Deconditioned: Prepare for a 5K?

Question

I haven’t worked out or conditioned in years. I am running a 5K in less than a week. What do I need to do to prepare?

Well—this is an interesting question.

Obviously, you should have started training for this event several weeks in advance—but since you haven’t and you’re going to go ahead and run it anyway, I am going to assume that you’re participating in this event for fun.

Awesome!

Depending on how deconditioned you are, this race is likely going to be a challenge for you.

Since you don’t really have time to get your body in shape for the race, all you can do is make sure you don’t do anything drastic that could make you sick or prevent your from finishing.

1. Don’t try to pack 6-8 weeks of conditioning in to the few days before the race. This will just make you sore so you’ll be better off just resting or going for an easy jog. If you had even a week or two more to prepare, my advice would be different. But you don’t.
2. Eat like normal. Hopefully, you’re eating healthy foods already. If not, try to make sure you’re getting your veggies, fruits, proteins, good fats and good carbs in. I wouldn’t try anything drastic like carb loading or anything if you haven’t tried this technique before as it could give you unpredictable results during the race.
3. Drink plenty of fluids between now and the race. Use the pee test: if your pee is translucent, you’re ok. If it looks like the color of lemon lime Gatorade when you dump the whole box of powder in, then you probably need to go fill up your water bottle. Or heck–just go to the nearest faucet and starting sucking back some H2O straight from the tap!
4. Have fun! Don’t expect to break any world records. You’re probably doing this for fun or for a charitable cause, which is great—so leave it at that. If you happen to be a very competitive person or if you were a competitive runner in the past, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t set any personal records..

It’s OK. Next time, just make sure you train!

Maybe this race can serve as a starting point for you to start a conditioning program—either for another race in the future of just for health benefits. Use the race as psychological momentum to get yourself active again.

Good luck and have fun!

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