10 Mile Run in May!

A friend of mine decided this year would be a great idea to get involved in a long distance run. She did the Broad Street Run (in Philly) last year and asked if I wanted to join her for this year's run. I am very pumped about it but no little about the type of training I should be doing. I currently run about 8-10 miles per week. I know I really have to step it up to make it.

I need to know what type of foods I should be eating and tips for training. Can anyone help me out?

Hey there, I'm thinking of training for a 5k soon, so I'm also interested in the answer to this question. My best educated guess would be to make sure you're getting enough carbohydrates since those are broken down into glucose/energy first. As I understand it, protien is basically used to build/sustain muscle- so while by no means would you Not need it, I would really focus on getting enough carbohydrates in order to most effectively fuel workouts. Hope that helps/makes any sort of sense. I'm really looking forward to hearing from people with some experience in this thing! Thanks for posting the question!

Hey, thanks for the feedback! I am doing this with a friend so I am trying to get training tips from her as well. I will let you know if anything useful comes up. I was also looking through various posts on here and there are some good tips that people have been putting up. You kind of have to search for them. I was supposed to do a 5k last year but then something crazy happened with the arch of my foot preventing me to do so. I definitely jumped into training way too quickly and progressed much sooner than I should.

Best of luck with your 5k! Ohh and Happy New Year. :o)

Good luck to both of you! There is plenty of time to ramp up to the 10-mile distance.  Just a couple of things to keep in mind:

- Work up to a longer run one day a week. Use the 10% rule.  Don't bump up your mileage by more than 10% each week (example, if you're running 20 miles per week, add no more than 2 miles each week).

- Don't run every day.  Be sure to take rest days.  Throw some cross training into the mix.

- Every third week, cut back the distance a little to give your body a break. 

- Run your long runs at a slightly slower pace than the shorter runs during the week. You want to build endurance, not push the pace.

- Set aside one shorter run a week, maybe 3 or 4 miles, as your speed workout.

- Don't worry too much about your diet, just use common sense and make sure you're getting enough calories to sustain the increased effort. 

Thanks so much for all of the info! I am sure that this will help a lot.

I suggest you do a Google. Runner's World has an on-line coach (http://www.runnersworld.com). One thing is certain though: you will indeed have to increase your weekly Miles gradually. The harder you train, the less effort it will be on the day but, as previous posters said, you have plenty of time. Do not over-train and do not try to train at race speed (except for maybe a weekly speed work-out).