Thinking about taking part in Southern Cross Round the Bays 2025, but you haven’t done any exercise in a while and want to improve your fitness? Don’t worry – you’ve got this! No matter your level of fitness, there are simple adjustments you can make now so you’re ready to go in February / March 2025.
Danni Thomas from TBI Health Rosedale clinic shares tips and tricks to keep in mind as you start training.
Train progressively
As with any event, preparation is important so you can perform at your best and avoid injury. Getting out of your comfort zone is a great challenge, but you’ll need to prepare and the best time to start is right now.
Here are a few principles to help get ready to give it your best.
Build up your fitness
Running or walking places strain on our bodies, especially muscles and connective tissue. If your usual exercise only involves walking to and from the car and you leap into training, then your body is in for a surprise! Increasing how much exercise you are doing too rapidly can lead to these structures getting overloaded and not coping. This can result in injury.
The good news is our bodies are designed to move, and once we start moving and challenging ourselves physically, these structures adapt really well. But it does take time for us to change and improve our body’s ability to handle the extra load. This is adaptation will likely take weeks or months rather than just couple of days.
If you’re just starting out and you’ve never run or walked long distances before, head out for some walks and gradually build up the distance. If you’re keen to give running a go, once you’ve built a bit of endurance then start to bring in a little jogging. It can be as simple as a couple of 30 second jogs interspersed into your walk. Run between a couple of lamposts, then walk, then run again! If you’ve done a bit of running before, aim to build up your distance over time as you lead up to the race.
Consistency is the key to your body adapting. Aim to do a 2-3 shorter walks/runs during the week to keep loading the body, and a longer, slower one when you have more time, like on the weekend.
Recovery days are important as well. These days allow your body to recover and repair itself. A recovery day doesn’t mean doing nothing, rather it’s a rest from training for the event.
TIP – don’t take all your rest days at once.
Work on flexibility through stretching
Flexibility is important. You may never have been able to touch your toes before, however flexibility is something that everyone can improve, with a bit of practice.
Increased muscle tightness in the lower limbs can lead to aches and pains or a higher chance of injury as you increase your running or walking loads. These can often occur around the hips, knees and ankles.
Focus on keeping the major muscles of your lower body flexible: your calves, your hamstrings, your quads, and your hip flexors. If you’re generally more flexible, then it is easier for your body to get into good positions when walking and running which can lead to you being more efficient and using less energy.
Improving your stretching and flexibility is a long-term project. I’m yet to find a stretch that is going to keep you flexible forever. A regular stretching routine is great, and you can do this on your recovery days. Yoga, pilates or other flexibility-based classes work well too.
Build strength
Strength is an important component of running and walking, although it is often overlooked. If you are walking or jogging, the average person takes about 1,250 steps a kilometre. Over the course of an event this quickly adds up. Every time you take a step (or stride if you are running) the muscles of your legs, torso, and upper body are working.
Improving the strength of the muscles in your core and legs has multiple benefits for walkers and runners:
- Being stronger means that it can take you longer to get tired, so hopefully you’ll get to the finish line without being completely drained.
- Stronger muscles are more effective at supporting our joints, especially the ankles, knees and hips, which can lessen the chance of injury.
- Increased strength often means we are able to control our bodies better and absorb the loads more easily, leading to us being more efficient on the day.
TBI Health is a joint venture partner of Southern Cross Healthcare that provides nationwide injury management, wellbeing and rehabilitation services. For more information click here.
To register for Southern Cross Round the Bays, follow the links below:
- Wellington – 16 Febuary
- Auckland – 2 March
- Christchurch – 30 March
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