I’ve been working with two of my GF’s friends over the past ~month on a running program. Neither has any previous running experience, but have a special motivation to run the Terry Fox 10k in Sept.
I started them out with a long walk for warm-up, and then short sets of running/walking before walking again to cool down. In the first month I haven’t been as concerned with the amount of running they actually do - I’m more interested in them developing the habit of getting out the door regularly, not injuring themselves (they’re both carrying some extra lbs) and working on nutrition. Lately I’ve started increasing the run duration in their main “set” and shortening the rest interval. So far they’ve been doing really great, and are up to about 24 minutes of (broken) running in a ~1hr workout. We meet Wednesdays and go over the work they’ve done in the previous week, how they are feeling, problems, questions etc. Afterwards, we go out for a run together. On the Wed. run they are running about 15 minutes continuous, with short run/walk sets for the balance. My plan for the next month is to continue growing the duration of the Wed. night run, increase the run duration of the weekly sets, and shorten the rest interval.
If anyone was some advice or experience with this I’m all ears. Does this make sense so far, and what would you do differently?