Is 6:20 min/km pace OK for beginner doing 10K ?

3 moths ago, I went to watch Atheletics in Olympics and after watching people like Oscat Pistorious , I had a sudden urge to turn my life around. I was a couch potato who had a gym membership for a while but visited it like a tourist. Started running on treadmill doing 1min running and 9 mins walking, I went upto 12mins running and 1 minute walking within 7 weeks. Then I started running outdoors and have been trying to pace myself up .

Even though I can finish 5K in 5:44min/km , I did my first 10K and did 11K in 6:20 min/km.

Is it good pace for a beginner ? What should I do to pacemyself up ? I want to be able to run 10K just under 50mins.

no, it's a terrible pace, you should be ashamed of yourself

don't worry about your pace, just enjoy your running. the more you do the faster you'll get.

Yes this is a good pace for a beginner.  Looking at the results of a recent 10k, a time of 62 minutes would have placed you roughly 2000th out of 3000 runners.  If you could shave 2 minutes off this time you would have jumped up roughly 200 places, so its easy to see a big difference from small improvements.

As you have only been running for 3 months, don't worry about speed sessions etc, just concentrate on adding a few miles to your weekly total and building up slowly.  You are likely to see big improvements by just continuing to run consistently as your body is waking up to the fact that you have become an active person.

Good luck! 

Hi Dev...  sounds brilliant that you've gone from couch to that in a few months.

I guess your age, sex, weight come into to an assessment of how good it is... but anyway, what do you want to compare it to?  It's really all about you, and how it makes you feel.

But for the record, I think 11K, at just better than 10 minutes per mile, is good for someone with so little experience.

If 10K is your target distance...  then keep on doing some nice longer runs.  Don't rush too much. Try and build up to 15K to get some stamina and endurance in your legs... and to strengthen muscles and ligaments before stressing them by going for speed. Only then start to inject a bit of pace for short stretches...   Do some interval training.  Really, there's a lot you can do. Have a look around the internet for structured programmes for improving 10K times for beginners....  it's too much detail to post here.  But you should definitely take encouragement for your achievement....  the mental achievement even more than the physical one!

Here's a good starter for 10k training...

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51122/10K-Novice-Training-Program

There are other distances on there too.

Thanks a lot guys. That definitely gives me enough direction to continue adding miles. My friend who is an ultra-runner also told me not to worry about speed , just continue running and add miles every week or two.

Just for everybody who has more valuable suggestions , I am 29, male and my weight is currently 73kgs ( although 3 months ago it was 75.5).

Can't add anything except to say well done and keep it up. Wrap up well in the cold weather!

i too am with peter good luck with everything and keep posting how training and races go 

I have been running a year now and my times are pretty close to yours. When I run parkruns nd enter events there arent too many men finishing behind me but there are some.

I look at it like this. 65% of adults in this country are not meeting the minimum recomended exercise. I like to think of all those millions eating my dust.

Sussex Runner (NLR) wrote (see)

Yes, well done. 6 minutes 20 seconds minutes per mile isn't too bad for a beginner.

That would be excellent for a beginner and 6:20 for a kilometre is still a great place to start from Dev

Starting is the most important thing and often the hardest so well done and your pace is perfectly respectable. As runners I guess we would all like to inspire others to start running or exercising - it's not what speed you run it's enough just to run.

Hi All

It was all going great until I got sick and had to rest at home. I thought it would go away so after 2 days I went for a run. I was out of breath within 5 hours but continued for 5K. The result was that I had a very high fever that night. I was told that I have viral fever.

Now I have started running again but my pace has dropped to 7minutes.

What you guys do when you recover from sickness ?

Firstly, you're still faster than me at 7min/km so don't panic!! Seriously though, if you are ill with a fever then you need to rest. I think that you should wait until you are feeling 100% again before you get your running shoes back on and then just take it slow and steady until you are back up to your usual speed.

Hope you feel better soon