10k T twice a week?

Why not do 10 x 1K @ 10k pace? Or do 2 x 3 miles @ tempo pace? Or 8 x 800 @ 5k pace?

Basically racing two 10ks in a week sounds like a bad recipe. Your body will get more of a response from doing different paced workouts than doing two workouts at the same pace and same distance.

Mark Scrutton did pretty well at CU running tempos once or twice a week that were a bit shorter than 10K. Bread and butter workouts, baby.

why do the same thing? wrote:

Why not do 10 x 1K @ 10k pace? Or do 2 x 3 miles @ tempo pace? Or 8 x 800 @ 5k pace?

Basically racing two 10ks in a week sounds like a bad recipe. Your body will get more of a response from doing different paced workouts than doing two workouts at the same pace and same distance.

Those are basically my usual wo's. It just seems like I do so many wo's that simulate part of a 10k or 5k without frequently doing that full distance at near race speed. And with a lot of my interval wo's, say 8 x 1k it seems it take most of the interval to get my HR >170 and then the interval is over. I've read Jackl Daniels and numerous books so know a lot about the science. But it seems very efficient to just get the HR up at a race pace and just maintain that for a good long time, I'm pondering anyways...

I did the 10k T like a progression, first K's at 3:37 pace and then last ones at 3:20min/k pace with HR > 170 last ten min.

anyone do this? wrote:

If I'm a mid to low 34 min 10k runner, is it possible to get a good training effect doing a sub 35min run once or twice a week? I did a 34:50 training run the other day and feel pretty good already so was thinking of doing the same run or a bit faster tomorrow (after two days of easy). I found I was able to maintain a high heart rate for more than 10min of the run which is more than I would usually get if I just did some intervals.

not a good idea. that's too close to your race pace for 10k. it might have felt okay the first time, but you'll get slower and slower every week (after the first couple weeks where you might make it out alive) because you'll be overtraining.

you're better off doing a 5k tempo at a little slower than 10k pace, so maybe 17:30 for you. then do some hill repeats or a moderate long run as your other weekly workout. repeat until you get bored

That defintely sounds more sensible. These are the troubles I can get into after I've finished a training plan or goal race and start experimenting all over the place.

Well, I did a second 10k T today, three days after the first one and felt way more solid at 34:37. Pacing was better and got HR above 170 for 12:40 min. Was less tired after this one also. Will see how I feel for long run on Monday.

Did a 3rd 10k T in 8 days. This one in 34:04 which is a non-race PB. Felt easier than previous two and also had a lower avg HR by 2. Max HR went up to 180 , same as previous two. My Sunday run was 25k easy and on Monday I did 20k with 10k ins/outs with the ins at 3:15 /k pace. Legs felt heavy yesterday but today were good to go. So going to keep rolling with these frequent 10k T for now as they seem to be working better than my usually interval wo's.

Keep updating!

More than one way to skin a cat, as they say.

Did another 10k time trial today, three days since the last and the 4th in the last 11 days. This one was in 32:56, which is a huge training best 10k time. Effort was easier than the previous three, only spent the last 5min with my heart above 170. Max heart went to 184 and that was cause I was practically sprinting the last mile in 5:00 pace. Never performed so well at these speeds. The 10k 11 days ago I did in 34:52 was a full effort and I was way more exhausted at the one at the finish. I was reading up on the Hickson protocol, a study done in 1977 where the did VO2 max training 6 days a week for 10 weeks with massive VO2 max gains (not highly trained runners though). But they did three runs a week going as far as they could up to 40min, and the other three days they did 6 x 5min on a cycle at VO2 max level. Seems totally brutal to have done that!

This 10k T I was also wearing the next % as compared to the NBRC1400v6 the previous ones. Maybe thats one reason my heart rate was slower to go up at any given pace.

Did the 5th 10k TT within 2 weeks, this one in 33:12. This was on NY day after 4hrs of sleep and several glass of wine and gorging on food that night so wasn't feeling the sharpest when I started. Legs were feeling recovered but had a hard time getting my body to feel fluid and relaxed during the warm-up and ended up going longer than intended, 7k for the wo. Then I made a mistake of accidentally starting my watch two minutes before the 10k which I didn't realize until I was 1k in going at 3:25 pace. So then I stopped, reset my watch and started again after about 45 sec. Went through 5k feeling pretty good in 17:02 (same as previous 10k 3 days prior), then picked the pace up but was getting pretty gutted feeling by 8k, even though my heart was only at 175 and then had to slow down for a few hundred meters before closing the last k in 3:12. Max HR was 180 just before the finish. So I think despite being hungover, if I hadn't done a 1k false start I should have finished faster then the 32min high I did a few days ago. Will aim to do another one on Saturday but will sleep better and not be hungover so expecting it should be a stronger result.

Really enjoy reading your experiences with this. I've always felt like 10k was a training sweet spot.

This is an interesting thread. If this were my experiment, I think the injury would be around a week away.

So far everything is feeling good, no signs of any injury. Cannot have imagined doing so many 10k TT's in such a short time and feel like I'm decently ready to go for each one while doing 100% the opposite of tapering. Did 16k today and legs felt really good. After going easy the first few k did the next 13k within a few seconds of 4min pace with no struggle and heart rate only went up to low 140's by the finish. This has never been possible before say after a 10k race.

Did 19k yesterday at easy pace and legs were pretty tired at the end so wasn't sure what to expect for today. Did a shorter wo, 5k, as opposed to the 7k wo I did a few days ago and also didn't do a false start this time. And wasn't hung over or sleep deprived. Finished in 32:52, which was 20s faster than the last one and 4s faster than my fastest one 6 days before. Felt really steady and in control the whole time. Avg HR was 164 and spent just over 11min with my HR above 170. Max HR was only 179. I did the last k in 3:10 but my HR actually dropped from 179 to 172 500m in and then creeped up to 174 by the end. I was kinda hoping to crank my HR up to mid 180's but didn't feel like going any longer to try to get there . I think I could have started off a bit faster maybe, first k was only 3:27 but I guess it's better to start off a little too slow than too fast. Second k was 3:22 and then the rest of the splits drifted below 3:20 after that with 6k to 9k avg about 3:15. So, a couple easy days now and then hopefully will do another 10k all out on tues.

5k wo and 7k wo was supposed to be warm-up,

It seems like you replicate a hard competition season where you become a lot better within a short period of time.

I am pretty sure the progress will halt though, but do not stop your project before it does, and keep posting.

I agree with you. I feel my race pace is getting slower after running 10k on Tuesday and Saturday, 5k on Thursday and Sunday every week for about 5 months.