Stuck on 37 minute 10K

No, ...there is no need for it. Wasted time I say. :)

- Magic Man -

I would get back up to 60 miles/week. 2 years of running really isn't a ton in the grand scheme of things -- just keep logging consistent mileage + workouts & the times will follow.

I would think about your tempo + interval session days. I wouldn't do them back to back. 1 on Tuesday & 1 on Friday. For intervals, 6 x 800 has its place but try to build up your volume @ 10k-threshold by doing 10-12 x 800 @ 10k or 15 x 800 @ T. I don't know what you're doing for rest but try to keep it short.

5 miles @ 6:30 is fine but play around with stuff like 3 miles @ 6:30, 2 @ 6:15, 1 @ 6-flat, instead of just always rolling ~half marathon pace. You can also move your tempo into your long run every other or every third week. Even just 3-4 miles later in the run at marathon pace. Some progression type stuff should be beneficial for you. You should be running your long runs (at least some of them) faster than 8:00-8:15 pace.

I honestly don't recall any tempo runs, not sure Galloway had them back then! The original book is long out of print (1984), it was called Galloways Book on Running, title was white LED font on red rectangle, Galloway is on cover with red/white/black kit, maybe still on ebay. What I did start doing near end of plan was racing 5ks, and there was also an XC series that i ran (in spikes) a few times, typically 6-8k, so i guess that was my tempo. The mile repeats were quite hard, barely catching my breath before the next (i think they were 540s).

One other big diff from your plan was i never really ran slow for my level, generally 700-730, occasionally 740s if sore from 400s day before (though i did run slower when upto 60mpw years later). This may have been a mistake on my part, as i often felt close to injury so i wouldn't necessarily recommend this. Also i was more a speed type, compared to running friends, i recall comfortably beating a low 35min 10k guy in a 400m race about 10mins after he totally waxed me in a 3000m run. I ran XC in grades 7-9, all my buddies easily beat me except in sprints. Possibly 25+ years of hockey/baseball/football upregulated sprinting ability.

Now i see my advice is rather sketchy and imprecise, i will dig into some old file folders to see if i kept some paper logs. I just found it interesting we were in the same place at one point in time. Good luck!

Hehe! Well, I can add that you are just a rookie making mistakes.

Hi,

I haven't read the replies, so if repeated, I apologize.

Consider peaking for races.

Ala Arthur Lydiard.

If you can run 60 miles per week, that's not bad. Considering age et al, I would look at more though, for a spell. So, perhaps look at a period of 12 weeks and get in 70-80-miles per week and for your quality during that period, just do one fartlek session per week strictly by feel. Do not look at the watch, do not strain.

Vary the efforts, but no super hard running. Easy, medium, steady and strong (tempo) for the 12 weeks. Somewhere in the middle of that 12-week stretch have a down week to supercompensate. Also, one run per week can also have some short, gentle strides 8-10 seconds x 8-12 strides on a soccer pitch or something. No straining.

This base period can go longer than 12 weeks. One way to test your fitness without racing or doing a straining workout is to once per week run a route that is the same out and back, gently rolling or flat. Go out for 30', turn around....the farther you go out on the 30' the fitter you are becoming aerobically. Make sure the effort is the same the entire time and the same EACH time....no straining.

Then (read Lydiard) consider moving on to a hill phase, when you stop improving on that run. Run a hill phase of 4-6 weeks of you like. If it seems to daunting, considering mixing hill phase with a bit more general quality in a hilly environment.....then the anaerobic phase.

I would start the hill phase round about 12 weeks before your big race. Or before a selection of several races....should have a wee taper, before that a few time trials at a good effort.

Feel free to bounce more questions.

Replying to myself.

If 70-80 miles seems like a lot, consider off-road if you have access. Consider that most of your running should be easy. Not ridiculous slow or anything. Make sure that your long run is over two hours, if you can. Go by feel. Yes, wear a watch, upload to Strava and all that, but if you feel any sense of commitment to a pace showing up on Strava, you are training for the wrong reasons.

Nobody cares. If anything people who know you will be more interested in a race result that is better than before....not the process so much.

On top of regularly scheduled mileage you can jog gently on grass.....dead slow....good for the legs.

Phase: I would not turn like a light switch from flat to a hill phase....if you have access to hills, you should enjoy them all the time....just take it easy....

If 70-80 miles works well for you, consider going through another cycle and going to 90-100 miles per week (after a period of racing).

I'd recommend 6-7 days of running per week. Classic structure is 2 workouts + LR. Be sure to get in a mix of LT, V02, and short repetitions (Daniels T, I, and R workouts). It's a bit cookie-cuttery, but I think a training plan like this works from 5k-half marathon just fine.

Speed up your slow runs. 8+ minutes per mile is too slow.

Mixing everything into each week is not optimum.
periodisation is the most effective process.

You’re probably overloaded with advice, but a few things stand out.
1. Spread your workouts further apart; you have 2 workouts jammed into 3 days and then 2 rest days jammed into the remaining 4. If you space them a little better, you’ll be able to do bigger volume sessions and then recover in time for the next workout.

2. Ideally, you wouldn’t be taking 2 days off a week. You can spread out your overall volume a little better, and perhaps even increase it with less risk, if you run 6 days a week rather than 5.

3. In the build up to your goal 10k race, try to do at least 3 specific 10k workouts. They should progress in intensity as you near the race and should culminate with a very intense session 2 weeks out from the event. Examples below:

- 6 weeks out: 4 x 1 Mile @ 10k RP, 3’ jog recovery.

- 4 weeks out: 4 x 2k @ 10k RP, 4’ jog recovery

- 2 weeks out: 3 x 3k @ 10k RP, 5’ jog recovery

Note: Don’t be too stressed about hitting the exact time, especially on the last workout. You don’t want to run your race in training, however, you do want to simulate the specific demands of the race. My advice would be, if the session feels too hard, back off in the middle rep, and the try to close the last one at race pace. Remember, with a taper and the adrenaline of the race, you’ll likely run faster than what you did in training.

I just looked again and saw that your 2 workouts are on back to back days (rather than 2 out of 3 days).

Changing that should be your number 1 priority. Do a ‘Monday - Thursday’ or a ‘Tuesday - Friday’ combo, or anything where you have at least 2 days off between.

As it stands, you just aren’t allowing yourself to make the most of what should be your highest quality workout of the week; your interval workout - which is the only time in the entire week where you’re running at or below race pace. Make it count!

Getting that 10KM time down was always a mystery to me. I managed to get it down to mid 34s but I once ran faster than my PB in a 10 miler and my best 20KM was 1:10:41, so not a ton slower than my 10KM pb. I ran several 10KMs back during my prime and I figured I should be able to get down to mid 33s but never made it happen. The training specific to that distance was always a mystery to me. At my best, I averaged about 60-80 miles a week with 1 track workout, another hilly tempo, 2 easy days, one slow/easy long run and one faster long run, or at least with a section at a faster pace. This was all in my early-mid 20s.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I understood that the Tandy pace calculator only applied to the short period prior to a race.

The Tanda Calculator assumes the average pace over the weekly volume conducted for the full eight weeks (not including taper) immediately prior to the race.