6 Tips That Helped Me Run 10 km In 1 Hour

Improve your health and achieve your goals

Running and walking are the most natural exercises. We are equipped with everything we need to walk or run. We don’t need any special machinery or a team to play with. We can do it on our own and take care of our fitness. However, we can experience a problem that very often exists in our minds. We struggle to start and keep on building a life form. Let me share tips which helped me to be consistent and meet my running goals.

Find your place

First of all, find a place where you can run. Take a peaceful walk around the neighborhood and see where you can set up your track. It can be a local park, nearby forest, or just streets near your home. Maybe you know a silent suburb? If you have a garden you can also run there, even though it may seem to be too small it can actually fit your needs.

Once you chose your spot, think about the route you’re going to take during your training. What works for me is to have a lap. Design one lap. It doesn’t have to be too long. Shorter laps do well at the beginning so you can count them easily and see your progress. If you make your lap too long it may be hard to finish it at the beginning of your running journey.

Laps from 50 to 500 meters should do well. Yes, even a 50-meter lap will be sufficient. I used it, and it will feel like a lot of circles to run, still, it’s ok to train. It will help you to gradually increase the distance when you’ll be ready. It means you don’t have to seek wide areas, you probably have all you need around you.

Once you found your spot, get used to it, and feel comfortable. Start with walking around the lap of your design. Feel the distance, observe the ground, how it changes under the feet. Is it plain like concrete, or irregular like grass and ground? Make sure you won’t be surprised by it when running.

Make a schedule

You should aim for consistency. It does not mean you need to run every day. Schedule with one day of running per week is still a schedule. Commit to yourself, but don’t make it intimidating.

Your schedule may be dynamic. Start with one day and a couple of minutes of running. As you progress you can increase the training session and add more days to your plan. You may realize that you pushed yourself too much and decrease the intensity. Feeling well should be always in your mind.

Make it agile. Don’t force yourself to run when you don’t feel like doing it. If you have a migraine on your running day or you caught an injury just skip it and don’t feel bad about it. It’s completely ok. You can move it to another day or get back to it next week. Note that you skipped it, keeping track of the plan helps to see the big picture. Taking a step back is as important as going forward.

Measure it

You have your lap, you know how long it is. Count the distance of your running. Start small, feel comfortable with it. Note how much you run and for how long. Once your training is not a challenge at all try to increase the number of laps you’re going to run or increase the tempo.

My goal was to achieve a tempo of at least 6 minutes per kilometer and keep it while increasing the distance. So I went for tempo first, distance later. When I was comfortable with this tempo I run more and more laps until I accomplished 10 kilometers in one hour (constant run, without stops). I know that it’s not a superb challenge for many people, still, it was extremely satisfying and made me feel I’m in good shape.

How to measure your progress? You can use a simple approach and count the number of laps in your head, plus measure time on your watch. That’s all that you need. Don’t feel like you need all of the fancy technology to train. If keeping track of laps is hard for you you can use a simple clicker with a counter or a mobile app. If you decide to use the app, remember to check if it counts the distance properly. Sometimes it may estimate distance badly so keeping track of distance in your head may help to get better measurements.

Having these measurements you’ll be able to observe your progress. It’s important to see how your body reacts to the training when it’s ready to go further or need more rest.

Warm-up

Then before every run remember to warm-up! I know it sounds obvious, and every time you read about running there is something about the warm-up. But it’s not without reason, and I can’t stress it more, don’t ignore the power of warm-up.

Experiment with different types of exercises and pick your favorite ones after which you feel relaxed and flexible. Changing exercises is also a good idea. It makes your session more interesting and lively. It’s important to get rid of stiffness before you start running. I prefer to have a little bit of jogging (like 500 meters), 10–20 jumping jacks, 10–20 squats, a couple of bows, windmills, and a mixture of dynamic stretching. Now you’re ready to start!

Be patient

Patience is a virtue. Don’t expect to run a marathon after a week of training. Your goals don’t need to be as big as running the marathon! Running 500 meters a week as a starting point is as good as any other goal. Be mindful of your exercises and set your own goals. Every person has their own way to go. You’re in charge here. Others may be faster or slower than you. It doesn’t matter.

Make it fun. It’s something you should enjoy. Finally, it will make you feel good, so don’t make it a stressful experience. Taste every meter and take your time to observe how training affects you. Don’t care if people may think that your running looks funny or stupid. First of all, they probably don’t think like that, they rather admire you do something for your health. And if some of them do think bad about you running it’s their problem, and once again it’s you who took actions to improve your condition, you’re already a winner.

Run alone or with a company?

The last tip really depends on you. I prefer to run alone, to keep track of my plan, and to change the parameters of my run whenever I feel like doing it. I also like to focus, calm down, and mute myself during the training. Letting my mind wander is the way I like to rest while running (yes, resting during a run is possible).

The other way to go is to find a friend to run with. The issue here might be a different level of running skills, health condition, or conflicts to find a common time to train. Still, if you’ll find a company it can help you to stick to the running and build a ritual as you’ll be both motivated by each other. And such motivation is a great power.

Now run!

These are tricks I used to achieve 10 km in one hour of a constant run. The whole process was enjoyable and really satisfying. I hope these tips will help you to establish your plan and achieve your goals. Remember to make it safe, if you’re not sure you can run, visit your doctor first. If you feel any pain during the training stop, rest, and don’t push yourself. You want to improve your health, not make it worse. Good luck!