How I prepare for 5k

For the last two years I went each year on a 5k race, both very enjoyable: Run or Dye and Color Run. This year I’m going on a serious 5k race: Women’s Running Race Series, sponsored by Roots Collective. I want to get a good time, so I have to prepare. I made a schedule that works with the other things I have to do. I allowed one month for training. I’m relatively fit to begin with, so I think a month is enough.

In this post I’m going to talk about the workouts, the food and drinks. These delicious blends by Roots Collective will help me get to my goals. If you follow my blog, you know that I try to eat as healthy as I can. Recently I blogged about 1 year of daily smoothies and a few months ago I’ve challenged myself to have 10-a-day for 1 week.

This is the program I’ve created for this month. After I’ll finish it, I’m going to talk about the program again, to see how it went. I don’t think running is enough to get ready for a race, so I inserted a few Insanity cardio workouts in the program. I did Insanity back in 2012 and it felt great, it’s a hard working out regime, but it’s so good. When I say it’s hard, it’s really really hard. But this is how I can get good results in a short period of time, so it’s worth it.

I made sure I can do that workout in that day and I hope I can finish it as it is. So far I did what I planned and I’m very happy with the progress.

Besides the workouts, food and drinks are important too. I will avoid alcohol during this month. As I have a couple of events planned and it’s our wedding anniversary at the end of the month, it wasn’t realistic to say it’s going to be a dry month. But I stop drinking a glass of wine at home. I don’t drink too often, so it wasn’t something too hard to do.

With food, I will try to keep the sugar to a minimum. Again, with all the events, the anniversary and a big cake I made for work, I was aware it was unlikely it will be a sugar-free month. So, as with alcohol, I’m going to a “cut-down” approach and not a “cut-out” one. I think this is my motto when it comes to diet anyway.
I have at least 5-a-day portions of fruits and vegetables. For the 5-a-day I will count until I reach 5 and then I’m not bothered to count the rest. This way I know I should add a salad or a tomato with my lunch. Of course, soups and smoothies help me a lot. As I mentioned in the post about smoothies, if I can’t make it, I will buy it.

I was delighted to get to try these blends from Roots Collective. The company was established in 1976 and it’s based in Scotland, produced by them or sourced in UK as much as possible. I like that a lot, as I try to support local farms and small businesses as much as I can (last year I did a series called farm of the month).
The blends are different from smoothies and juice because they have bite. As they aren’t sweet, the blends can be eaten as a cold or hot soup too. Whole vegetables and herbs are cold pressed, so nothing is wasted. That means the blends have a lot of fibres, making them very filling. Each blend has 80% vegetables in it.

I make my smoothies sweet, so having tried these, I have to say they changed the way I think of smoothies. I will make savoury smoothies, they are just delicious.

The blends are in 5 different flavours. All of them pack a punch, the flavour is so intense. I love it. I saw on their website that they recommend using the blends for cooking, in risotto and other dishes. That is a great idea. Unlike the milder taste of standard smoothies, their blends have strong flavours. One, Asian Sling has chilli, the flakes are visible and it has a kick. I enjoyed them a lot. I love strong flavours.

The blends:

Carrot Zing Contains Carrot Juice, Carrot, Coconut Milk, Ginger, Honey and Lime; 92% vegetables.

Garden GreensContains Cucumber, Peas, Avocado, Honey, Kale Lime and Mint; 86% vegetables.

Asian Sling Contains Carrot, Spinach, Yellow Pepper, Coconut Milk, Avocado, Lime, Coriander, Honey, Red Chilli and Lemongrass; 81% vegetables.

Sweet Beets Contains Beetroot, Red Pepper, Avocado, Cucumber, Honey, Lime and Ginger; 84% vegetables

Green Warrior Contains Cucumber, Spinach, Avocado, Honey, Courgette, Coconut Milk, Lime, Parsley and Chives; 80% vegetables.

I would gladly buy any of the blends. I enjoyed them a lot. At an RRP of £2.95 for a 230g bottle I can’t say they are cheap. But, for me, you get what you pay for, lots of flavour.

* Post in collaboration with Roots Collective. All opinions are my own.