Ways to improve 10K speed in a short time frame

yesimpson

Hello!

I'm going to be running my first 10K race on the 1st of Feb. I've done a 5K before which I completed in 29 minutes, and at the moment I can run the 10K in about 66 minutes, including a few brief walking breaks in that time. I run outside as much as possible, although sometimes when the weather's been bad lately I've been doing some training runs on the gym treadmills. My schedule probably allows for two outdoor runs a week, and I try to also go to the gym twice a week to lift weights.

Ideally, I'd really love to do the 10K in an hour. As I said, it'll be my first race of that distance so really just completing it will be an achievement, but I was wondering if it was realistic to shave a bit off my current time during the 4 weeks I have until race day. I do feel like I am capable of doing better, but I'm not sure how to approach it. I'd like a bit of advice on any short term training plans, any gems of wisdom, or ways of structuring my training runs which might help without injuring myself please?

Thank you

lishie_rebooted

The adrenaline on race day will contribute to shaving off probably a minute or so.

Speed work helps.

Overtraining will lead to injury. So will tanking it on ice.

yesimpson

603reader wrote: »

The adrenaline on race day will contribute to shaving off probably a minute or so.

Speed work helps.

Overtraining will lead to injury. So will tanking it on ice.

Thanks - I'm hoping that race-day-adrenaline will do its part, just don't want to rely on it! By speed work, does that mean doing intervals? So like running faster than my usual comfortable pace for say a minute, then slower for a recovery phase, then faster again? Will that have some effect in under a month, or is it something to bear in mind for next time?

cheshirecatastrophe

Wow, if you're walking some of it, a 1:06 10K is pretty impressive! That's where I started last May, and I was running the whole time.

I'm not sure how much progress you can make in 4 weeks. I would definitely add in *one* more run per week: in the beginning, the best thing you can do to increase speed is simply to run more. (But don't add too much, too quickly; that way lies injury). In your case, I bet it would help with endurance as well. So maybe for the next month, swap one of your gym lifting sessions for a run, or split the difference?

The other thing would be to turn ONE run per week into "speed work", where you basically run short faster intervals and slower ones. If you have a way to measure distance, quarter or half mile repeats (depending on how far a run is for you) might work, or time-wise, maybe 2-3 minutes harder than easy, for a total of 5-10 depending on how you feel.

If your normal running route has hills and the race course doesn't, that's also an easy, natural way to add in bursts of harder effort.

hill8570

Cutting out the walking should get you down into the 10-minute-mile range. Not quite sub-hour, but getting close. For now, just work on increasing your endurance; once you're past the beginner stages, walking is often just a habit you have to break -- instead of walking, just reduce pace for a minute (shorter strides and cadence), and then pick it back up. Later on you can start doing some interval work (Zombies Run! is a fun way to start doing intervals), but I wouldn't bother for this upcoming race.

yesimpson

Thank you for your suggestions

ka97

Not sure how much progress you could realistically expect in 4 weeks. Based on your 5k pace, I'd say your best bet would be to try to eliminate the walking breaks.
In terms of long term progress, the best thing I ever did to improve my 10k time was to train for a half marathon.

neveragain84

ka97 wrote: »

Not sure how much progress you could realistically expect in 4 weeks. Based on your 5k pace, I'd say your best bet would be to try to eliminate the walking breaks.
In terms of long term progress, the best thing I ever did to improve my 10k time was to train for a half marathon.

Yep. This. It's the most realistic in terms of time. I'd also suggest to run on days that are decent in weather (if possible). When I started training for my first 5k, I started slow and eventually started running a 5k about every other day leading up to my race. Start there: try running a 10k distance without stopping and start increasing your duration/ distance so as to condition your body to the change. As always: don't try too hard too quickly.

Huppdiwupp

I think the adrenaline will shave off more than a minute, as long as you don't go out to fast - almost everyone starts too fast in their first races, and more than pays for it in the second half. In order to give you some training advice, and an educated guess on a target time, it would be important to know what your training has been like so far, how long ago you ran that 29min 5k, and what your training has been like since then. In general, it would not be a good idea to increase your volume too quickly. Four weeks out from a goal race is not enough time to really see benefits from training (unless you have done almost no running before). However, whether or not you can break 60 minutes in this race, if you stick to it, you'll almost certainly be able to break 60 minutes eventually.

girlwithcurls2

Trail running. I'm always surprised when I do an event how fast and "easy" it seems because I do all of my training on trails. For me, that is more about being in a gorgeous, forested state park than faster times for events, but it does make a difference when I get up onto the road.

yesimpson

Huppdiwupp wrote: »

Four weeks out from a goal race is not enough time to really see benefits from training (unless you have done almost no running before). However, whether or not you can break 60 minutes in this race, if you stick to it, you'll almost certainly be able to break 60 minutes eventually.

That's what I expected, realistically. Perhaps it is a target for the future, not the end of the month

I agree with hill8570 who said the walking breaks may be habitual rather than necessary - I don't tend to want a break unless I check the time so it might be psychological, and I only walk for a minute before starting up again, so I'll try just slowing my pace right down rather than walking and that might shave off a minute.

I ran the 5k in May, but I can still easily do that distance in that time and I do this fairly regularly when I don't have time for a longer run. As I mentioned in the OP I try to do 2 runs a week which I realise was not really enough, and I've not really had much of a plan besides trying to run further each time until I could do 10K, which in hindsight was not the most efficient use of my time.

I am definitely considering a half marathon in the future!