One of the major events we’ll be focusing on next year will be a trip to the Gold Coast for the Gold Coast Marathon (and half marathon, 10km, 5km, and 4km and 2km kids’ dash)
Early in the New Year you’ll be given an opportunity to join our private Gold Coast Marathon Facebook page. We’ll also be putting together some complimentary training programs for each of the distances for you, which will include fun runs in Sydney we’ll be targeting leading up to the event.
Keep your eye out for more info in the New Year.
Take a look at the Gold Coast Marathon site.
If you’re interested in any of the races, particularly the longer distances, use the next few weeks to make sure you are training consistently. Set aside 3 or 4 days of the week that you will train, and stick to that. You should be aiming for 1-2 interval training sessions/week, 1 session/ week which will be a longer run, or become a long run, and 1-2 shorter runs per week.
For anyone just starting to think about stepping up to a longer distance (which could be any distance really, depening on where you are with your training at the moment)your training up until the New Year might look something like:
Day one: interval training group session
Day two: 10-20 min run @ 5-6/10
Day three: 20-30 min run @ 3-410
Day four: 30 min run @ 3/10
Day four will gradually build up to a much longer run, so you need to pick a day on which you can spend up to a couple of hours training, and keep that day for your long run. Whilst it’s not a long run yet, it will be.
We love the Gold Coast event because:
- You head north for the sun in the middle of winter
- The temperature is great for running. Not too hot, not too cold
- It’s a pretty flat course, so if you can mentally handle the out and back nature of the course, you are likely to do a pretty slick time
- It’s well organised
- It’s a great opportunity for a road trip
- There are lots of distances, so everyone can have a go. If you set your sights too high, you can always drop down a distance
- An easy, flat course for kids in the 2km and 4km
- Lots of theme parks (though I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing)
- Lots of inexpensive accommodation