Training For A 10k – My Fitness And Nutrition Plan

Consideration was provided by LARABAR.

If you’re into fitness, you’ve probably been involved with running a 5k at some point or you’ve at least heard of them before.  5k runs are EVERYWHERE these days.  If you’ve never done an organized run, I’d highly suggest starting with a 5k like a fun run like the Warrior Dash or Color Me Rad.

If you want to take it up a notch, and 3.1 miles isn’t enough of a challenge for you, try a 10k run (6.2 miles).  Training for a 10k is something that needs to be planned much more efficiently than what you would do for a 5k.  For a 10k, you can’t just wake up without training and hope for the best.  Most people will need to have a plan and train for it in advance.

Training for a 10k

8 Week Fitness Plan (Tip: Hover over the image to pin or save for later!)

Training For A 10k
(via Hal Higdon)

Diet For A 10K

As far as nutrition, I would stick to a clean eating diet throughout the 8 week program (See this list of Clean Eating Approved Foods).  Make sure to stay consistent with your foods all the way up until race day so your body isn’t thrown off on the morning of your race.  (No one wants an upset stomach on mile 3!!).  The only exception to this is the night before, where I would recommend having a carbohydrate heavy dinner (also known as carb loading).

The morning of the race, I always make sure to eat some light carbs 60 minutes before the run.  I usually have a half of a bagel with natural peanut butter or a LARABAR and a hard boiled egg.  It’s not a ton of food but that’s the idea.  You don’t want to feel too heavy but you need enough to fuel you to the finish line.

Also, as always, make sure you’re drinking enough water throughout the 8 weeks.  A good goal is to make it a habit of drinking one gallon of water a day.  I’d suggest drinking a gallon every day except for the morning of the race where you should just drink enough to feel satisfied so you won’t cramp up.  Just don’t drink too much because you don’t want to have to stop to pee during the run!  I’d suggest just having about 12-16 ounces with breakfast and then grab some water at the water stations during the run when needed.

After the race, I highly suggest eating a banana.  Bananas are a great source of nutrition up to 45 minutes after a workout in order to refuel your glycogen stores, restore lost potassium and aid with recovery.

If you follow this plan next time you’re training for a 10k, you should be able to have an excellent race day.

Leave a comment below to let me know if you’re following this plan, and/or if you have any other tips that work best for you when training for a 10k!

Also, check out my older post about How To Have a Successful Race Day Morning.

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At LARABAR®, we believe that the foundation of a sound mind, body and spirit is derived from what you eat – and what you eat is most delicious and satisfying when it’s in a whole, natural state.

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3 thoughts on “Training For A 10k – My Fitness And Nutrition Plan”

  1. Hello,

    I am training all days and preparing myself for a running competition in Barcelona and I want to share my experience of an app that have helped me a lot to achieve my healthy objectives. It´s called Beyouapp and there you can find a lot of diets, exercise programs and coach tips that encourage you to make the great change in your body.

    Regards

    Reply
  2. I love this training plan! I used it for my first 10k, at first i was concerned that it didn’t have a lot of running but It made me a stronger faster runner. Thank you for creating it.

    Reply
  3. Great post-Erin! I loved the way you bifurcated the entire training plan into 8 weeks and also laid the importance of diet & nutrition while training for 10k. Being a running coach, I’ve seen that most runners train themselves physically while preparing for the race, but they often lay very less importance to their diet. In fact, I’ve also written a similar post on how to prepare for 5k. Here’s the link:-https://therunexperience.com/how-to-run-your-first-5k/. Do check it out and share your feedback on it

    Reply

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