Hello The Ed,
I would like to run a 10k race in the beginning of September, preferably under 40 minutes. Since I did one cycle of the 10k under 40min training plan to prepare for all my races so far (from 3k to half marathon), I thought this time I might as well do the build up period and more cycles to see what's possible, as well as seeking advice here, you are truly amazing and I can't thank you enough for all the incredible work. I will finish the second cycle of the build up period tomorrow, so I did the 4k time trail today (15:51, I can't provide lap times, but I will in the future, per 1k). If I got my numbers correct, then I should run the 2ks in 8:10, 1k repeats in 3:50. Based on the last few weeks, I can do the easy 50-70 min runs at 5 min/km with an avg hr of 150 or 5:30/km with an avg hr of 140. Could you give me some advice on whether I should orient myself towards running with hr of 140 or running 1 min slower than race pace?
Todays run:
15 min warm up
4k time trail
Time: 15:51
Avg hr: 177
Max hr: 192
15 min cool down
Plan for the next few days:
75 min easy
40-50 min easy
Day 1 of 10k under 40 min
Looking forward working with you,
Benedict
Background info:
22 year old, male, 183 cm, 68 kg
PBs: 10k in 40 min (around 39), half marathon in 1:30 (around 1:28) (Sorry for not providing exact numbers, but I was never very concerned about PBs, since all my friends were way faster than me, also I never raced 10k, the time above refers to a half marathon relay.)
I started running in high school, never had an injury (the worst was maybe when I caught a cold on a rainy cross country race), although
I overpronate.
In winter I ran around 2-3 times a week, always at a steady pace. I started running regularly in April, since then I ran around 5-6 times a week. I do all my runs on grass (90%), dirt tracks and asphalt (10%). I have a 300m (poorly maintained) clay track available where I will be doing the track workouts, and for which I am still very grateful for. I have gps watch with wrist based hr, so I will attach hr data to my runs, and all the distances will be measured by the gps, even track workouts. (I am considering to attempt to make some markings on the track, even if they aren't accurate, it might have the benefit of being able to more precisely relate workouts to each other. Or should I just run 7 laps (2100m) for the 2k repeats?).
At the end of March my resting hr was around 60. Since I have been running more often it dropped to 50, except for a week in April when it was around 42 for a week, no idea why. It has been 50 for a few weeks now.