Improving 10k time at altitude

[TheEd]

Hi Markco, best time to practise pace judgement is during the 2k session



onwards

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Will be onto the 2km tomorrow so will start out conservatively and aim to keep it consistent. As discussed last time, I'm planning to go for 4x2km this time out. My average pace in the 3x2km last time was 4:47/km so I'll aim to start at 4:47-4:50/km and speed up on the last interval if I have it in me!

The past few days has been a bit up and down. I did a 30 min recovery run the day after the 8k time trial (5:41/km, av HR 140) but felt tired and lethargic. The following day I felt tired also, as if coming down with something, so rested. The day after I felt better, but rested again to be sure. Felt back to normal by yesterday and so started day 1 of the new cycle:

Day 1
12.42km in 1:10:35 (5.41/km)
Av HR 143.

Feeling good today so off for 30 mins easy now. Will report back after the 4x2km tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

[TheEd]

Hi Mark, hope you feeling better

ideally according to the cycle plan, Day 1 is a Tuesday

so if you able to get onto that routine it would be great, if not then we 'play it by ear'

onwards

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Yes - I'm feeling back on form now thanks!

Ideally I would like to get back as you say, so that Days 5, 12 and race day fall on Sundays. Fortunately at the moment I have plenty of spare time, so unless I have an actual race on the cycle it doesn't matter too much. How should it work between cycles, if the race is on Sunday followed by 3 easy runs Mon-weds, the next cycle would then start on a Thursday? Or should you rest until the following Tuesday? thanks.

I ended up doing two "day 2"s this cycle, as I didn't have time to run yesterday until it was dark, so just did another 30 mins easy. Where I currently live, it's a bit dangerous to do anything fast after dark, due to poor lighting and uneven paths etc. 

Day 2
30 mins easy @ 5:43/km
Av HR 142

Day 2a
Waking HR 54
30 mins easy @ 5:21/km
Av HR 139

Day 3
Waking HR 48
Added the 4th interval to the 4x2km for the first time. Didn't look at watch at all this time to try and get pacing correct. Aim was to start at 4:47-4:50/km and first interval was bang on at 4:47/km. Interval 2 was also good at 4:45/km. I felt as though I was maintaining the same pace pretty much for intervals 3 and 4 but these were 4:38/km and 4:48/km respectively. To be fair it was a bit hard to judge as there was a blustery headwind along one side of the lap. Overall I'm pretty pleased as I was able to do the harder 4x2 session and still upped the average pace slightly over the 3x2 last time. All good learning and I'll continue to focus on getting the pacing consistent in the 5 (or 6?!) x 1km.

Interval / time / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest
1 / 9:36 / 154 / 160 / 114
2 / 9:33 / 158 / 170 / 124 (I think the max HR was incorrect on this interval - should be 167).
3 / 9:19 / 162 / 170 / 129
4 / 9:39 / 165 / 173 / 130
Av pace during intervals: 4:45/km

3x2km last session below for comparison:

Interval / time / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest
1 / 9:36 / 154 / 160 / 116
2 / 9:39 / 156 / 164 / 121
3 / 9:35 / 160 / 167 / 118
Av pace during intervals: 4:47/km

[TheEd]

Very nice Mark, it takes practise and with experience racing becomes easier

depending on how you recover from the 2k session, will determine whether you do 5 or 6, so your choice

I attach a link about the -  Thoughts Behind the 10km Programs

https://www.time-to-run.com/theed/10k-tr...e-programs

this will hopefully explain more about Day 3 to Day 8

in the last week when the race is on a Sunday .. you can run an easy 20 to 30 minutes on the Thursday and move the original Thursday session to Friday with rest on Saturday

onwards

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Thanks TheEd

Will have a read of those articles shortly.

What I meant by my question was regarding after the race. If the race is on a saturday or sunday, and you do the 3 recovery runs as per the schedule on the following 3 days, there is then a gap of 5 or 6 days before starting the next cycle on a Tuesday as recommended. How is it best to schedule around that?Hope that makes sense - sorry for the confusion!

Cheers

[TheEd]

Hi mark, no hassles

Consider doing aerobic runs of 1hr

you can't go too wrong with that

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Thanks, sounds good, I'll give that a try after this cycle. All good the past few days and feel that progress is being made. Here's the latest:

Day 4
Waking HR 52
Rested

Day 5
Long easy run.
18.04km in 1:45:58
Av HR 146
Wasn't feeling on best form. Very similar time and distance covered to last cycle, but slightly higher HR. Possibly still shaking off remnants of the slight bug I had last week.

Day 6
Waking HR 52
5.59km in 29:50 (5:20/km)
Av HR 137

Day 7
5.79km in 30:53 (5:19/km)
Av HR 139

Day 8
Waking HR 50
Really happy with today's 1km session. Upped the intervals to 6 and was able to complete the session with faster intervals than the 5x1km last time, and also consistent with the pacing. I was aiming for 4:30/km pace. Rests were 70 seconds (last cycle they were 70-75 secs). I'm sure the last km was quicker than stated because I pushed really hard, however it was on the same section I mentioned last time, where I had to make U-turns 3 or 4 times to avoid having to wait for traffic to pass - I think this confuses the GPS slightly into thinking I've covered less distance. The other kms were all completed on straight sections. To explain, on Sundays/Bank hols some main roads here are closed for leisure - running, walking, cycling, however when you cross other main roads that aren't closed you have to wait until a marshall allows you to cross - meaning sometimes you can go straight through and other times you have to turn around if you want to keep running! So, in this case on the last interval I got "trapped" in a shorter section and kept having to turn and repeat - I was lucky up until then!!.

km / time / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest
1 / 4:33 / 153 / 160 / 119
2 / 4:30 / 157 / 167 / 124
3 / 4:25 / 159 / 170 / 135
4 / 4:29 / 163 / 169 / 136
5 / 4:25 / 162 / 171 / 139
6 / 4:32 / 166 / 179 / 142
Av. pace of intervals 4:29/km

Here's the 5x1km session from last cycle to compare:


km / time / av HR / max HR / min HR after rest
1 / 4:29 / 156 / 164 / 122
2 / 4:38 / 155 / 166 / 121
3 / 4:34 / 154 / 165 / 120
4 / 4:34 / 157 / 166 / 128
5 / 4:32 / 160 / 173 / 129
Av. pace of intervals: 4:33/km

The average pace of my 1km sessions has progressed from 4:43/km, 4:38/km, 4:33/km and now 4:29/km. Very pleased to see it dip under the 4:30 mark and hope I'll be able to break this mark when I run a 5km time trial at the end of this cycle!

[TheEd]

All looks good mark

is it not possible to have a different training route for the 2k and 1k sessions?

seems that it can create maybe unnecessary stress

on we go

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Hi TheEd

Yes - agreed. I'm looking for new/better routes all the time but they're not easy to find here! The best one is a 1km loop in a park but it's 4km away which is a bit much for a warm up, but will start going there for the 1 and 2k sessions I think.

Last few days:

Day 9
6.01km in 32:10 (5:21/km)
Av HR 138

Day 10
Didn't manage a run today as busy sorting out my visa! Swapped it to next day.

Day 11
6.73km 35:04 (5:12/km)
Av HR 132

Day 12
5k pace run with 2km warm up and 2km cool down.
Aimed for 4:40/km pace to start with, and consistency, rather than trying to go faster than last cycle. Please with the run, looks like I'm starting to get a better feel for pace again! 

km / pace / Av HR
1 / 4:40 / 150
2 / 4:37 / 159
3 / 4:38 / 165
4 / 4:38 / 168
5 / 4:34 / 171
Total time: 23:16 (4:38/km)

same run from last cycle to compare:


km / pace / Av HR
1 / 4:37 / 146
2 / 4:39 / 159
3 / 4:47 / 162
4 / 4:42 / 165
5 / 4:25 / 171
Total time: 23:18 (4:39/km)

cheers