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You are going to gorge yourself on Thanksgiving. It’s the American way. And it’s even possible to belly up without entering a shame spiral. The trick is to spend the next month casually training for your local Turkey Trot.

No, the Turkey Trot is not an unfortunate digestive reaction to excessive poultry. It is a road race—that you run. Turkey Trots require just enough training to help you shed a couple pounds before Thanksgiving, but they’re short enough (usually a 5k or 10k) that you won’t need to go all out. Run one of these and you’ll be doing yourself a favor, even if the favor is burning enough calories Thanksgiving morning to go back for thirds in the afternoon.

For preparation advice, we called up the excellently named American running coach Jack Daniels, who is a real person and head honcho at Run S.M.A.R.T. Project, an online coaching platform that provides custom training programs. Daniels wrote up a four-week program—so start this on Halloween and it’ll take you to race day—that will have you ready to shred the competition (or at least not get smoked by your 14-year-old cousin). The training schedule below is simply a framework. Listen to your body. If you’re tired, take a rest day. If you get held late in meetings, don’t fret. You don’t have to do _everything—_this is only a guide. But if you follow Daniels’ lead, you’ll be ready to go.

In preparation for your local Turkey Trot race

28 days before race day = 30 minute easy run or alternate run/walk

-27 days = 30 minute easy run or rest day

-26 = 10 minutes easy + 6 x 30 seconds running comfortably hard with 1min rests in between

-25 = 30 minutes easy run or run/walk

-24 = 30 minutes easy run or run/walk or rest day

-23 = 10 min easy run + 6 sets of (1 min comfortably hard + 1 min easy or walk)

-22 = 30 min easy run

-21 = 30 min easy run or rest day

-20 = 10 min easy + 10 min comfortably hard + 4 x 20 sec lightly fast with 40 sec rests

-19 = 30 min easy run

-18 = 30 min easy run or rest day

-17 = 1 easy 45 min run or 2 easy 30 min runs

-16 = 30 min easy run

-15 = 30 min easy run or rest day

**-14 **= 1 mile easy + 6 x 30 seconds fast (not sprinting, but pretty fast) with 60-second easy jogging

following each faster run

**-13 ** = 10 min easy run + 10 min solid pace + 10 min easy

**-12 ** = easy 30-45 minute run (or rest day if you’re not running every day)

-11 = easy 30-45 minute run

-10 = 10 min easy run + 8 comfortably hard 2-minute runs separated by 1 minute of easy

jogging or walking

-9 = easy 30 min run or rest day

-8 = easy 30 min run

-7 = easy 60 min run or 2 x 30-minute runs

**-6 ** = easy 30 min run or rest day

-5 = Rest day

**-4 ** = 10 min easy + 15-20 minutes at a little slower-than-expected race pace

**-3 ** = easy 30 min run

-2 = Rest day or easy 20 minutes of running

-1 = easy 15 min run

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