10 weeks until my first 10K Advice Please

Hi all,

I'm 3 runs away from completing my c210k program & on my last session ran 9.57km in 60 mins with no stopping!

In just under 10 weeks I will be running my first 10k at the Bupa 10k up in London.

What I'm really after is some advice on what to do once I complete the program? I don't want to overtrain & risk injury nearer the event but also don't want to flat line too much & not have enough miles in the tank come race day.

I'm going to be doing a few 5k parkruns to get me used to running in a crowd.

All advice welcome image

Regards

Jonathan

Comments

  • stutyrstutyr ✭✭✭

    Congratulations on (almost) completiing the C 2 10k program.

    What you need is a beginner's training schedule for he 10k distance, similar to the ones available on this web site:

    http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/rws-8-week-10k-schedule-3-days-per-week/76.html

    This ones 8 weeks long, so it should follow almost seamlessly on from the compltion of your current plan.  If you have nine weeks to go, you could either repeat the first week of the plan or start the plan a week early and give yourself a week's contingency in case of injury or illness.

  • Hi Stutyr

    Thanks for this. The problem I have with these types of plans is how do I know how far 400m is etc for the sprint parts?

    I guess I like the comfort of running for a particular period of time followed by walk breaks or recently no walk breaks.

    Would a plan of running a 5k for the pace session then a 10k reasonable pace followed by a slower longer run on a Sunday be OK?

     

  • stutyrstutyr ✭✭✭

    Don't worry about pace yet.  Keep your runs at an easy pace (i.e. be able to hold a conversation without breathing difficulties).  You body needs to adapt to the time on your feet and the running action, and it does this at any pace. If you run faster it has the additional burden of repairing the additional micro-damage caused by running faster, meaning it has less time to "learn" the adaptations. This sounds counter-intuitive but you will get faster by running slower (and doing the opposite is a common beginner's mistake).

    If you are doing three runs a week, do two shorter ones during the week and a longer one at the weekend.  Gradually extend your mileage by no more than 10% per week.  If you want to add some speed into your training (bearing in mind the previous advice) you could add it into one of your week-day runs, alternating short fast sprints one week, with the middle miles at a comfortably hard pace (i.e. not struggling but breathing is too hard to hold a conversation) the next week.  Don't do two speed sessions in a single week.

    If you haven't got a way of measuring the distance (e.g. phone with GPS or a garmin forerunner) you can probably find plans that base it on time (e.g. run 30 mins with the middle ten at a comfortably hard pace.  The benefit of plans is that they take into account all the key ground rules, and you don't have to worry about them.

     

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