Now with a little more than a week to go before the redspottedhanky.com Sunderland City 10k, nerves may be beginning to jangle.

With any luck, you’ve been managing to get out regularly with a running partner for some enjoyable and rewarding session in recent weeks in the build up to the race.

With limited time left, there’s not much more to be done in terms of increasing fitness, but plenty more can still done to help prepare body and mind for the big day.

Ideally, that should start with one, final long training run this weekend. In previous sessions the furthest distance covered has been four and half miles. This weekend, at a steady rate, up that to five and a half miles if you can. That’s just a mile shy of the equivalent 10k distance.

Don’t bust a gut or try to put in big bursts of pace – save that for race weekend. They key is to covering a good distance so that you know physically and mentally that you can handle the full race distance and then next week if you want to and feel good, you can step up the pace when your training has closed and the adrenaline of race day is pumping.

As ever, indulge your muscles in a proper warm up and cool down. It would be tragic to pull a muscle and rule yourself out of the race at this stage.

Then looking ahead to next week, it’s about keeping fresh and lively and not letting your level drop. If you can, go out for a short three mile session on Tuesday. Again the name of the game here is preparation. After a good warm up aim to cover three miles at what you would consider a good race pace, or even a little faster. Focus on your running rhythm and breathing and imagine yourself running freely over what will be an iconic redspottedhanky.com Sunderland City 10k course.

The point of this, as with the long run at the weekend, is to prepare mentally and physically to run at a good race pace where you’ll hopefully be pushing your best time, or setting a good one if you’ve never completed a 10k before.

Then on Thursday go out for your final training run. The purpose of this is not to push yourself but make sure you’re feeling loose and well prepared for the big day. Aim to cover a couple of miles at a steady pace, with a good warm up and cool down to ensure your muscles will be feeling fresh and in tip top condition come Sunday, June 26.

Places in the redspottedhanky.com Sunderland City 10k are still available and entries will not close until the day of the race. To register go to www.sunderlandcity10k.com.