Thanks for joining Dustin, 2FM’s Jenny Green and Jenny Huston, and the rest of the fabulous UNICEF Mini-Marathon Team!  We’ve got a lot of great surprises in store for you as we get ready to strut our stuff on June Bank Holiday Monday, (June 6th) to help raise money for UNICEF programmes that will help the world’s neediest children.

If you haven’t already, be sure to like UNICEF Ireland on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get all the latest training tips, pep talks from Dustin, running mixes from Jenny and more.  You can also set up your very own fundraising page to make it super easy for your friends, family and co-workers to donate.

Join us for Boot Camp!

Time to kick your training into high gear… join us this Sunday, 10 April from 3-4pm at Sandymount Strand for the season’s first boot camp.   Team trainers Alan Dunne and Jamie Lawlor will be on hand to take you through the work out, give training tips and answer your questions. Team leader Jenny Greene of 2FM will also be there, so get ready for a rockin good time.  Email Eleanor at eleanor@unicef.ie to let us know you’re attending or if you have any questions.  See you Sunday!!

Download our Mini Marathon Training Plan for walkers and joggers

Mini-Marathon Training Plan for Walkers

This is an outline of a training plan for people who want to walk the Mini-Marathon and are only recently starting back exercising, or are starting from scratch. It is a ten week plan which will let you build gradually towards the event itself.

Remember to start each run with a 5-10 minute warm-up walk and finish up with a 5-10 minute cool-down walk.  Don’t forget to stretch before and after your workout.

• Week 1           2 x 20 min walks
• Week 2           1 x 20 min walk, 1 x 30 min walk
• Week 3           3 x 20 min walks
• Week 4           2 x 20 min walks, 1 x 30 min walk
• Week 5           2 x 30 min walks, 1 x 20 min walk
• Week 6           3 x 30 min walks
• Week 7           2 x 30 min walks, 1 x 40 min walk
• Week 8           2 x 40 min walks, 1 x 30 min walk
• Week 9           2 x 40 min walk, 1 x 60 min walk
• Week 10         2 x 20 min light walking sessions

Mini-Marathon Training Plan for Runners

This is a training plan for those who are planning on running part, or all, of the Mini-Marathon in June. Running this event will be suitable for people who consider themselves active and would be able to walk at a good brisk pace for an hour without much difficulty. Your training will involve short to medium sessions which will be broken into 5 minute segments. You will walk part of the segment, and jog the rest. As you build towards the event itself, you will be walking less and jogging more.

Remember to start each run with a 5-10 minute warm-up walk and finish up with a 5-10 minute cool-down walk.  Don’t forget to stretch before and after your workout.
*All sessions 30 – 50 mins long, 2 – 3 times per week.

• Week 1           4 min walk, 1 min run and repeat for session
• Week 2          3.5 min walk, 1.5 min run and repeat for session
• Week 3          3.5 min walk, 1.5 min run and repeat for session
• Week 4          3 min walk, 2 min run and repeat for session
• Week 5          2.5 min walk, 2.5 min run and repeat for session
• Week 6          2 min, 3 min run and repeat for session
• Week 7          1.5 min walk, 3.5 min run and repeat for session
• Week 8          1 min walk, 4 min run and repeat for session
• Week 9          30 sec walk, 4.5 min run and repeat for session
• Week 10        2 x 20 min light jogging sessions to keep the body active