Speed Endurance for 10k?

Best of luck, your mentality is perfect. My best results have come when I've doubted that I'm ready for a target.

Watch that first 1/2 Km or so, you don't want to be much under 2:00 however easy it feels under the adrenaline of race day.

Whatever the result please let us know. Don't do anything remotely difficult on Friday or Saturday.

Done the race today, the weather was really bad raining very hard and extremely windy, it was a difficult race for me due to this and really struggled with the wind especially the last 5km.

Got the pacing off the start perfect was at the 1km mark at 4:02 and was at 5km at 20:10 but the wind on the way back really killed my race, finished with a time of 43:57. I'm happy with that considering the weather just hope it will be better conditions for the next one.

Thanks for all your help really has made a massive difference to my fitness.

Thanks Jamie

Top effort mate! You're right, the rain and wind were savage yesterday. Weather has ruined several of my PB attempts too. Those last two or three miles must have been absolute murder for you judging by the difference in 5k splits. Ouch!! 

Wind is probably the biggest problem, but rain soaks into footwear and increases their weight as the race goes on.

The good news is that there are quite alot of 10Ks, something tells me you'll enter another very soon. Fingers crossed for better weather next time......

I've got a 10K on the flat that I'm preparing for. The race is on 18th October and I'm hoping for a PB. My current 10K PB is 37:10 as of last March and I'm hoping that all the hard training this summer will pay off and I'll get somewhere sub 37 (anything that starts with a 36 would be very nice).

I did a nice quality session on Friday:

4 x mile reps with 1 min recovery. This is the best I've performed over this workout. Average heart rates were early to mid 170s, with a peak of 178.

1) 5:50

2) 5:48

3) 5:45

4) 5:49

I also did a nice 13.1 mile easy run on Saturday at 7:28 pace. Average heart rate was 152BPM.

Nice one, Good luck in that 10k hope you get under that 37min.

That session sounds very good fair play, very consistant on the reps.

Which 10k you doing on the 18th?

Cheers fella....it pays to track those quarter miles

I'm based on the Isle of Man and the 10k is a 12.5 lap road run around our national sports centre on the flat. Not a 10k for views/scenery etc. But a good PB opportunity.

Nice one that sounds good.

Im going to start doing a few track speed sessions into my training to see if it will help get my 10k pb down, going to set a big target for the 10k in december say sub 38min, got two months so should be ok lol

any tips for doing speed sessions? or any advice what sessions to do?

Hi Cliff,

The bread and butter of my training is two quality sessions a week and one longer run at the weekend. My quality days are usually Monday and Thursday and the longer run is on Saturday (12-14 miles at easy pace 7:20-7:30). The rest of the week is filled up with easy running (7-8min/mile pace) plus a gym workout (full body weights workout with fairly high reps & abdominal work, plus 20-30 mins boxing training, either jump rope/bag work/speedball or sometimes exercise bike). I aim for 50 miles a week plus the gym work/cross training.

As for quality workouts, I tend to rotate them over the weeks as follows:

1) Track session to include 7 x 200 metres, 7 x 400 metres, 7 x 300 metres slow with fast final 100 metres. All with 1 min rest.

2) Hill session: A 5-6 mile easy run separated by two blocks of 13 mins of running up and down two of the steepest hills I know of locally.

3) Session of 8 x 1/2 miles on a measured flat road circuit. Again 1 min rest.

4) Tempo run, 5-6 miles at 15 seconds per mile slower than 10K race pace.

5) Session of 4 x 1 mile again on the measured flat road circuit. 1 min rest

6) Lactate session: Easy running for 3 mins then sprint as fast as possible for 1 min. Repeat for 7 reps, no stopping. Nasty session!!

7) 5k - 4 mile time trial at predicted 10K pace. 

All these require a good warmup!!

What I do really depends on my mood and whether there is a race looming, but I don't like to go three quality days without a track session or a hill session as a general rule.

Many folks are very secretive about their training, I'll tell anyone exactly what I do.....I like to see people smash their PBs and this lot have served me well!

That all sounds very good, thanks for sharing your info.

I did my first track session since around 4 years today, was nice to go running on a track again for a change. I did 5 x 200m with 1 min jog recovery (1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down) I ran them just outside my comfort zone and did not push too hard used it as an introduction to get back into track sessions.

splits:-

1) 34sec

2) 38sec

3) 37sec

4) 36sec

5) 39sec

Those 200s aren't much fun are they!? Try mixing them up with quarter mile reps, nasty!

I've been concentrating on this 10K I have on the 18th.

On Friday I did this session with 1 min recoveries:

1.5 mile) 8:42  average 166BPM

1 mile) 5:47 average 173BPM

1 mile) 5:48 average 172BPM

1 mile) 5:49 average 173BPM

And yesterday:

2mile) 11:37 average 170BPM

0.5mile) 2:55 average 167BPM

0.5mile) 2:51 average 168BPM

0.5mile) 2:52 average 167BPM

0.5mile) 2:54 average 165BPM

My hope is to run the 10K with a 5:50/mile average. But judging by the 2 miles yesterday, it might be a touch ambitious. My follow up race pace half mile reps proved that I still had zip left in my legs, but the 2 miles did seem to take me a bit into oxygen debt. I was grateful for the minute rests.

My goal is to get up to a 4 mile race pace time trial a week before the race. If I can do that, I've got a feeling I might crack 37 min for the first time......though it'll hurt!!!

Yea totally agree, the first 200m is always ok but the rest of them are not fun at all, but worth doing i suppose. yea next time will try ading a few quarter miles to change it around a bit.

Those sessions sound like murder, fair play to you they are very good. Keep up the hard work and im sure you will smash that 37min barrier.

Thanks bud,

Its by no means certain though. I've been trying all year to crack 37!

Fair enough, nothing is easy in this sport. lol

Update:

Last Friday's workout was 10x 0.5 mile reps with 1 min rest at predicted 10K race pace with 1 min recovery between each rep. They averaged out at 2:53 per rep, where 'hopeful' race pace will be 2:55 for each half mile in next week's 10K.

On Monday, I attempted a 5K time trial at predicted 10k race pace and came in at 18:11......so hopefully still on course for my first sub 37 min 10K.

Tomorrow is 4 miles at 10K race pace. If I can blag this in around 23:30 I'm hoping that I'm on course for the race on the 18th......

Hi Steven,

Yea, specific speedwork for 10K training is tough! I do reps of everything from 200m to 1.5 miles. But only two speedwork sessions a week, the rest is made up with a long run at 7:20-7:30 pace and other lower distance easy runs to fill up the rest of the week.

I do like to do time trials at 10k race pace which is what I've concentrated on in the last few weeks. Nothing replicates the expected breathlessness or discomfort quite the same. Monday was 5K at 10K pace, today was 4 miles.

As for the 4 miles I thought I did ok, I was hoping for 23:30 and came in at 23:25. I'm just hoping that I can squeeze another 2 & 1/4 miles on top of this at the same pace on race day next Thursday. The four miles weren't exactly easy......

Fair play Jamie some tough sessions you have done there in the last few weeks, good  luck with the race, hope you smash the time. did a hills session today, pushed hard up the hills then slow jog down 10 reps, starting to feel much fitter now too recovering after each session fairly quickly, no stiffness or feeling tired the next day. 

p.s. welcome steven and andy nice to have a few more join in on this thread