How have your 10k times improved?

Hi Jay - many grats on doing your 1st 10k!  Glad to hear you've got the bug

Here's my progression:

I'm female age 37

2005 - 50:29 (just started running)
2006 - 46:08 (first full year of training with my running club)
2007 - 45:18
2008 - 43:52
2009 - 46:41 (though I have been injured / ill for every 10k I've done this year)

I'm hoping to crack 43:30 next year, barring injury again, I lost a load of fitness it the beginning of this year with a pretty bad ankle ligaments problem and never quite got back to form.  With any luck some good winter training will see me in good stead for next years spring 10ks.

hi jay,

wow your first 10k time is pretty impressive.  I started running about 18 months ago, initially to lose weight ( i was 28 yo and 16.5 stone at the time)  My first official 10k was in sept 08 and i did it in 55.32, i had a race today (i'm now 29 yo and 13.5 stone) and i finished in a pb of 43.31 so thats a full 12 minutes off my time in about 13 months or so, shows it can be done, although you must be pretty fit to begin with.  for me shedding weight has made the running much easier.

thats a very respectable time and if you join a running club and stick with it you could improve it quite dramatically in a reasonably short space of time.  hope this helps.

Hi Jay

I did my first 10k in Sep 08 aged 41 and 14st10 in 55.36.

My most recent was last month aged 42 1/2 , 13st6 and in 50.36.

Got another in the morning and hoping to go sub 50.

That's a really good time for a first 10k Jay and at your age you've got more than 10 years of improving ahead of you.

I'm 35 and i've been running for a couple of years now.My first 10 k was in 57 mins and the last one I did which was in April this year was 47 mins 37 secs but since then I've been injured and only started running again about eight weeks ago so it remains to be seen how much that will have added to my times.

Keep it up and make sure you enjoy your running and it doesn't become a chore and your times will improve.

Jay - tidy 10k debut!  Hope you can take some inspiration from my progression, since I started at a similar pace - at the age of 34.

debut  Oct 06 - 40:15
Dec 06 - 39:39
Jun 07 - 37:51
Jun 07 - 37:07
Jul 07 - 36:47
Aug 07 - 36:01
Mar 09 - 34:57
Aug 09 - 34:26
Oct 09 - 33:25 - current pb.

There's a cautionary tale in there. One of the reasons I went 18 months without racing a 10k is that I had an ITB injury (virtually no running for 3 months, another few months getting back up to speed).  You can look forward to a good few years of progression, but be patient, train sensibly and consistently and the improvements will come. Injury and illness may scupper completely smooth progression from time to time, but how you deal with this is just as important as how you train when you're fit and well.  You've got a lot years of running ahead of you. Enjoy!

started running Sept 2004 - first 5k then

first 10k 2005 - 1.07

this year - 54.55

(V45 category now)

I've always wanted to ask this question, seems most people have seen more progression than me, but maybe they took it easier on their early races.

I am female, 29 (almost 30) and think mine has gone from 62:02 to 58:48 in two years, although I don't train as hard as I could (three runs a week normally in the run up to a race).  A 40 min 10k debut is pretty good though.

Jay - I did my pb off marathon training, generally 6 days/wk, ~65-75mpw. Initial improvements came from basically increasing the mileage, then after a year or so I joined a club and did more faster training including track work.  I'd thoroughly recommend joining a club if you haven't done already.

 hi all. i really enjoyed reading this thread. its also something ive though about. today i ran my first 10k in 50.15  . ive only been running 6 months so from couch potatoe to this, i guess i should be happy? 

i guess i need to loose a bit more weight ( 5 ft 6 + 76kg ) and  increase my speedwork.

Only been running since April. Fastest 10K to date has been just under 50mins. I only run for cause I can, pretty sure I could beat this time in a competitive situation. At the moment concentrating on form and stamina rather than PB's.

My usual 10K I run slow for the first 10mins to warm up, I'm hoping for 45mins or less next year.

Hi

Doing my first 10k soon and think will prob be about 1hr 9min though would like it to be closer to just over the hour. Have done 5k and a half marathon so looking fwd to this one. Mind you, just completing it and not embarrassing myself is the aim! Been running about 6 months or so.

Am in awe of you lot who run under 1o min miles!

1st 59.18 4 years ago

PB 49.18 2 years ago

48 years old, nearly 49. Started running 5 years ago.

Most proud of 1.20.11 last weekend, March G3 course XC, 35lb pack and military boots. Still hurts.

I started running properly in the summer of 2008, only doing about 15 mpw though and really irregularly. Didn't train for about 2 weeks over Christmas and went in for my first 10k on January the 4th on a really hilly route. Ended up doing 53:33, which I though was pretty good considering.

My progression since then has been something like this:

April 09: 48:00

May 09: 47:00 (yes, both of the previous times were exactly on the minute)

September 09: 43:30 (time trial, not a race)

December 09: 40:30 (predicted, race on the 20th)