Training Pace vs. Race pace

rovers_runner

Hey,
Training at the moment for the Bupa 10k.
Can easily cover the 10 in an hour, although I haven't paced myself to cover it all at once, i.e. break at 4/5k for breath/stretching.

Have been training the last week on 4k laps on the road.
Covering them easily at soft pace in 21mins.

Was wondering can I count on myself to be able to step up pace in a race based on the quantity of training I have done or will I need to start running faster in training?

I know if differs from person to person but how do ye train in relation to pacing yourselves with a race in mind?

Thanks.

hunnymonster

I have a friend who runs a sub-2:20 marathon (that's fast to those of you who don't follow long races) and his motto is
"the only way to run faster, is to run faster".

That said, you can't train at race pace all the time as you'll end up fatigued or injured or both. I'm just leaving the office now but I'll post some details of what you should be doing later.

thirtyfoot

rovers_runner wrote:

Have been training the last week on 4k laps on the road.
Covering them easily at soft pace in 21mins.

.

My wife is a recreational runner and is a 48-52min 10k'er. She does her 4km training run in the 20-22min, so I'd say you'll be grand to get well under the hour in the race.

Its been many years since I trained for a 10km, but as a young fellow regularly came in around 33-35 min mark and I did very little long work. My max runs were usually 8k, but most of my work was over shorter 3k-4k distances at race or faster than race pace and then intervals on the track. It varies from coach to coach. Bowerman of Oregon preached a hard-easy-hard-easy philosophy, Lydiard of NZ had a long, long, long (with some speed closer to competition) philosophy while Coe did everything based on pure quality and speed. It depends on yourself but I always go for the speed side of things.

Although not 10k training, I train at middle distance and at this time of season I am doing lots of work at race pace. It gets the body used to running at the pace you need to be running at. For example if you want to be able to run your last 2k in 9mins, you need to train your body to be able to handle that while being tired. An example could be 3 sets of 2k at 9 min pace with 1min recovery between runs.

However, as hunnymonster said, it can be very hard on the body and you need to keep an eye on things. if its an option of longer and slower or shorter and faster, I'd go with the shorter/faster option.