Sub 36 in 10K

[Albert83BCN]

Well, today I had the 6x1000, was looking forward to it.

Did it with two friends of mine, recently our 'family' around the track has started to grow, some days we can even gather 10 people! hehe. One of them has years of experience and ran sub 35 in the past but some injuries had him not running for almost two years, now it seems he has gone through it and is starting to pick up the pace!

Went pretty well, we started at planned 3:35 pace from the 4K trial and pushed it a little bit further every set to end with a fast one.

Interval 1 - 3:35 -> Erratic readings of HR
... down to 119 HR
Interval 2 - 3:33 -> Max HR 178
... down to 132 HR
Interval 3 - 3:34 -> Max HR 179
... down to 136 HR
Interval 4 - 3:32 -> Max HR 181
... down to 137 HR
Interval 5 - 3:32-> Max HR 182
... down to 146 HR
Interval 6 - 3:27 -> Max HR 184
... down to 147 HR

Compared with one year ago, also the first session after the marathon, it has been just the opposite, I did the first one pretty fast at 3:28 then struggled and ended at 3:35. Max HR was slightly lower back then, although this time I got pretty lower on the short one minute rests.

Things looking good for now, last week I did one swimming session and one cycling as suggested instead of easy running, although really short sessions, just half an hour. Some days I only have 1 hour to train that I split into 30' of strength training and then 30' for the aerobic.

[TheEd]

your experience is paying off in the session .. very consistent, should give you a lot of encouragement and confidence for the future

nice to see you enjoying the alternative sessions

good stuff

TheEd

[Albert83BCN]

Hi there people!

Yesterday I did the 5K tempo at 10K pace. Saturday I was very busy and a little bit stressed so I couldn't manage to do it back then, so taking advantage in that I didn't have any planed race on Sunday nor long run, I moved it to yesterday.

Performed same protocol as always: 3K run to the place where I do the run, a flat industrial state area with no traffic on weekend, with 3 strides to get into the mood. Then the run itself and then 3K back to home again.

I managed to get the 5K in 18:03 according to the GPS, avg pace 3:36 and avg HR 173 - Max HR 181.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/298038316

Not the fastest one I've done since first time on the cycles, but also not the slowest one. One positive thing is that yesterday I felt I ran hard but managed to stay near a feasible 10K real pace. I mean, in the past I was so tenacious to get better at this session that I ended trying to 'race' the session every 3 weeks so that in the end I was running all-out at race effort and ended like wanting to puke, really. Yesterday I didn't go so far so that's why I think that the time is pretty nice from an effort/result viewpoint.

Other sessions done in the past:

July 29th, 2012 - 18:28
July 7th, 2012 - 18:00
11th May, 2012 - 17:52
21th Apr, 2012 - 18:18

[TheEd]

what have you got planned for this weekend?

cheers

TheEd

[Albert83BCN]

This Sunday morning there's a pretty important flat 10K race with almost 26,500+ people enrolled! It's one of the most crowded here in Barcelona.

I'll be more or less well situated since sub 38 men are chosen to start first, even like this there's still a lot of people there and you can run more or less fast only once passed the first kilometer. Even like this, it's a fast race where most people aim to PB specially if they are still developing.

My aim will be to get just under 37, with 36:59 would be happy. Although the last performances in the Marathon and Half Marathon have been promising, It has been a whole year since not going down sub 37 on a 10K so I think that this will be challenging enough. And I found out that I have issues while changing from aerobic threshold to anaerobic, I perform poorly on beyond LT and I think I still haven't done so much specific training to compensate for this. When I got my fastest low 36's I was doing lots of 400m to 800m intervals, some of them all out with full recoveries, also plenty of Billat's 30-30 and 60-60 at VO2max pace. That's why I was planning to switch back to this because I feel like works better with me.

I'd also like to achieve the sub 37 with an effort feeling that I could still improve a little bit on the next races provided that I train and recover well. I think this should be attainable. Only if feeling really strong by the 7th KM then I may consider upping up the pace, but I don't think It will happen and not aiming to that really.

Something to consider is that on the next Saturday I have another 10K flat night race, so just 6 and a half days to recover. That one is pretty special for me and most likely I'll try to push it further there. This last two years I always ran this 'duet' and always got near 15 to 20" better on the second nightly one.

I was planning to do this week's 10x400 aiming no faster than 3K race pace (so 3:25 to 3:20 pace per km), and then one easy session MAF Test of 45' ran aiming always to stay 146 HR then see how much distance I covered (I use this to track my aerobic fitness in a fashion that does not require to race hard to test myself) and then the 6x1' fast-slow on Friday.

Maybe one swimming or bike session and 3 to 4 strength training sessions, not hard ones, 30' of isolated exercises, just upper body maintaining and no leg training.

What are your thoughts on this?

[TheEd]

Hi Albert, consider switching the session to the following:

3 x 1600m @ projected 10k pace with 2 to 3 minutes in-between

doing the 400m session will have no value at this time and may even break you down, placing unnecessary stress on your calf muscles

and to be honest, the 5 x 2k session is aimed at speed endurance

there is no need to venture towards the anaerobic unless you were racing 1500 to 5000m specifically

the program does take you towards 5k pace sessions via the 6 x 1k

if you run wisely and have 'luck' thrown in there should be no need to race above your LT

steady / even paced running with a faster last km should do the trick

also remember that by coming off the marathon and going too quickly in the early km's can be a massive disadvantage

hopefully this helps .. keep the runs steady and maybe consider dropping the cycling at least 2 days before the 10k races

what are your thoughts?

TheEd

[Albert83BCN]

Looks fine! I like the idea of the 3x1600 at 10K pace. Hope my mates aren't too upset for the change, they usually mimic what I do on Tuesdays and had already 'officially announced' the 10x400m. But I think this change will be fun and looks like a good idea to me

Thanks a lot!

[IamWill]

Good luck with the race on Sunday!

[Albert83BCN]

Thanx a lot William!!

Well, I'm here back from the race! Went fine, 36:37! Sub 37 goal accomplished, and I felt pretty strong during the whole race, so I think it can get slightly better on the coming events.

On Tuesday I did the 3x1600m as suggested, 1rst interval in 5:58 (slow), 2nd in 5:48 and 3rd in 5:47, fine. More or less goal pace, that day I felt a little bit tired and had my doubts that I could manage to race at that pace the whole 10K on Sunday but you know, racing is a whole different thing than training.

On Thursday I did an easy 45' Maffetone Test at 146 avg HR, managed to cover only 8.7K, more or less average for me, just before the marathon I could get slightly over 9K, I think I have lost a little bit of edge but it's understandable coming off from the marathon IMHO. I do this every 2 weeks or so to assess my overall aerobic performance and this gives me insight about how I'm doing. Then on Friday the typical 30' easy then 6x1' fast-slow, and done.

Today I started at goal pace, no faster, reserved energy on the first 2 to 3K where the race profile was worst (slightly uphill) then restored goal pace again. When I crossed the 5th Km in 18:23 feeling pretty strong I knew that I'd get the sub 37, just wonder how further could I push. I maintained goal pace until 8K or so then tried to speed up because it was slightly downhill and was perfect timing for that. Got strong until few meters from the finish line and tried to speed a little bit to gain some seconds but as my finishing kick is pretty weak I only managed to end 5 to 6 min per km faster than goal pace for the last km.

Considering that It has been since June 2012 that I couldn't manage to get sub 37 I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I also ran strong ending with some breath left and not near puking like some other races so I guess there's still a little bit of room for improvement.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/300953079

What do you suggest for this coming week? Remember next race is Saturday Night. I was thinking in repeating the scheme of this last week. This next Tuesday will be a little bit difficult to schedule the track session for some of my mates and they have suggested Wednesday instead. I think that it could be pretty convenient for recovering so I thought: monday easy run 30', tuesday easy swimming, wednesday 3x1600 10K pace, thrusday off and friday 30' 6x1' fast-slow.

Thoughts?

[Albert83BCN]

Hi there!

Quick update. Yesterday I raced the nightly 10K race. Got a 36:51. I hoped to run sub 36:30 after the good general feelings of last week's race but in the end didn't manage to get it.

Despite of this I'm happy with the result, it was raining all day long (luckily it stopped just before starting the race) and there was some troublesome wind at some points, well that's the 2nd sub 37 in a row which I think it's great, shows I'm there.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/304125126

Last year got a 36:54, a 3" improvement, not that bad