Cowes! It’s race SZN and we are here to run.
With the 10K Sporting Life run just behind us, and the Lululemon 10K upon us- we figured it was time to give a few major keys to completing your first run! If it helped us get through a few 10K’s, we hope it can help you.
Nike Run Club
Download this app RN!
NRC is our bestie when it comes to training for race day, or just training in general. The app is super user friendly because we’re also not huge tech people… But we can navigate. We like just selecting the “quickstart” option and doing the damn thing. If you have more time to explore the app, let us know your thoughts.
Hydration Nation
Water is always a key factor in what seems to be all things… but pre and post run, it is especially important. If you’re not hydrated, your body can’t perform at its highest level. Livestrong said it best: “Water after excersising helps you to replace the fluids lost during physical activity to ensure you stay properly hydrated. When you work up a sweat during exercise, your body loses large amounts water which can lead to dehydration if you don’t replace them by drinking water and other fluids. Sweat losses during exercise can exceed several litres over the course of an hour.”
Several litres is a lot in comparison to how much water we really drink, so take that shit seriously, Cowes!
Pacer Playlist
A good playlist is KEY for us during all occasions tbh- but especially for running. The thing is, you’ll have to play around with the tempo and trial tracks to see if they work with the pace you’re aiming for. That’s why before we run in an actual “race”, during training we’ll also test music lol. It sounds much more serious than it is, but you’ll easily see that certain songs can decrease your speed and others can bring your pace up. The lower the pace, the faster you finish a km. That’s why we love the Nike Run Club app, because during runs it gives you a check in at every kilometre. At each check in, it tells you how many kilometres you’ve completed, the time it took you to complete and your pace.
Sometimes your music style isn’t always what you want to listen to while running- ja feel? We become total trap queens when we’re trying to hit that 5.00 pace. There are also some great playlists available on Spotify, when you type in things like “marathon”, or “rap workout”- speaking from experience.
Slow Progress is Better Than No Progress
Sometimes we can get really down on ourselves when we’re not consistently upping our km count. But your body is not supposed to be running 50km every week like let’s chill for a hot sec.
Just like anything else, running takes time. You have to be consistently building your endurance and some days will be better than others. We’re always comparing yesterday’s time with what tomorrow could be and sometimes you gotta just tell yourself that you’re slaying the damn day, because you are!!
We believe in you, Cowes! Get running.
xx
The Cowe