Help me break 30mins for 10km!!

Thanks for the encouragement and advice guys I am aiming to break 30 mins at the Ribble Valley 10km in December it is quite a fast course with the course record standing at 29:33 by Tomas Abyu Salford Harriers, my other aims are over xc with the lancs champs, northerns, nationals ans inters counties to contest.

I am going to start to include a tempo run on a thursday night over the next few months instead of a short rep track session that I usually do and see how things develop. I do have a coach Dave but sometimes feel I would like some more advice from people who have run sub 30 like yourself, most of my sessions are with very short recoveries with rests of 30 seconds-2mins totalling between 5km - 10km on the track I am also going to try and put together a couple of 100 mile weeks and a few hill sessions over the winter between 1-5 minutes.I do primarily train on my own apart from tuesdays and thursday night.

good luck Ben, its great to see someone striving to achieve and not being too proud to ask for outside help.

If you dont think your coach can help you, then expalin it nicely to him and then find another one. Is your coach attending the National Endurance Coaching day at Stratford today ? Do a high percentage of the athletes he coaches improve ?

Find a UK based coach/advisor who will work with you - Davidc was right.

Davenorman you are a legend!

The rest of you should also have a look at

www.uniathletics.proboards76.com

- that's where his training log is. Also would be good if the yank section got a bit more lively!

The Ribble Valley 10km is a tough road 10km and so if you feel your in shape to run sub 30 minutes there I an 100% certain you are ready to run 29.30 on a flat ish 10km course. Look at past results and see how many guys have broken 30 and you will see some decent athletes, you will also see some good ones who haven't broke 30 on that course. I'm sure there will be other quality 10km's coming up in the next few months as well so best of luck.

milage. slowly build it up over the next few months along with the current workouts. you seem to be on the right track.

Ben, I ran 29.42 this summer, I have a similar 5k time to you 14.10, to be honest I haven't run many 10k's.

I think the big difference for me was that year I began to increase my mileage, from about 75-80 to about 90-95 2/3 years ago. I would say that I rarely run close to threshold on my training runs, I might do one run every 2 weeks which comes close to threshold, I try to make my sessions on the track and road hard and the rest of my running is pretty comfortable, I probably run around 100mpw now, I have found it is the only way I can get the miles in without breaking down and I run better doing that than running fewer miles at a quicker pace.

I also think longer rep sessions on the track give you the confidence to run 10k and also allow you to learn to run at/close to race pace in a relaxed manner, as well as improving concentration, so sessions like 5 x 1600 (200 jog) or 4 x 2k (200 jog) just inside your goal pace should be of benefit. I have done a lot of sessions like this in the past on my own, so when you come to race at that pace mentally it is much easier.

The third thing I would say is that it will just happen, I am still improving now and everybody develops at different rates, you are running 14.14 at a much younger age than me and I wouldn't be surprised if you stick at it you will go below 14.00 and get close to 29.00 with the right approach.

Good luck.

Ahhhhh, Mr Wardle, the voice of reason!

Top post. Ben, both DCh and DW have given you very good advice there matey, no need to dig any deeper. Now though, you need to discuss this with your coach and see if he can actually help you make the next step.

You might also be better off by giving yourself a longer period to make the neccessary adjustments to your training, and for them to take effect. I would probably aim at a February 10k myself....maybe Bourton-on-the-Water, which has a great reputation for being fast.

Good luck.

Hi guys ran 31:33 at the Accrington 10km this weekend, the course is very difficult indeed and hilly, not that far behind the record of 31:03 set in 1993 by Pete Banks of Blackburn who I think has run 64 mins for the half marathon!! Won by nearly 2 minutes so wasn't pushed at all. Think the time is worth around a minute quicker on a fsater course so I am on my way to a sub 30 hopefully next year.

results:

http://www.ukroadraces.net/races2006/accrington10k2006.htm

Main aims for the next few months are to win lancs xc, go sub 30 at ribble valley 10km but would be happy with sub 30:30, place top 6 in the northern xc (8th last year) and top 20 in national and inter counties xc if all goes well.

What college did you run for?

Muggins,

Im up in Van Cortlandt in the Bronx quite a bit, and coach a few guys who train there regularly...if you are anywhere near it, thats an ideal place for you to train...

Ive worked with some post collegiate guys, some from Fordham, some from Iona, some from other schools out of state here and there. Basically, what I do is have anyone interested send me a detailed email of their background, goals, and as much recent training/racing info they can provide me, that way I have enough feedback to really create a program for them...I am actually in the final stages of forming a track club out of Queens with another coach, well actually NYC, with some athletes who want to keep racing after college, during, before, etc...

I like to combine all the factors, good training, flexibility/injury prevention, some strength training, plyometrics to provide an athlete in order to be well rounded and able to handle anything in training or a race...bottom line is, I want to get you running faster than you have ever run before...

if you are really interested, email me an Ill get back to you...

Jason

jcerge@yahoo.com

Ben, if you really want to run as well as you can then get hold of somebody who can help you as soon as possible. I suspect that you are prepared to train quite hard, although I dont know how hard. The training you outlined can and should be improved. Dont waste time, do something about it now !

PS I dont live anywhere near you, and am not looking for business.

Muggins,

I am in NY regularly, live here, and am available to talk, give feedback, help you out in any capacity...I am not looking for business either, or money so dont worry about that...

Itd be my pleasure to help you out

Hi Ben, I hope you don't mind me putting in my tuppence worth!!

At first glance there is obviously not much wrong with what you are doing, however one or two slight changes I'd think of making are as follows:-

Assuming Sunday's long run is easy pace perhaps you could have an easy am run on the Monday of say 5 miles followed by 6/7 miles at a nippier pace in the evening.

A 10k pace track session on the Tuesday is fine but on Thursday - during the Winter at least - I'd head out on the roads for some hill work or tempo type runs. We often do a loop of about 900m (8 in all) which includes a steepish hill climb, amongst other sessions we do.

I would also cut down Fridays' mileage to say 5 or 6 and make this a much easier day - you'll feel fresher for the next days session.

As for Saturday, I would try to vary the work done on this day as much as you can depenent upon what you have been doing in the week, i.e. tempo run one week or intervals / fartlek of work mixing longer efforts with some shorter ones,with an easy 5 miles in the evening.

Best of luck and if you're ever near Liverpool on a Tuesday evening please feel free to come an join McGlory, Mellor and the other lads. Tom Cornthwaite seemed to enjoy his short time with us!!

that 14.14 5k at solihull was an awesome performance. i was in that race +running with you until 2-3 laps to go, before you took 15 secs out of me over the last 1k mile! do you know what your last lap/1k was that day? surely if you get in the right race you should be easily capable of a sub 30mins 10k next season.

Thanks for the offer, but ive just been offered work in Utah today. Not sure i can work and run, so i gotta take the salary and put the running aside for now.

Good luck with the track club.

Perhaps you can have a chat with Mr Norman, and even Mr Riley, on your trip to Tilburg. Not certain that they will agree with me, that you need a good coach, but they might be able to help you somehow.

...and also check out Pete Pfitzinger's stuff via www.pfitzinger.com and Human Kinetics publishers . Chances are that, in addition to quality of personal coach as several have ref'd above, you'll get the most out of yourself if you have a really clear idea of exactly what every part of your running is about and i find Pfitz a gem in explaining this with just the right mixture of science balanced with sensible practical application. He covers all the bases of elite athlete/physiologist/coach/ communicator.