rando from filly wrote:
Mr Cup wrote:
Goal for this summer is to break 40 in the 10k and then eventually break 1:30 for the half.
Turning 40 in April and have never broke 40 in the 10k. I have ran a few pretty close off the bike in Olympic Tri's a few years ago but haven't ran an open 10k in a long time and I was younger/faster then.
What sort of track workouts/road workouts would show me that I'm ready to make a good attempt at this? Should I be able to do 800 repeats at a specific speed? Mile repeats with short rests? etc.
For reference on where I'm currently at. Running around 30 miles per week and the last workout I did was 5 x 800 at 6:04 - 6:10 per mile pace with a easy 400 recovery between.
Appreciate your thoughts.
This is a question people ask a lot and it's not a particularly useful question. It depends on how hard the workout was and how close to race effort you were running. Part of learning to run is learning to listen to your body and assess that for yourself. During the workout - ask yourself if your body is relaxed, ask yourself if it feels like a pace you could hold for 5k? 10k? Longer? That sort of internal feedback can help your body figure out its paces.
But more generally, I think you are going about this the wrong way. Focusing on a time goal within a certain period can increase your risk for injury and disappointment, but it can also be a limiter.
What you should do is train to run the best 10k you can - whatever that may be. Maybe that'll be 41 minutes, maybe it'll be 37 minutes. Train to improve your 10k fitness, and your fitness will come as it comes - you cannot force it.
Don't worry too much about specific workouts at first. Get some miles in. Run a longer run once a week (maybe increase the length of this run to 12-14 miles over your build up). Once a week, pick it up to a harder effort for 20-30 minutes. And do some strides once a week. As you get fitter you can add in fartleks run by effort then more specific track work. Don't worry about your time goal or where your at, let your body tell you.
As you get closer to race day, THEN start to get a feel for the numbers: in workouts try to get a sense of what pace you can honestly sustain for 10k. You may end up surprising yourself so don't limit yourself with numbers.
And at 40, make sure you recover on your easier efforts - you will find injury comes easier and recovery comes a bit slower than when you were younger.
This is a great post. I would just add one or maybe two more days of strides.