Quote:
Originally Posted by Christen
If you put your mind to it you can do anything...
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Running isn't just about mind over matter, or commitment. Running is a really taxing activity on your joints. Just because your mind is willing doesn't mean your body is able.
The general rule of thumb is to increase your time or mileage by 10% each week. This is a bit conservative, but it gives you a general idea. There are 4 weeks in August. If you are running 30 minutes this week and follow this rule of thumb your training schedule would look like this:
Week 1: avg 1.5 miles per run
Week 2: avg 2 miles per run
Week 3: avg 2.6 miles per run
Week 4: avg 3.5 miles per run
This is a *rough* training schedule. If you are running 3 times a week you could do 2 shorter runs and "borrow" time from those runs to make your third run longer than the times I indicated above. You could also go by times, not distance.
But this breakdown should indicate that if you follow this rule of thumb- or even go a bit faster- you shouldn't get close to going from 1.58 miles to running 10 miles in just 1 month.
In addition, speedwork is REALLY hard! You have to incorporate specific types of training to go from a 15 minute mile (where you are now) to a 6 minute mile (if I understand that that's what you're aiming for). Physically, that is very difficult to do in 1 month.
I am NOT saying this to be discouraging. The reason for this rule of thumb is to avoid injury. Running is very taxing on the joints and increasing too fast too soon will make you prone to injury. I followed the 10% rule and went from running 5K/30 minutes to 10K/60 minutes in about 8 weeks and I STILL got injured twice- in my right knee and now in my left foot. I'm having to take time off of running to heal my injuries. Not the end of the world, but just a reminder of how sensitive our bodies can be to the impact of running.
Your goal are AWESOME and you should be able to run 10 miles at some point if you really committed to it! I just strongly recommend you do it the smart, slow and steady way rather than risk injury and cutting your running career short! Good luck