10 week training plan for a 10km obstacle course race

TADA! This is just what you’ve been looking for: a 10 week training plan for a 10km obstacle course race!

The plan has been designed for a team of us who are training to do a crazy looking event called Be INVNCBL in 10 weeks time! That is, on Saturday 18th April 2015. What’s great about it, is that for many of the team it’s the first time they will be doing an event like this. I’ve done a few over the years and they are such fun and leave you feeling exhilarated, alive and like you’ve accomplished something pretty cool!

A few of the team are fairly fit and have been training previously. Others of us – not quite! This is especially true for myself who has done NOTHING at all since last year when I did my 100 day burpee challenge. So I am honestly starting from a zero fitness level.

But…. it’s all good because the idea is to do it  together and to have loads of fun while raising some very helpful and important funds to help kids with disabilities go surfing with Surfability UK. The kids love it and it is super good for them and their families too.

This training plan was adapted from RunPals and the runs are distance based. It will be fine if you can’t actually run the whole way but need to do some walk/run training. The plan is mixed up with running, bodyweight exercises, yoga and a bit of rest. Any training type activity like swimming, cycling or a gym class would be ok on the non-running days if you prefer but try to do at least one bodyweight session per week.

Start where you feel comfortable and adapt it to suit your needs. The idea is to push yourself a little bit further each week. Just remember, if you haven’t done consistent running training or bodyweight exercises previously, you do not want to cause yourself an injury by pushing too hard and doing too much. Slow and steady will get us all there!

Please remember to warm up before you start and to stretch when you’re done. Specific areas to stretch are hamstrings, quads, calves and lower back after every session and arms after a bodyweight session.

Yoga is a secret weapon I have discovered for developing strength. It also helps with flexibility, losing weight and toning muscles. I highly recommend the wonderfully inspiring and very easy to follow, Yoga with Adriene. There are loads of free videos on her website and she is great to watch and listen to. She ran a 30 days of Yoga series last month and this link  should take you to the beginning of that series. If you’re struggling to decide where to start or, like me, are a complete beginner, then start at day 1 and work your way through (I only managed to get to Day 4 in January before life got in the way but I was really enjoying it and feeling the effects already!)

Bodyweight exercises are awesome because you can do them anywhere, anytime and don’t need any special equipment to do them. They are able to be adapted to suit all abilities and can be as easy or as hard as you make them. Don’t be fooled though – when you do this work out it should feel tough! That way, you know you’re building up your strength to be able to haul your ass around the assault course without giving up at the first obstacle!

Hopefully, if you follow the advice in this plan as explained, then training and the event will be a doddle with no injuries. I can’t promise you’ll win it but at the very least you should be able to complete it without feeling totally unprepared and broken!

We are all totally motivated and psyched to BE INVINCIBLE in 10 weeks time. Click here to download your 10 week training plan for a 10km obstacle course race.

It would be amazing if you could help us out with raising some funds so here is a Gumby Legacy sponsorship form to download if you feel inspired to challenge yourself to do something you’ve always wanted to do but never gotten round to doing. Just fill in your name and the challenge you are setting yourself.

What’s your challenge? Don’t think too much about it, just sign up and do it!!

Then let us know once you’ve committed 🙂

PS: I will post more specific info relating to the bodyweight exercises before Tuesday! Soon as I get some time….

Amended: please check out this post – Bodyweight exercises for 10 week training plan for video descriptions of each exercise 🙂