Three-Day Fitness Plan

You can stay in shape through the holidays by running just three days a week for six weeks.
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Perform each workout on any day of the week, in any order, with a rest day between each.

DAY ONE: SPEED
Workout: 4 x 800m
Pace: First interval at 5-k race pace plus 10 seconds. Gradually increase speed until you're running 5-K race pace in the final 800.
Notes: Jog 400m in between each interval.

DAY TWO: HILLS
Workout: 4 x 400m hill intervals
Pace: Start at an easy effort to get a feeling for the hill. Progress until you're at a medium-hard effort by the final repeat.
Notes: Jog down the hill for recovery.

DAY THREE: ENDURANCE
Workout: 8KM (Or 50 minutes)
Pace: Easy, conversational
Notes: Add an additional 1500m every other week or so.

"Everyone and their mother knows you don't rain hard on Friday, the day before a race. But a lot of runners will overtrain on Thursday if left on their own. Thursday is the most dangerousday of the week." - Marty Stern

Some more tips on running less and staying fit these holidays

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Once you've completed registration, you will be able to: Rate Your Race: Runner's World invites you to become a Race Judge. All it takes is a few minutes to fill in a quick and simple Race Rankings Scorecard for a race that you have run. You will be asked to judge criteria such as water tables, route markings, marshalling, safety and value for money for a total score out of 100. Once you submit your scorecard, we'll work out the average score per race of all the scorecards, then rank the races from highest to lowest. Once we have 10 votes for a race, it will make it into our Race of the Year Rankings, which will be listed here as well as be published each month in Runner's World. Any race in South Africa run on or between 1 January and 31 December 2007 will qualify for the 2007 Runner's World Race Rankings. Race Reports: We would love to hear about your race experiences. Who knows, you might even get published! Personalised Race Calendar: All you need to plan your racing year ahead. Simply add events to your basket and we will do the rest. Get Published: You will be able to send us your motivational stories and images for possible inclusion on this website or even in the magazine. What are you waiting for? Have your say: You will be able to comment on all articles on the website. A great way to make your voice heard. For further information, contact Kari Peters at KPeters@touchline.co.za.