Katie White, the winner of the ladies’ Dumbarton race in last year’s Babcock 10K Series, continues her training guide for runners – at all levels – who are preparing for the 2019 event in May.

For beginners, this week sees the amount of time spent running continuing to increase.

As you are starting to run more, it’s a good idea to think about what shoes you are wearing, because if they aren’t suitable you might start to experience problems and be at risk of getting an injury.

If you are unsure, visit a sports shop to get some advice.

For both the intermediate and advanced training plans, the run this Thursday is the first of the 10K specific interval runs. You should aim to run the intervals at your target 10K pace.

As the schedule progresses, the recovery between the 10K paced efforts reduces, with the aim of increasing the duration at which you can comfortably maintain the pace.

Beginners, week 3: Monday – rest; Tuesday – 1 min walk, 4 min run x8; Wednesday – rest; Thursday – 1 min walk, 5 min run x8; Friday – rest; Saturday – 10 min run, 2 min walk x4; Sunday – rest.

Intermediate, week 3: Monday – rest; Tuesday – 6x4 min with 2 min recovery; Wednesday – rest; Thursday – 6 miles; Friday – rest; Saturday – parkrun; Sunday – 9 miles.

Advanced, week 3: Monday – rest; Tuesday – 8x3min with 90 sec recovery; Wednesday – 1 hour steady; Thursday – 6x1 mile with 3 min jog; Friday – rest; Saturday – 1 hour with 20 min tempo; Sunday – 10 miles.

Read more: Get in shape for the Babcock 10k series with our training schedule

Elsewhere, entries are flooding in at almost twice the rate of last year for the series, according to the organisers, with three months to go until the first race.

Series chair Kevin Johnson told the Reporter that numbers have already topped 800 – there were just short of 1,800 entries last year and nearly 1,500 finishers.

There is still time to take advantage of the special Valentine’s offer which gives you £5 off any individual race entry, reducing the entry fee from £19.50/£21.50 to £14.50/£16.50, as long as you enter by February 28 at entrycentral.com

Series entries will receive a specially designed More Mile technical T-shirt and all Dumbarton finishers will receive a special Dumbarton AC centenary t-shirt.

Over £6,000 in prizes are on offer for leading individuals and age group winners, plus dozens of prizes throughout the field.