Great - I've got a couple of months to train - my fitness has improved a lot over the last couple of months since I've played summer league hockey - luckily my body adapts very well to a change of pace (so to speak).
I've worked out some good training routes, with varying distances and changes in gradient - would it be best to go for shorter runs building up to the full distance, or just go straight for the full distance, aiming to reduce my time?
Ta
I'm lucky to live in the middle of nowhere so I have the wonderful resource of endless miles of country roads to exploit. I chose a 5k circuit and started on that, making sure it had plenty of hills to push myself.
In the beginning even this 5K course was a struggle, which I ran every other weekday for a good month until just before it became comfortable. Then I started doing two laps to make up the 10k, which I now do the last run of every week if you can follow what I mean
After next week I will however solely focus on the 10k.
I am on my summer break so I can supplement my running with gym sessions in-between working on core strength and such. I try and stay off the treadmill and use the X-Trainer, rowing machine and weight machines mixing things up a bit.
I am also very lucky that I still have a very competent body, as towards the end of that year I was bordering on being overweight and extremely unwell as a result of sitting on my ass for 8 months, but Iv always been fit and healthy person growing up so I have been able to adjust and get back into it fairly easily.
One thing I have learned, is that the improvements in fitness/times do not come anywhere near as quick as they did even 5 years ago, it really is far more of a struggle. But worth it none the less