Your 5K Running Plan – Week 4 (and a Christmas Gift Guide for Your Fit Friends!)

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Wow! We’re nearly there folks, so congrats for getting this far! There’s just one more week left after this one and you’ll be good to go for your 5K – how are you feeling? 🙂

Because I know we’re all crazy busy this holiday season, I’m not going to bore you with any preamble. You’ve been doing this for three weeks now, you know the drill – click here for Week 1, here for Week 2 and here for Week 3 plans. Let’s get to it for Week 4!

DISCLAIMER: Please note I am NOT a doctor or an expert in this field so you will need to consult a doctor before trying a new exercise plan. Please just be smart and listen to your body and rest when it asks for it!

DAY 1: You had a crazy intense day yesterday (Day 7 of Week 3) with your HIIT workout, so let’s start this week on a complete rest day.

DAY 2: Get on the treadmill and do the following:

• walk briskly for 10 minutes (whatever briskly is for you, depending on the length of your legs/gait…anywhere from 3.7 to 5.0mph)
• run at 7.5mph for 10 minutes
• jog at 6.0mph for 10 minutes
• walk for 5 to cool down (slow, speed doesn’t matter here)

You probably just did a 5K in total distance – congrats! You also did it in 30 minutes. If you like the distraction of the different speeds, use that as a guide for running on your race day. No rule says you HAVE to run at a steady pace the whole time. So feel it out…some people get bored quick and want to do different ‘intervals’ all the time. Others want to just run (we’ll do a straight run later this week). So work out what works for YOU.

DAY 3: Hit the gym for a full-body weights circuit. Let’s focus on yoga/Pilates moves that can increase your core strength for the first set.

• Hold plank for 30 seconds.
• Rotate onto your right side and hold side plank for 30 seconds.
• Roll onto your left side and hold side plank for 30 seconds.
• Roll back to centre and go down onto your stomach. Hold Superman pose for 30 seconds.
• Roll onto your back and do bicycle crunches – 25 reps each side.
• Do 50 crunches.
• Do single-leg stretch – 20 each side.
• Do the Hundred.

Okay, abs done. Do a full-body stretch! Now get up, let’s work on those legs.

• 25 squats
• 25 lunges (25 each side)
• 25 calf raises
• 25 stability ball inner thigh squeezes.
• 25 stability ball hamstring curls.

Okay, legs done! Stretch out those leg muscles and then hop up for a quick arm workout.

• Grab some dumbbells, whichever weight works for you, and do 20 bicep curls.
• Do 20 overhead triceps extensions.
• Do 20 hammer curls.
• Do 20 bent-over flys.
• Do 20 lat dumbbell rows.

Stretch!

DAY 4: Do a flow, power or hot yoga class or do a sweaty yoga or cardio workout of your choice at home using a DVD or a routine from the Internet.

DAY 5: Get outside for your second run this week; we need to maintain a steady pace for this one! 30 minutes at least, but the main thing this week is to try to do 5K so map out your distance (try Map My Run if you want an idea of how long your local loop is) and time yourself. Try to be as close to 30 minutes as you can.

DAY 6: Go outside for a walk for your active rest day. You can also do a yin or restorative yoga class.

DAY 7: We’re going to get some more cardio in here, but if you’re bored of running/walking, try a different cardio machine! Below are links to a cardio routine – the cycle one is a post I did a while ago on spinning. If you want to use the stationary bike, do this one! The elliptical routine is one from my friend Katie over at Healthy Diva Eats – if you prefer to use the elliptical today, use her routine!

• For your stationary bike routine: click here
• For your elliptical routine: click here

You’re done! One more week and you guys will be ready, fit and raring to go :).

SPOTLIGHT ON: Clothing (and a Gift Guide!)

We all love a good excuse to go shopping, right?

CONFESSION: Sometimes when I’m in a workout rut, if I go and buy myself a new workout outfit it totally gets my butt going again. Whatever works, right? 🙂

So my favourite workout clothing store won’t surprise any of you…yep, Lululemon. Their gear is just top-notch in terms of quality (I have honestly had a pair of pants I bought from them five years ago – and they’ve been in the wash at least once a week since then and haven’t shown any signs of wear yet. So they’re expensive, but they last!).

They’re not just for yoga, either – they have a fabulous line of running clothes and accessories.

If you can’t afford those, other – surprisingly affordable and good – workout gear I have bought is from Joe Fresh (in Canada) and any outlet store like Nike, Reebok, Adidas (I LOVE the Stella McCartney for Adidas line!) etc.

Now, I don’t want to bore you with a post on workout clothing because most of you know how to choose workout gear. You want sweat-wicking fabrics, breathability and – if you’re running outdoors at this time of year – layers. Those are the key elements – from there everyone is different with their preferences for what to wear when working out, so I’ll leave that up to the individual! However there are some accessories I would love to recommend that make running way easier…feast your eyes on these, which make GREAT Christmas gifts for fit friends too!

Lululemon Women’s Arctic Run Headband, $28.00

Lululemon Women’s Arctic Run Gloves, $32.00

Women’s Stella McCartney Bum Bag, $44.99

Women’s Stella McCartney Run Beanie (in grey), $22.49

My favourite accessory of all time is the Lululemon Running Key Cuff but they don’t seem to be selling it right now, which is craziness! I’m sure they’ll bring it back as it must have been such a popular product! Can you imagine – finally somewhere to store your keys while you run!

This is what it looks like:

QUESTION:

• What are your favourite running accessories?