Speed Endurance for 10k?

That's interesting - I found it quite easy to adjust.  A few easy runs of really concentrating on it, pointing my toes slightly downwards, and landing below my centre of gravity and I do it fairly naturally now.

I probably still heel strike a little bit, but I used to have to run with knee supports and sometimes ankle supports - none of that is necessary now and I'm covering much more miles than I used to!

I only just thought about checking my cadence this week - very basic calculation, but counted my steps over 20 seconds and multiplied by 3.  I'm pretty much bang on 180 on slower runs, so happy with that!

1:30:09 for HM on Sunday. Obviously I would have been happier it it had been 10 seconds faster, but fairly please with that considering disrupted training over the last couple of months.

I think I developed slight strain in my left calf again, so I'll probably take a couple of weeks off completely to see if I can sort it out properly.  Might be an opportunity to get my bike out - hope I can remember how to ride it.  I can see toe clip embarassment ahead.

I'm a mid-foot striker, but when I got gait analysed when I bought my first pair of shoes I was told I overpronate.  I still buy stability shoes, but think they probably don't really make much difference.  But if it ain't broke.....

andy the deestrider wrote (see)

Jamie - good luck at your race. The 8 mins was a long time to be working hard especially after about 7 mins. am thinking this might be a regular session because sometimes after half a dozen reps I loose track of reps because me head gets fried but If the rep is 8mins an recovery is 2mins its really simple then. 10mins is 1rep
20mins is 2reps and so on. Might go for 2min recoverys next week rather than 2:30, and see how I manage with that. If I manage 4 x 1.5m with 2min walk recoveries i'll have a go at adding another rep as and when able to complete one extra.

Thanks Andy, yea sub 8:00 in 1.55 miles would be very nice. If there is no headwind there is a slim chance I'll pull it off. I need 5:10 mile pace; I did 5:18 pace over a 1.71 course with a hill last week....whereas, this is completely on the flat. I'm probably being ambitious, but hell I'll run my guts out and see how it goes.

I did do a steady effort over the course yesterday and there was a strong headwind throughout. Not a hope I'd get close without total calm or a following wind however.

andy the deestrider wrote (see)

Jamie You never know. You may manage sub 8 but I wouldn't dwell on it though. Jury do your best an see what happens. I'm rapidly going off the method of runing to pace because I've found if you practice runing to feel you get to know what effort you can sustain for any given distance. I've noticed most out the time that in local races everyone sets off at a faster pace than what they can sustain which means they are just filing there legs with lactic acid sooner so they have to slow down more. With having a staedy start I seem to be passing people in every race why they dont learn is beyond me. In my last race (trafford 10k) there was a guy videoing about 100yds in to race and I was in about 100th place. I ran every mile pretty much the same pace but finnished in 53rd.

Sorry to go on but I really think most runners would run better times if they coukd just start sensibly at paces they can realistically sustain.

Amen to that; even our best local runners don't seem to be able to run even paced efforts over a flat 10K. Its easy to fall into the bad habit of a fast start with start line adrenaline. Even pacing is surely the way to better times.

So, that's all the training runs done...  Did an easy 3.7 miles this morning (averaged 8:44 pace, which feels so slow now!)

Will head out on my bike for a few miles tomorrow but that's me all trained up and ready to go for Sunday.  Unless something goes horribly wrong, I'll smash my PB - let's just hope I can get down to about 42 minutes on the day.  Fingers crossed 

Hi Calum,

Watch that first quarter mile carefully; try to keep it to race pace. Most PB attempts are ruined in the first quarter mile by starting too fast with start line adrenaline and bashing too soon into oxygen debt.

Your true race pace will feel very slow early on, so best to trust your Garmin.

Jamie - cheers.  I learnt the lesson on my 4 mile time trial last week that I can't sustain 6:30ish per mile yet, so will slow it down to 6:50 and see how I go from there.  I'm hoping that with it being race day that I'll manage a negative split, but I'm confident that I'll at least get a 42:xx time.  Time will tell though...

Brilliant strategy Calum.....

So, just back from the 10k.  Came in at just under 43 minutes.  Don't know the official time, but I stopped my Garmin at 43:02 (having forgotten to stop it for a few seconds at the finish).  I'm happy enough with that but think I could have ran the second half a bit more aggressively - I was just too worried about burning myself out too early I think.  The conditions weren't great either - just as I was picking up the pace on mile 5 on a nice downhill, I came round a corner onto the flat to be met with a strong headwind, ruining the momentum I'd picked up on the hill.

Splits according to my Garmin:  6:40, 6:48, 7:04, 6:56, 7:00, 6:53, 1:39.

I was really holding back on the first mile, and still ran it a bit quicker than intended - that's probably the reason for the 7:04 on mile 3 (there was a 96 feet elevation gain and it was into the wind as well!).  I did notice loads of people going flying off ahead of me that I overtook by about mile 3 or 4.

Overall I felt strong throughout though and definitely think on a better day / with more confidence, I could have been closer to 42, but it's still a decent PB in less than ideal conditions!

Thanks for the training and race day tips on this thread!

Now eagerly waiting for the official times and to see where I placed out of the 900 runners.  I gave myself an aim of top 50, I might be just outside that, there seemed to be a decent amount of folk ahead of me for most of the race.

Good work Calum, thats a very mature set of splits. The first mile is always very strange, even when you want to run it slower, the split often ends up quick.

As for headwinds, I feel your frustration. There is no greater hindrance to a PB opportunity!!!

Jamie - thanks.  The "even-ness" of the splits is what I'm most pleased with.  I definitely went past far more runners than went past me.  I did a bit of "racing" as well which was fun - gradually picking off runners, running on their shoulder and then going past them!  In the second half of any event I've taken part of before, I'm just concentrating on staying upright and getting to the end anyway I can.  It's far more fun doing it this way!

I raced a girl who looked like she was taking it seriously (I saw her at the start in her full club kit etc. and figured she'd know what she was doing and as she lined up beside me, she'd be going for a similar time).  (She didn't realise I was racing her specifically, but I get the impression she was racing me too!)  She took off a bit quicker than me but I made ground on her until about mile 4 and then drew level with her and eased past her and stayed there for the next mile or so - she went past me with about half a mile to go but I blew her away in the sprint finish.  

I did also race a young guy running in jogging bottoms and a hoody (!) - he looked and sounded exhausted before we got to mile 2, but he was always just in front or just behind me for the rest of the race.  I thought I'd left him behind in the final mile but he went past me on the final straight and I just couldn't catch him!!

Next target - Half Marathon on 26th May (Campeltown Half - www.mokrun.com)

My Half Marathon PB is a pedestrian 1:54 - I could beat that tomorrow with no extra training!  I'm going to try and gun down 1:30ish - wish me luck 

Nice to hear from all you guy going well in  your races, im going to do a 10 mile race easter sunday, not expecting too much, my PB on this race in 2008 was 68:48 but due to lack of training be more like 75-80min this year, oh well got all summer to train to get that sub40 10k hopefully this year in September, fingers crossed

Best of luck Cliff!

I just looked up my previous 10k PBs to find out what they were exactly.  Turns out I over-estimated my performance!

I ran 46:51 in 2004 and 46:52 in 2009 (and 51:13 and 53:57 in 2010 - they were off of zero training - they hurt far more than any other 10k I've done!!), so I took nearly 4 minutes off my PB yesterday!  Got to be chuffed with that!

I don't think many have been feeling amazing Andy. I had norovirus at the weekend and seem to be coming down with a cold. The cold/icy/snowy weather and ridiculous winds have near as dammit halted speedwork too.

Anyway, moan over. I hope your calf improves. A few eccentric exercises should surely help that one out.

I've got a 5K race at the weekend. Fingers crossed the winds die down.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to do 3 mile reps at 5K pace if conditions aren't too bad......

Got back out training yesterday morning - quite chuffed with the session just 2 days after the 10k pb effort.

1 mile - 6:18

400m recovery

2 miles - 6:34 / 6:51

800m recovery

800m - 3:41 (up a steep hill!)

400m recovery

800m - 3:11

I was aiming for a bit quicker than that but didn't want to push it too hard just 2 days after the race.

Stretching and core strength exercises this morning and heading out for a 5 mile tempo run tomorrow morning.  We've just had a fresh couple of inches of snow in Aberdeenshire!  When is it going to bugger off!?