Gearing up for next season

[Wookiee1863]

With only one race left in my season and that being an XC 10K I don't harbour any hopes of cracking the 40 minute barrier this season - which generally speaking has been a disaster.

The stats: 46 years old
Running for: 5 years
Current weight: 175 (down from 310 5 years ago)
Average training week consists mostly of 10K or 12K runs varied tempo or fartlek with 21K on Saturdays and a 14K slow paced recovery on Sundays. Double pneumonia in January, leg in a cast in May and anemia in August produced uneven race results and uneven training efforts. Time on the hoof this years is as follows

January 213.60 KM - 17h 24m 42s
February 172.30 KM - 13h 56m 24s
March 232.78 KM - 19h 01m 24s
April 240.43 KM - 20h 30m 14s
May 31.20 KM - 2h 27m 21s
June 155.10 KM - 13h 20m 30s
July 224.96 KM - 20h 07m 44s
August 235.50 KM - 20h 39m 27s
September 281.78 KM - 24h 08m 46s
October 173.43 KM - 14h 00m 34s (to date)

I would like to run a sub 40 at my first race of next season in February my last race 2 weeks ago was a 10K in 40:30 and two weeks previous I ran a 25K XC in 2:03:00. Should I just jump into the sub 40 program and see what happens or is there a plan of attack that would make more sense? This is my holy grail and would appreciate any pointers in the right direction.

[TheEd]

Hi Wookiee and welcome

would you consider doing a 4km time-trial providing us with the lap splits if you do it on a 400m track, please?

once we have the 4km time-trial then we can provide you with the pace for sessions

we can run you through 2 cycles where during this time you consider racing/running a hard 5 to 8k as your race day

thereafter we run you through the Build Up period and get you back on to the cycle for next year's race

Does this sound like a good plan for you?

Cheers

TheEd

[Wookiee1863]

Hi Wookiee and welcome

would you consider doing a 4km time-trial providing us with the lap splits if you do it on a 400m track, please?

once we have the 4km time-trial then we can provide you with the pace for sessions

Does this sound like a good plan for you?

Cheers

TheEd

I've never done a time trial before so I don't see why I wouldn't give it a shot. My best 5K time is 19:56 but I can see why you would need the splits to see where the lag is.

I'm not reallly familiar with all the terms so sometimes may ask for clarification . I'll try to get out onto the track on Thursday with my son recording the splits - this should be fun. Just to be clear though, normallly I wouldn't start cold but do an easy 3 or 4 before racing, I would assume that the same would hold true for doing this time trial.

Thank you for your feedback it is greatly appreciated.

Denis.

[TheEd]

asking for clarification is greatly accepted and appreciated

the more put here the more users of the program understand the program

there is so much more to these programs which couldn't be written into the program itself and over a period of time, the progressive nature of the training cycles become more aware.

with a best time of 19:56 for 5km, you should get to be being a minute faster on these programs to make the challenge of a sub 40 minute 10k easier

and yes, a minimum of a 10 to 20 minute warm up

Till later

TheEd