Can I run 10k in 40 minutes with this training schedule?

That's a good parkrun time there Chucter, pb I assume?

I'd say you're nearly there for a 40 minute 10k based on 19:26 for a 5k. I ran 39:49 a week after a 19:10 so you're there or thereabouts.

I reckon that slightly longer intervals with shorter rest along with a few more miles on the long run, will definitely help in converting a 5k time into a 10k.

Iwan Jones 4 wrote (see)

Lou, that's simple, tell Ms D that YOU have a 5k planned!

Not so simple when you have two young kids to look after.

We are also getting married next weekend so yesterday Ms D spent the morning at the hairdressers -  I knew that there was a reason it wasn't convenient.  It will have to wait a few weeks now -  see if I can maintain training on my honeymoon.

Steady 10 miler instead yesterday afternoon - looks better on my weekly mileage anyway.

I think next race will be Coombe 8 (8.3miles so guarenteed pb).

Chuchter your 10k PB attempt on 10 November ... Same date as mine, I wonder if it's the same race? Mine is Self Transcendence 10k, Battersea Park - you?

I think you said your current PB is 42:30, mine is 40:51 though 41:58 is recent. Perhaps we could run/race together to spur us on?

[@cicerunner]

Hey Cicero,

It's actually a small race up in Elgin that will be the big PB attempt for me - that reminds me, I better enter! Good luck at Battersea Park though.

Iwan - 19.26 is indeed now my 5k best. If I can take a few more seconds off it in the next couple of Saturdays that'll boost my confidence. I work Friday nights until 2.30AM, getting up at 7.30 to prepare for the parkrun on a saturday. I like to tell myself that I'd be running a bit faster if I wasn't so sleepy!

When's the half marathon you're training for and how's the training going?

I'm gonna try 4x1000m at intervals at race pace this evening as well (my legs are quaking in fear...)

Hi Chucter,

Yeah that definitely doesn't sound like ideal parkrun preparation! Hard to tell how much difference it makes though. A few days of taper should have you in better shape for the 10k as well.

That sounds like a good session to start with, try maybe 2 minutes rest and reduce that gradually before adding more reps. Regarding pace, some people say do them at 5k/10k pace, however I generally like to do them as quick as I can whilst having enough in the tank to pick it up a bit on the last one.

My training is going very well, been doing a lot of long 6/7 mile half marathon pace runs and longer 1,000m/1,200m intervals and the improvement is huge since my 10k.

My race is on the 18th November but I have just found out that there is a 2 mile hill in the middle of the race, which has 400ft of total climbing. Possibly not ideal, but still confident I should be under 1:28. 

You guys sound like you are at a very similar stage to me.

10k pb (only done one) 41.46

5k pb (done two parkruns) 19.26

I got stuck in the group at the start of the 10k and fell over so I know I can go a fair bit quicker.  I'm certain I can go sub 19 for the Parkrun and Sub 40 for the 10k so just training hard right now to see where it can take me.  I've only just started to take this stuff seriously.

Entered my first marathon in April next year too so really looking forward to pitting myself against a longer distance.  A long, cold and dark winter of training in the north awaits me!

Well done on your progress chaps.

Hi Strangely. PBs that good this early in your running career bode really well. If perhaps you have youth on your side as well ... who knows!

New 5k PB today at Dulwich parkrun 19:50! Sub 20!!

Splits 3:58, 3:57, 3:56, 4:10, 3:49. My left shoe came untied in k4 and though I chose to ignore it perhaps it affected me more than I realised at the time.

Really pleased with the new time. Now perhaps sub 40 10k doesn't seem so far off.

Almost all my training at the moment consists of short runs - 8k typical - focussing on improving form for last 250m of every km. Following my Running School coaching this essentially means maintianing good posture, recycling feet quickly and so increasing cadence, keeping feet/landings soft and lfiting heels high so engaging glutes and hamstrings. Although I'm not aiming to make those 250m intervals fast the use of the technique inevitably seems to mean they are paced at around 3:40/km and the remaining 750m recovering so that I'm averaging about 5:00/km overall.Typically getting 2 or 3 such runs in each week plus parkrun on Saturday.

Great going Ciero, hearty congrats on the pb - even with an errant shoelace!  It's funny how many things can crop up to bugger up your runs.  I did a 6k tempo this morning but got terrible wind halfway through and had to walk a little until it passed - not something i've had to do on a run of any distance for 6 months or more.

By the way, I didn't mean to make myself out to be a total novice.  I have been running for 4 years but up until this summer, all I ever did was go out and run 5k as fast as I could 3 or 4 times a week and then the odd 10k once in a while.  I hadn'r run any competitive races.  It's only since this summer that i've learnt how to train properly and have upped my mileage from 10-15 mpw a week to 30-42 and entered some races off the back of it.  Sadly, age isn't on my side as much as i'd like it to be - i'm 34.

You sound as if you are a few stages ahead of me with your regime, i'm trying to introduce the speedwork bit by bit.  I thought i'd increase the miles first and then tempo runs (which I now do) and then intervals, hills etc further down the line.  Not worth risking doing too much too soon, right?

Sub 40 would be such a magic marrier to break eh?

Cicero, another good run this weekend, really making some good progress at the moment, that sub-40 can't be too far away now.

Strangely, if you look at the age of some people still winning races in some  very fast times you have plenty of improvement left at 34!

For me, I unfortunately sprained my ankle on Friday night and can barely walk let alone run at the moment (had to happen 3 weeks out so little chance to make up for any fitness lost). If I can't run again by the end of the week I think I'll have to abort the half marathon, which is very frustrating given the progress in training. Such is life...

Hi Iwan,

         Yeah, that's a fair point.  I realise i'm in the middle ground.  Not so young that the world is my oyster in running but not so old that great things may still not be impossible.  I am just accepting of the fact that every statistic available proves that maximum performance potential begins to dwindle (albeit slowly at first) at around 35/36 so in a couple of years time, I will always be working that little bit harder as i'll be fighting a natural decline that I wouldn't have been had I started 10 years ago.

           Going for my third parkrun on Saturday and am interested to see how much my extra mileage might help as it's it'll have been 4 weeks since my last one.

            Sorry to hear about your ankle, the most frustrating thing for a runner is wanting to run but being prevented by your body.  Hope you recover in time to run your HM.

Strangely still starting at 30ish leaves you in a great position. I do wish I'd started running that early. I started just before I hit 40.

A couiple of half remembered age related "facts" that I can't source anything to back up right now:

• typical runner will experience about 12 years of improvement regardless of starting age
• typical runner peaks at 27, but will be 43 before their performance returns to what it was at 19

Wish I could find some online quotes to re-assure my memory.

Hey Cicero,

    I think they sound around about right, i've read and heard similar.  So in reality, I have maybe another 8-9 years of progression available before thngs will invariably begin to tail off.  I'm more than happy with that to be honest and even after then, being a top performer for your age should carry an equal amount of kudos and sense of achievement as doing well overall at a younger age will.  There's always a target to be pushed for, always a goal to strive to hit.

      There's also that wonderful feeling of watching your mates start to blob out and moan about their age-related aches and pains as you bounce around as fit as a butcher's dog next to them

I started this year at the age of 38.  Took up running as I decided I definitely too old for martial arts - that really is a young man's game.

I don't expect to win any races, the only challenge is to gradually improve my times and avoid injury.  I am competetive though so I always see how a I compare against the faster guys at the club.

I was talking to a friend the other day, who was/is a very quick runner.  When I mentioned I had started running he leant in conspiritorially and wispered "you know the the thing about running is that you will get injured".

Chucter good luck tomorrow in Elgin. 

Good luck me in Battersea Park.

Race reports tomorrow afternoon ...

Muddy parkrun yesterday resulted in a new pb of 20:08.  So close.

*should have worn me Cascadias*

Nice going Lou, great feeling eh? 

45 miles for me this week, my biggest week.  Happy to report it was completed injury-less.

Looking forward to breaking the big 50 in the coming weeks.

My 10k in Battersea Park yesterday went well although I didn't quite PB 40:54 - 3 seconds outside. Splits 04:02, 04:02, 04:01, 04:01, 04:05, 04:03, 04:12, 04:12, 04:07, 04:09.

I just didn't have the stamina to maintain my pace. Up until k7 I felt really comfortable at the pace of around 4:00/km, but at that point fatigue hit. Time to up the mileage over the winter!

(I actually thought I was running at 4:00/km over the early kilometres, but my watch very slightly over recorded the distance as 10.1 km.)

Strangely Brown wrote (see)

Nice going Lou, great feeling eh? 

Nice to get a pb, but still a little disappointed not to break the magical 20min barrier.  I blame it on the mud - definitely eight seconds worth of slipping and sliding.