10k training - how fast can i get in 5 months?

[TheEd]

this is an improvement and it provides you with the first time running sub 4 minute per k

congrats .. the next step is this pace for 5km

stick to the 4 x 2k session for now .. your pace will be

4.10 to 4.15 per k = 8.20 to 8.30

this will still be a tough session

TheEd
ps.. this is massive improvement, so don't go cook your goose but rather eat the turkey and keep things relaxed .. well done

[sirchimp]

Day 20 - 30min easy running - just did 5k:
Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 6:11.0 | 131 | 142 * include a little walk
2 | 5:49.0 | 141 | 144
3 | 5:58.6 | 142 | 145
4 | 6:00.0 | 143 | 145
5 | 5:57.5 | 143 | 146
* Note - my HR is fairly high here. I'm thinking partly due to previous days effort, and the fact i was lifting weights just prior to the run...otherwise felt easy as it should.

Day 21 - 30min easy running - just over 5k:
Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 6:23.6 | 115 | 129 * bit of walk
2 | 5:45.8 | 133 | 138
3 | 5:40.0 | 137 | 140
4 | 5:39.6 | 140 | 142
5 | 5:38.9 | 143 | 145
X | 0:50.7 | 144 | 146


So that completes two full cycles of the sub 45min program...looking forward to this 3rd now.
Progression on 4k times:
1st: 17:55.6
2nd: 16:46.4
3rd: 15:59.4

At this pace i'll be down to 12minutes in 5 more cycles or so hehe

Tomorrow starting on day 1 again with 60-70min, easy running.
For the 4x2k I'll target your range - 4:15-4:10/km. Maybe I'll start it out at 4:15 (14.1kph) and up it by 0.1kph /interval...or something like that...we'll see how much gas i have.

One question - Since i don't have a full time job, and I'm quite interested to see just how fast i can get by mid april - is there anything i could be doing to speed up my progress? Time isn't an issue. Obviously i don't want to get injured as that will sideline my progress.


Regards

[TheEd]

12 minutes .. that should be great

After the silly season let's see whether we can lift you to higher level more quickly

This is something I am not so keen to do and as you mentioned, it heightens the risk of injury

rest is one of the most important ingredients of a routine and if you able to recover well maybe you able to speed up

enjoy the season

TheEd

[sirchimp]

I guess i'm just wondering if i could be increasing the easy run's effort slightly...or distances on the easy runs. Or adding in some limited 400m intervals...something inbetween the sub 40 and sub 45 programs?

Did 12km of easy running today:

Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 5:42.4 | 130 | 140
2 | 5:40.6 | 138 | 142
3 | 5:40.4 | 140 | 143
4 | 5:39.1 | 142 | 145
5 | 5:41.8 | 143 | 145
6 | 5:36.9 | 145 | 146
7 | 5:38.7 | 146 | 151
8 | 5:55.5 | 148 | 150 *machine restart/timeout
9 | 5:48.5 | 147 | 151
R | 0:24.6 | 151 | 151 *manual restart to reset distance
10| 5:51.4 | 147 | 152
11| 5:39.7 | 151 | 154
12| 5:39.9 | 153 | 157

Tomorrow - easy 30min...What pace should i be aiming for on an easy 30/40 min run? Base it on heart rate, or...?

Thanks,

[sirchimp]

Did a nice 30min easy run - slightly faster pace than normal:
Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 5:26.4 | 126 | 139
2 | 5:23.8 | 140 | 145
3 | 5:12.8 | 145 | 148
4 | 5:18.7 | 149 | 152
5 | 5:17.9 | 153 | 156
X | 3:21.4 | 156 | 157 (.63km)

Today, Christmas fun 4x2k:
Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 4:14.9 | 148 | 157
2 | 4:15.7 | 160 | 163
2K Total: 8:30.8
R: 90.6s + 29.4s HR: 163-122

3 | 4:09.8 | 158 | 168
4 | 4:09.8 | 169 | 171
2K Total: 8:19.6
R: 102.2s + 34.7s HR: 171 – 134

5 | 4:13.0 | 165 | 174
6 | 4:13.8 | 175 | 177
2K Total: 8:26.8
R: 120.9s + 32s HR: 177 – 144

7 | 4:12.0 | 171 | 179
8 | 4:10.8 | 180 | 182
2K Total: 8:22.8

Plan was going to be to ramp it up to 4:00 pace for the last 2k...but after the 2nd 2k, i decided to dial it back a bit, rather than crash and burn. Reasonably pleased, though i think if i got more rest the night before i could have done a bit better.

Anyway...Nice rest day tomorrow then a long run - 1:30:00....fun fun...

Hope you're having a good christmas...

Regards

[TheEd]

great stuff .. you can consider increasing the time on feet if you feel the need for an increase somewhere

for the easy runs increase the distance to 1hr

if this all goes well then let me know and we can look at other tweaks

TheEd

[sirchimp]

1:30 easy run:


Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 5:50.3 | 129 | 140
2 | 5:45.6 | 136 | 138
3 | 5:46.1 | 136 | 140
4 | 5:46.5 | 137 | 139
5 | 5:45.8 | 138 | 141
6 | 5:45.9 | 138 | 141
7 | 5:45.7 | 140 | 142
8 | 5:45.7 | 142 | 144
9 | 6:13.1 | 139 | 143*machine restart
10 | 5:45.8 | 141 | 144
11 | 5:45.9 | 141 | 145
12 | 5:45.7 | 142 | 185*MHR glitch!
13 | 5:46.1 | 142 | 158*MHR glitch!
14 | 5:45.6 | 142 | 145
15 | 5:43.7 | 143 | 146
16 | 4:53.8 | 152 | 158 (fast last km for fun)
Total: 1:31:51.3

Strange glitch in my max heart rate...i did not have a heart attack there...just spiked for some reason...interference perhaps.

Made an effort to keep my heart rate around 140, except for the final 16th km where i upped the pace for fun. Nothing too special to report - felt quite easy, which is probably the point. I'll be making an effort to keep the HR around 135-140 for the majority of the run...letting it creep up a bit near the end. I theorize my max HR is around 183 (age 34). So with that in mind, am I in the right ball park?

As for increasing the easy runs? I'll aim to add a kilometer and a bit to the 30min runs...so rather than 5.5km or so as i've been hitting, I'll aim for 7km. - easy pace. An hour for each of those would probably be too big a jump in mileage just now. Maybe I'll aim to bump the 1:30 run next cycle to 2hours as well - which I think you might recommend in the more difficult programs for anyone planning to run 21ks...?

As for the next couple days:
Two days of easy 30min (or 7km as the case will be now).
Then the 6x1km session. What pace would you recommend I target for this session?

Now off to eat a cow - my HR monitor claims i burnt 1200+ calories on that run...

Regards

[TheEd]

great .. but do add the same caution towards increasing the long run 'time on feet'

4 minutes to 4.05 per k for the 1k session

enjoy

THeEd
ps.. enjoy the cow

[sirchimp]

Two easy sets of 7km:

Yesterday:
Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 6:04.2 | 116 | 131 *1min walk
2 | 5:27.8 | 132 | 135
3 | 5:29.6 | 132 | 137
4 | 5:24.0 | 134 | 137
5 | 5:26.7 | 136 | 138
6 | 5:31.3 | 139 | 142
7 | 5:23.5 | 140 | 142
Total: 38:47.1

Today:
Aim 7km, easy pace
Tread Mill - 1%
km | time | avg HR | max HR
1 | 5:57.7 | 116 | 130 *1min walk
2 | 5:27.9 | 132 | 134
3 | 5:26.8 | 134 | 138
4 | 5:26.8 | 136 | 139
5 | 5:27.0 | 137 | 140
6 | 5:27.6 | 140 | 142
7 | 5:26.9 | 141 | 145
Total: 38:40.7

Both pretty easy - kept the HR down, but found both sessions to be pretty easy and compared to past sessions my HR is down and my speed up.

As well, last few days my resting heart rate has been a lot lower than i remembered it. I thought it used to be around 60...but i've been clocking it around 52-48 at times (lying down...in the morning or before i sleep).

Tomorrow's 6x1k will be fun...

Regards,

[sirchimp]

6x1km...My plan was to start at 15kph / 4:00/km and go up from there...:

Treadmill @ 1% incline
KM | time | AHR | MHR
1 | 3:59.9 | 151 | 161
Rest: 60.8s + 30.1s
HR Rest: 162 -> 121

2 | 3:59.8 | 157 | 167
Rest: 60.6s + 26.5s
HR Rest: 167 -> 132

3 | 3:57.8 | 160 | 171
Rest: 70.5s + 32.5s (machine wouldn't stop for 10s - included in ramp down time, so took extra few sec rest)
HR Rest: 172 -> 135

4 | 3:57.9 | 164 | 174
Rest: 60.4s + 26.4s
HR Rest: 174 -> 149

5 | 3:56.9 | 169 | 176
Rest: 60.5s + 29.4s
HR Rest: 176 -> 154

6 | 3:49.0 | 174 | 182
Rest: 60.5s + 11.5s (just count ramp down time + 1 min of rest to see where HR got)
HR Rest: 183 -> 162

First 2km, had the machine at 15kph, then started nudging it up, until the last km where i moved it up .1/100m until the last leg where i bumped it to 17.1/km ..could probably have given it a bit more.

Overall, pretty pleased. I think i had a few 0.1km/hr to improve on each km if i think about it, but overall happy with the performance.

Prior to the session, i ran 1km at an easy pace with the last 30s @ 4:00/km pace. One thing I'm wondering is how close to a race/quality session should i do my warmup...ie Should i finish my warm up and immediatly start the session/race? Or wait til my pulse drops to some specific range? I just waited until my pulse was sub 80 and i was psyched to go...i think it was a bit too long as i was starting to cool off. For a real road race where you have tonnes of people crowding around it might be difficult to time a warmup with any great precision unfortunately...

So two questions in summary:
1) how close to the race/quality session should i plan to FINISH my warmup routine?

2) A couple days of easy running then the 5k paced run...what should i target for my time on that run? Still keep it around 21:30? Or can i speed it up a bit?

Thanks...hope you're having some good holidays!