish line for some well deserved recovery and replenishments.
