Saturday, October 24th’s Run for Your Life Central Park workout will start at the 72nd Street transverse near the Band Shell at 9:00 am. The weather forecast calls for temperatures to be in the mid to upper 60s: perfect running weather. The team will continue to work at base pace running and walking. For those interested in increasing their mileage to prepare for the upcoming half marathon, Coach Andre will lead out a 7-8 mile run, consisting of a 5-mile loop followed by an additional 1.8-mile loop on the south end of the park twice.
This week, we want to highlight an extraordinary mentor: Cara D’Arco.
Cara joined the Odyssey House “Run for Your Life” team her second year in treatment and insisted on running the NYC marathon that year, which was her first-ever marathon. Since completing treatment, Cara has earned her Bachelor’s degree in fashion design and now works in the industry.
Cara has also continued to be a part of the Odyssey House “Run for Your Life” program, which she considers to be family. Since 2009, Cara has accumulated more than 1,287 miles in competitive races throughout the city and has completed 11 NYC marathons.
Cara D’Arco is the longest-running Odyssey House female graduate and mentor athlete. She attributes her successful recovery to being a part of the running team and staying connected to Odyssey House.
Increase Your Long Distance Running: Write down a training schedule and stick to it
A “long run” means something different to everyone. It’s totally individual, dependent on experience, how your body’s feeling, and what you’re training for. Luckily, we’ve got some tips below to increase your long-distance running, no matter what the mileage is!
We are aiming for steady, stair step-style increases in our mileage, with occasional dropdowns, for maximum results in our long-distance running. To do this, we need to make a plan!
For beginning runners, try to increase your mileage by 20-25% each week. For more experienced runners whose long run distance is upwards of 10 miles or so, aim to increase by 10-15% each week.
Write down a clear training schedule incorporating these increases and hold yourself to it.
Every 4th week, decrease the volume of your long run a bit to allow ample recovery for your body!
Increase Your Long Distance Running: Prioritize balance
Ever go for an epic long run on the weekend, only to then spend 6 days recovering from it? I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of this at some point.
Instead, we want to try to balance our long runs with our shorter runs so that we’re always making progress.
In fact, your long run distance should only make up about 30% of your weekly mileage.
And on that long run, be sure to control the intensity. It should be conversational throughout.
A good exercise we like to use here at The Run Experience – take 10 nose breaths every 10-15 minutes while on your run. If you’re unable to do that at any point, you may want to slow your pace down a bit!
Adapted from The Run Experience
Coach Andre’s tips:
Prioritize, prioritize, and prioritize some more is a sure-fire way to stick to our training goals. On a personal note, I’m sometimes guilty of not prioritizing my training schedule, but I believe being part of a team helps us to hold each other accountable. I intend to post several training schedules in the weeks to come; please feel free to adopt any training schedule that may work for you on an individual or team basis. I challenge each team member to partner up with someone, adopt a training schedule, and stick to it!