Increasing my pace for 10k

I get sometimes ashamed to tell people I still finish 10K in 1hr 05mins. I am running slowly and trying to pace up but even a small break from running put me back to where I was at the start. I am not looking for a overnight solution really but open to suggestion from everyone .

I have been trying to do interval training which I found good so far.I did last 10K in 1hr which is 5min improvement. The basic training is running 5mins on the treadmill at 9miles/hr , then increase to 10 for another 5mins , then 10.5 for another 5mins , then to 11 for another 5 . After that decrease it slowly at the same rate.Next week instead of starting at 9 , I am going to start at 9.5 and will take it to 11.5.And after 2 weeks , will start at 10 and take it to 12.

Anything else which has worked for you ?

 

Comments

  • Do you do all your training runs on the treadmill?

    If so, perhaps add in some outside running, to be more used to that on race day.

     

  • Hmmm, newbie here but something appears wrong, if you can run at 11mph for 5 minutes (ok, short of a mile) then with the proper training you should be able to run 10k in around 41:27 (according to Macmillan). Have you looked at any 10k training plans on here or the web in general? 

    What running do you do other than the interval training? Oh, and congrats on the 60min 10k, something I'm yet to achieve.

  • my money is on the treadmill units being in km/h and not miles/hr

     

  • stutyrstutyr ✭✭✭

    Not sure what you are trying to achieve with the increasing speed.  Also, I'm guessing the speedo on your treadmill is broken, as doing intervals at 10mph would be about the speed for a sub 40 min 10k runner.

    There's two basic types of speed sessions:

    Intervals.  To do this run at your 5k pace for a short distance (try 400m to start with) multiple times with a short break in between (e.g. roughly 50 to 75% of the interval distance).  The intention is to run all intervals at a consistent pace, and the last interval should be very hard to maintain the pace throughout.  This takes a bit of practice, so it may take a couple of attempts before you find the right pace. Try starting with 5x 400m and then adding another interval every few weeks once you've found your target pace (you can also modify the length of the interval upto 600m, whilst reducing the number of repeats to cover a similar distance - e.g. 6 x 400 or 4 x 600).  For a 10k runner, you probably don't need to go beyond 600ms per interval.

    Tempo runs are the other speed work, where you run at a pace equivalent to your current 10k speed for a longer distance but not the full race distance (e.g. 3 miles at 10k pace plus running a mile before and a mile after to bring the total up to five miles).  

    I wouldn't worry about pyramid intervals and any of the other more complicated routines at the moment.  You start using these once you've plateaued with the simpler approaches.  Do one of each of these sessions mentioned above per week, plus a couple of easy runs and you should see a marked improvement after a couple of months.

  • I really apologise. Yes, the speed in km/h , not miles/hr.

    @ stutyr , good idea. I will try that as well. How frequently do you think I need to do it ? I am running 2 days on treadmill and 2 days outside. I do treadmill as it is easier for me to maintain the pace and look at the intervals . I put the inclination on level1 all the time.

  • stutyrstutyr ✭✭✭

    If your running four times a week, then 1 interval session and 1 tempo session per week, with the other two runs at an easy pace.  You'll want a day or so between the interval & tempo runs, so ideally you should do a slower run in between the two sessions (if this fits with your weekly routine).

    I'm not a fan of treadmills myself, so don't have first-hand experience of it - but I'd think it would be better/easier to do the intervals on the treadmill and the tempo outside. 

  • I just ran my first 10km today. 1hour 25! So at least you're not as slow as me. And FWIW I find it amazing that anyone can do this in an hour or less.
  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭
    It is amazing what happens when you just keep plodding on in training last month I went from 69m to 63m this week cracked 30m for 5k I still don't think I'll ever do it but it's amazing how the times come down just trough running not fast it's just putting in enough miles, if you make a weekly long slow run Over 10k you will start to find your stamina increases and you just power through the line
  • I finish first 5K in 28mins and the next 5K in around 37 mins.. I went for a run yesterday which is a bit hilly terrain and did my 10K in 63 mins. My ultimate goal is to do it under 50 mins ( will possibly take another 3months to do if I stick to my schedule)

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭
    That sounds uneven unless the second half is a lot steeper that sounds to me like you should go a bit slower on the first half and have more energy for the second half?
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