Sub 35:00 10km

[NtutuL]

Perfect

Before my loss of motivation/injury issues in December and January I was doing 11-13 km on non-quality days which is around 50min-1hr so I should be fine getting back there, though I was doing five runs a week not six, but I feel sufficiently adapted to six days a week now after rolling through four 10km cycles.

The doubles would be incorporated as on the program tips? But I would guess only after the build up period, once I'm on the 10km cycles or should I start doing them now so I have adapted to the uptick in volume before reintroducing the quality sessions?

[NtutuL]

Hi TheEd,

Just to keep you posted, I'm halfway (10 days) through the build up, enjoying the one hour runs, the great weather is helping, winter hasn't rocked up yet, still mid 20s at the moment. Going to do the first 5x8min tomorrow, 75% effort sounds like somewhere around marathon pace to me? I'm gonna do it by feel anyway, finding that my body is finding the correct effort at the moment and feeling stronger with every run, no fast though but that will come back.

Just wanted to follow up on your thoughts re the morning AM runs?

Cheers

[TheEd]

apologies for missing that, when coaching in a squad situation, the athletes did their am runs on the same day as the quality

mainly Tuesday and Thursday

after the current build-up, you will be maintaining at least one 1hr run a week, during the week, where on the program it has mentioned say an easy 30 to 40 minutes. This will now become 1hr, once a week

probably best on a Wednesday

so this leaves you maybe to consider not doing an am run on Thursdays where you have the 5 x 2k session, it should be good in week 2 on both Tuesday and Thursday, and then same would apply to week 3

so for now, continue with the build-up, and no am runs, and then once the cycles start again consider applying what has been mentioned above

onwards

TheEd

[NtutuL]

Good thing I checked because I had misunderstood a bit and tentatively planned to replace all the easy runs with an easy 60 min. I'll do it on the Wednesday, look at incorporating the doubles as you said and keep all else the same as the program.

Cheers

[TheEd]

many things change with progression, however it has to be done in steps in conjunction with the development of the athlete, and related to getting the most out of the training at each stage

the future holds more paced sessions etc etc

enjoy and on we go

TheEd

[NtutuL]

Hi TheEnd

This should be my last week of the build-up, did the 5x8km session last week and it was a nice one, averaged 3:45-3:50/km per rep and felt comfortable, legs enjoyed faster run out. Hoping to do my 4km TT this coming Saturday, other option is to do a 5km race that's taking place ~10km from my house. Have no idea what to expect. Thought I would struggle to run much quicker than 3:55/km for the fartlek but legs decided otherwise but I almost feel like I've forgotten how to run fast

Will update again over the weekend

[TheEd]

we can work off the 5k, so whatever works for you is fine

enjoy

TheEd

[NtutuL]

Hi,

5km didn't go according to plan, everything was rosy up to 3km. Then the 4th km had an offroad stretch that just dragged my pace down. As if that wasn't bad enough, I was in the lead, and the lead car driver didn't know the route, apparently replaced someone else, so sent me down the wrong way to finish and was faced with a load of barriers. Ended up running 4.9km in 17:00 which works out to 17:21 5km but those last two km wrecked things. My splits were:
3:22
3:22
3:25 (10:09 through 3km - 3:23/km)
3:47
3:04 (900m)

Even with a bit of a slow down anticipated I reckon I could have closed out the last 2km in 6:55ish and finished around 17:05 or so. I was very surprised by that first 3km considering I haven't done a speed session for more than a month.

Should I do another time trial or how do you suggest we proceed from here?

Cheers

[TheEd]

Hi Ntutu, I believe you to be a faster runner than you are currently, so your pace is expected, and the idea would be to nurture the talent instead of overtraining it. So all looks good to proceed forward

from the 5k feedback (call it a sub 17.30, 5k for now ), what 2k session (pace) do you think you should be doing this Thursday?

so we can get a 2k . long run . 1k session in

over to you

TheEd

[NtutuL]

Hi TheEd,

Thanks I definitely believe I can go faster, I always seem to plateau at 35:30-36:00 then lose motivation or try too hard and get injured and go backwards. And I do think it's a case of a lack of aerobic development not the basic speed.

I think a safe place to start would be 3:30-3:35/km, so 7:00-7:10, but closer to 7:00. I think my last 5x2km session I averaged 6:55 but it was a very hard session. I should start in that range and see if I can get the last 2 reps under 7:00. Then look at 3:20 for the 6x1km.

Oh and regarding the long run, in September I'm looking at doing a half marathon. Do I need to think about pushing the long run further. I think for these first 2 cycles now I'll stick to 90min and just adapt to the flow of the cycle again first.

Cheers