My best friend Heather is running her first ever 5K race today! She has taken up an interest in running as of late so this is very exciting. Heather is a regular at Orange Theory but decided recently that she would like to be able to run a few miles without stopping to walk.
For today’s 5K race, she asked me a few first race advice questions. I figured that maybe they were worth sharing with you today in case you wondered the same things.
Do you wear sunglasses while you run or during a race? No, I do not. I usually run early enough that the sun isn’t in my eyes. If it’s summer and really bright outside, I do wear a sun visor.
Where do you put your phone? I hold my phone most of the time (my ear buds are connected so I am listening to music while I run) but if it’s a cooler weather race, I typically have a zippered pocket somewhere that can hold my phone for me.
Where do you put your keys/license etc.? The pants/skirts I wear for races must have a zippered pocket! I usually wear my Lululemon capris or skirts for races which have the zippered pocket in the back waist band.
Do I eat before a race? I told Heather that she should eat however she eats prior to Orange Theory. Since she hasn’t exactly trained specifically for this 5K race, now was not the time to try a new eating approach!
She also asked me for a last-minute first race strategy on how to approach the mileage. I’m no running coach but here’s what I told her:
Go slow. Do not start out fast! Do not get caught up in the crowd of runners and what they are doing. You want to go easy enough that you can maintain the pace rather than think who you are, speed up and then burn out. Your goal is to not walk! It’s all mental. You do not need to walk, all you need to do is slow your running pace to where it feels comfortable enough to keep going. Do not attempt to speed up until close to the finish mark. If anything, pick some landmarks for intervals of speeding up for a short distance and then going slow again just to pass the time and distract your brain.
I will let you know how she does today!
Monday – 7 Miles
I ran for an hour and the time flew by. One mile warm up then I randomly picked up my pace with a mile cool down at the end.
Tuesday – 3 Miles
I needed to leave fairly early for the city so squeezing in 3 miles right under 25 minutes was perfect. According to Runkeeper, it was my fastest 5k distance since I started using this app.
Wednesday – 5 Miles/Pure Barre
It had to be 100% humidity out there today! Somehow I still ran fairly strong with an average pace of 8:50. I don’t know how that happened given the heavy air.
I came home for a quick combination of two 5 minute workouts from Pure Barre On Demand. I tried a new 5 minute arms workout – woah – it was so hard and it didn’t even use free weights! It was all body weight exercises. Then I added a 5 minute seat workout which is one of my favorites.
Thursday – 30 Min Running/30 Min Pure Barre
Ugh, still humid out there!
Friday – 6 Miles
It was the first cool morning in the 50’s so I was excited to get outside. I ended up talking on the phone for a few miles which I think you can figure out just looking at the splits.
Saturday – 10 Miles
I wanted to run 10 miles today. Laura had mentioned a workout that involved 2 mile repeats so I decided to throw those in to this run.
The plan was to run 2 X 2 miles at half marathon effort with 3 minutes recover in between after my warm up.
^I couldn’t fit all 10 miles in the screenshot.
Even though I could tell I was fatigued when I started this run, I still did okay! Next time though, I would run a longer warm up and save the workout portion for the last half of the run if adding this workout to a long run. I prefer the easy miles at the start of the run rather than at the end.
Sunday – Pure Barre
I finally reviewed Pure Barre On Demand this week! Click here if you missed the post.
[bctt tweet=”First race advice plus workouts from the week! #running #5K #run #purebarre @pure_barre #fitfluential” username=”cookiechrunicle”]
When did you run your first race? Do you remember it vividly?
Anyone else love Orange Theory like Heather? I really need to try a class!
The Cookie ChRUNicles 
I’ve never tried Orange Theory but Im not sure how much I would like it since Im not really a fan of treadmill running! My first race was a half marathon and I remember it well! Good luck today to Heather!
I love the easy variety of all your workouts; they all look so fun and relaxing yet challenging at the same time. ❤
Those are a lot of great runs! I’m itching to get back to it. Hopefully I’ll get on the zero gravity treadmill this week.
I’ve never tried an Orange Theory class either, but I think it would be a fun way to change up my regular workout routine!
I know right? I really need to get around to trying it already!
I ran my first race almost exactly 5 years ago! It was excessively hot, I was underprepared, and I just kept going 😉 Your workouts look great!
ha, those first race experiences 🙂 — excessively hot sounds miserable to me!
I hope the race went well for Heather! I remember my first race – a 10K (not counting those non-race 5Ks that college campuses host). I was so nervous and it felt so hard during that last mile.
I’ve never tried Orange Theory but there’s one right near my work so I have no excuse! I hear great things about it.
And I ran my first, half mile race when I was around ten. I wish I remembered more!
I’m running my first race in February at the Disney Princess 10k! I am nervous, but excited too. Thanks for posting the advice you gave to your friend Heather for her first 5k, hopefully this will help me prepare for February!! Good luck to her! I’ve never tried Orange Theory either but I would love to try a class!! Hope you’re having a great week! Xoxo
Best of luck with the 10K! I always wanted to run a Disney Race!