5 week plan to try and run sub 40 minutes for 10km

levitronix

Long story short have a bet on with friends for the DCT and to win the bet i reckoned i ll need to run sub 40mins on the run and so far I ve never came close to it. So I have 5 weeks to try and knock 3 mins off my 10km time, never really done any structured run training before. So with the help of Ecoli I got a training plan so I thought id log how I got on, the plan is shown below

Week 1
Session 1 : 1 mile warm up 3x2k @ current 10k pace
Session 2 : 1 mile warm up 5x1k @ 5k pace

Week 2
Session 1 : 1 mile warm up 2x3k @ current 10k pace
Session 2 : 1 mile warm up 6x800m @ 5k pace
Session 3 : 5 miles tempo (if you want take this as your brick session)

Week 3
Session 1 : 1 mile warm up 3x2k @ current 10k pace
Session 2 : 1 mile warm up 5x1k @ 5k pace

Week 4
Session 1 : 1 mile warm up 2x3k @ current 10k pace
Session 2 : 1 mile warm up 6x800m @ 5k pace
Session 3 : 5 miles tempo

Week 5
Should be easing up for the race

10:00am swam 2000m was tired so knew my run would hurt
8:30pm finally got my self motivated to do my run
Warm up done decided id do the session 2 week 1 work out first to ease my self into it haha legs still hurting from the beast of the east
5 x 1km 1st km ran @ 04:01, 2nd km ran @ 03:59, 3rd km @ 03:57, 4th km @ 03:56, 5th km @ 04:01
Took about minute break between sets till my heart got back down to 120’s the 4th and 5th set killed me, then a 1.5km easy jog back home

A lot harder than I thought it would be I have a bike race tomorrow night hope the legs recover for that, will run again on Friday and do session 1

nomadic

I'll be following this with interest. I'm planning on working hard on my 5k running in the next few weeks.
I see that its all short pace work and no longer runs. Is that because you've the base/endurance sorted and just need the speedwork?

levitronix

Yeah i done an ironman in late june so id imagine its still there, and right now i wana try build speed, legs this morming are heavy but feel like i done something good.

levitronix

Just back from the club league bike race, legs felt heavy riding up to the so had no idea how it would go.

Short story came 2nd could of done better but got boxed in 200m out from the finish. The intervals last night diffently helped was way more comfortable at the higher heart rates , maxed out at 195 for the sprint avg 157 for the race so a good nights work done.

Tomorrows run session will be hard doing the 2km intervals, will see how it goes.

levitronix

A shoulder injury forced me back a few days, the bike race on thursday seemed to aggrivate it and make it worse so needed a days break.

Saturday done a 95km bike ride with 3 climbs, sally gap, ballinsicorny and glenmacnas.

This mornings intervals felt a lot easier than the last set
2.5km warm up 2km @ 8:32, 2km @ 8:23 and last 2km @ 8:19 , didnt noticed myself working harder to go a bit faster .Then easy 2.5km jog home job done !

levitronix

Back to training after a small break

Done 2.5km warm up then 2 x 3km intervals
1st 3km @ 12.33 and 2nd 3km @ 12.27 then 1.5km jog home, over all a good work out, my runs are now starting to feel like work outs rather than just laboured runs, started to feel some speed in my legs

levitronix

The 3km sets last night took there toll on my legs didnt have much time to recover before next session

2000m swim this morning with about 1000m of drills lots of kicking not such a good idea.

Then a bike race that finished on sally gap, kinda fancied to give it a go but legs let me down heart rate stayed kinda lowish for climbing but legs where melted and burnt out

levitronix

Friday just took it easy with a 1000m swim legs where still in bits

Sunday morne olympican triathlon done a 2h28 to 1min penatly for something ???

The intervals are paying off knocked over a minute off my last PB run spilt with a 40:46 .. came close to breaking the 40min barrier, was very surprised with that because of the week that was in it with two races in three days

Will try sneak the 800m sets in after work tomorrow

ronanmac

Just noticed this log now. Fantastic target, I hope you win your bet. Nothing like a wager to focus an ambition! I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on as I'd love to be able to run a sub-40 10k myself. 47 is the best I've managed in my one and only 10k but with some improvement since, I'm curious to see how close I could get to 40 once I'm done with DCM training. Best of luck.

levitronix

I never done any run training like this before and i can feel the difference in my legs now when i run, didnt think i could improve so much so quickly, still 3 weeks to go but now im looking at 39mins haha

levitronix

Intervals tonight were a pain big time had no motivation to do them ..

2.5km warm followed by 3 x 2km intervals
First @ 8:07, second @ 8:07 and third feeling kinda tired @ 8:12 , then a 1.5km jog home just easy pace

One thing i did notice i was a few seconds quicker doing the 2km splits from the last time i ran them over a week ago

levitronix

Not much happening really today just one of those days

2000m swim in the morning, just a few drills and 1000m time trial happy enough with the set

Done an hour on the turbo high cadence work out spinning up the legs for tomorrows race, would of prefered to be out on the road but with family commitments this was the best option, nice fast flat course for tomorrow so hope to have some juice in the legs!

ecoli

Hey just thought i would check in and see how ya got on in the race hope went well?

levitronix

Long story short is i got sick and missed a bunch of training but deffo my running improved i got way more speed and new PB's didnt break 40min for the 10km in a tri done a 40.45 so came close twice and done a 1h9 for the 10 mile

will try kick it off again early next year .. thanks ecoli !!