Stuck on 37 minute 10K

You only have one day a week where you are training your body to run faster than 37:00 for 10K, and that's Wednesday.

The rest of the week, you seem to be training to be really good at running 8-minute miles.

Ask yourself what you care more about, and train for that

But how do I implement that? Like I said I tried doing 3 workouts a week and got injured. Do I drop the tempo in favour of 2 interval days?

Have you tried the shoes?

Do doubles! You'll be running 34's in no time.

Looking at your workout times, I'm not shocked re your 10k time. You gotta push it (mileage) a bit faster and do intervals at a goal pace that is realistic for you. Best wishes.

Maybe, maybe not. Back in my PR days, I experimented like crazy. High mileage, low mileage, doubles, singles, tempos, intervals, cross training, weights, you name it. No matter what I tried, my times stayed about the same. Sometimes, you just are what you are.

I’ll provide you a simple 45 mile week plan. You should break 37min if you follow it for eight weeks. But before I do that, I want you to provide your other race distance times (5k, Half-Marathon, and Marathon) that have been acquired in recent history.

Also, answer whether you are in ‘the shoes’ (Vaporfly, etc.) yet.

Also, before I provide you your plan here, what is the weather like where you train (do we need to accommodate heat/humidity), and are you at altitude? And let me know if you do NOT have access to a track. Also, it is not essential, but do you have a HR monitor?

You have to run sub 6 miles to get good at sub 6 miles.

Do you monitor your heart rate?

I'd be curious what your heart rate is at 8 min pace vs your HR at 10k pace.

I have a heart rate monitor on my watch but it's crap, it gives me crazy readings.

Haven't run an official 5k but my best is 17:57 during a 5k, 18:09 on a hilly parkrun course, 1:23 half and 2:59 marathon.

Sorry that should say *during a 10K*. Obviously paced that one completely wrong.

You need to do sprinting, weight lifting and jumping. It will make You lot faster, stronger and more resistance to injuries.

Also tempo runs should be close to 10k race pace

I don:t need to read further. Increase milage to 80mpw, gradually.

I know that daniels calculator recommends 6:10-6:15 pace, but that is a massive effort for 5 miles. I would have to split it up, like 3x2 miles. I am definitely a lot better at racing than training and have run 37 minutes 4 times in a row now (slowest 10K ever is 38:17).

I sometimes run 5k at 10k pace as a tempo run.

Yeah but I want to revamp my training from the bottom up and become more efficient with my mileage. There are local runners who have improved to 33/34 minutes on 40-50mpw and I know they aren't a lot more talented than me. They have been running for longer than me which is the only caveat.

Okay, your marathon is a little week, but the alignment of your times is not too bad.

You have plateaued. In order to progress to a 36min runner, you need to physically change into a 36min runner. That may take you longer than 8weeks, but you will get an idea on whether that is the case after the first week or two on the plan I’m about to give you. This plan should work, if you follow it. If this plan starts to ‘injure’ you, and/or you are not recovering on it and adapting fast enough, then you are going to have to back off the paces, and it will take you longer than eight weeks (if ever) to achieve the requisite adaptations.

The plan I’ll give you is simple and precise. Any supplemental things, like cross-training, massage, sauna, cleaner diet, more sleep are on you, if necessary to help you make the requisite physical adaptations.

I’ll provide the plan in my next post.

You need to have steady state runs longer than race distance. Here’s what I’d recommend:

for your tempo day, switch between a 3-4 mile threshold run where you hit 6:10-6:20 pace, and then the next week do a steady state run where you do 6-8 miles at 6:30-6:45 pace.

Id also implement jogging recovery on your interval days (even if it slows your intervals a bit) if you aren’t already, and occasionally do things like 2-3x 3200m where you look to run 12:00 give or take 10 seconds. Make sure you occasionally do something like 3-5x150m at a 90% effort after easy runs to build your mechanics as well.

Dont listen to the posters dogging on your easy pace. If you are in the right heart rate zone and perceived effort is where it needs to be, you are fine.