When should I attempt a 10K ?

ryaner777

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. Wasn’t sure if to post here or the health & fitness forum so please feel free to move if I was wrong.

Ok so the story so far, since the start of January ( 3 weeks now ) I’ve been out trying to improve my fitness and drop the excess fat. I’ve started of walking and progressed into jogging for set distances during my walk. The longest I’ve jogged continuously is 4 k at the moment.

All my jogs have been tracked with runkeeper on my iphone.

What I’m looking for advice on is

1. When to attempt my first goal of 2012 of completing a 10k ? and if anyone knows of any coming up could they post a link.

2. How should I change my current training style for the 10K ?

3. Is my current route any good for training? It’s just under 7K

4. My knee has been a bit sore after the jogs lately and was wondering, what is the best way to exercise while I let my knee heal? There is a bike in the shed I could use.

Here is a link to my runkeer stats and route

http://runkeeper.com/user/ryaner77/activity/67741213



Sorry for so many questions but any advice will be greatly appreciated.

RayCun

When people make up their own plans, there are a few traps they usually fall into -
racing themselves - trying to go faster on every run
building up the distance on every run
when that leaves them tired and sore, taking too much of a break
then panicking and doing too much when they get back to running

You're better off following a structured training plan, that will avoid those traps. Hal Higdon is pretty good (and is online and free), but pretty much any plan will do.
Then have a look at the race calendar here, and pick a race that is handy to you, and will be on around the time you finish your plan. (Your first race doesn't have to be 10k, you could pick a 5k or a 5 mile (about 8k)) Some of those links lead to the boards discussion thread, others lead to the race websites. If you're worried about coming last... first of all don't worry about it, it's more important that you do the race no matter what position you finish in... but you can usually find the finish times from the previous year and work out from there what the standard is like.

Chartsengrafs

Agree with all of that..
Also, I'm not sure of the benefit of tracking absolutely every run you do, particularly at this stage of your training (in terms of speed, distance etc). Just try to get out and run at a comfortable pace, and get a bit of a feel for it. Try to run on grass a bit too- this should help with any niggles you may be experiencing.

ryaner777

Cheers lads, thanks for the help.

So here's the plan.
Wicklow Half Marathon & 10km March 25th 2012

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056418085

Going to train for this 10km in march.

Going to follow the hal higdon programme

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51122/10K-Novice-Training-Program

I have a night away with the lads on paddys day, a week before the 10k.

Do you think this will ruin my first 10K ?

Also one question about the training programme. The longest run before the race in 5.5m . Should I be struggling to hit the long run targets on the sunday and if so will adding 2.5 m to this the following week be to much to handle ?

Again really appreciate the help.

RayCun

ryaner777 wrote: »

I have a night away with the lads on paddys day, a week before the 10k.

Do you think this will ruin my first 10K ?

Also one question about the training programme. The longest run before the race in 5.5m . Should I be struggling to hit the long run targets on the sunday and if so will adding 2.5 m to this the following week be to much to handle ?

Do your long run on the Saturday (or the Friday) before you go out drinking, and you'll be fine.
10k is 6.2 miles, so you're only adding .7 of a mile.
You shouldn't be struggling on any of your runs. They should all be done at a relaxed pace, that allows you to talk through them. Don't worry about time. Run hard on race day.

ryaner777

thanks, well I've just paid for my first race so it's all go from here.

I'll keep you updated on progress and I'll prob have 100's of questions in the next 8 weeks. Thanks again lads.

Rossin

why do people say to train at a pace where you can talk?? would you not be getting more from your run if you were training at a slightly faster pace??

Murta

Rossin wrote: »

why do people say to train at a pace where you can talk?? would you not be getting more from your run if you were training at a slightly faster pace??

It's a way of gauging your speed. If your able to talk (maintain a conversation), it's a comfortable pace. A tempo run would be if you can grunt a few odd words but not hold a conversation.

menoscemo

Rossin wrote: »

why do people say to train at a pace where you can talk?? would you not be getting more from your run if you were training at a slightly faster pace??

Train at a pace where you can talk, race at a pace where you can't.

You will not build up any endurance or aerobic base when you are constantly running as fast as you can, you'll just continually keep running until a point where you have to stop.

If you are to run every run as fast as possible you won't recover very well and might be too tired for your next run. If you take the majority of your runs slowly you'll be able to train more which ultimately is what will make you improve.

You also risk injury and burnout if you doing all your training at as fast a pace as possible.

Apart from all the above, it's a lot more fun to run at an easy pace allowing your mind to drift of a little as you cruise along instead of concentrating intensely on your next breath while suffering from the pain. If you learn to enjoy your running it might actually become a hobby for life rather than a chore.

Rossin

ok thanks lads, good tips on this thread


all of what raycun said is pretty much how i go about everything!

dahat

menoscemo wrote: »

Train at a pace where you can talk, race at a pace where you can't.

You will not build up any endurance or aerobic base when you are constantly running as fast as you can, you'll just continually keep running until a point where you have to stop.

If you are to run every run as fast as possible you won't recover very well and might be too tired for your next run. If you take the majority of your runs slowly you'll be able to train more which ultimately is what will make you improve.

You also risk injury and burnout if you doing all your training at as fast a pace as possible.

Apart from all the above, it's a lot more fun to run at an easy pace allowing your mind to drift of a little as you cruise along instead of concentrating intensely on your next breath while suffering from the pain. If you learn to enjoy your running it might actually become a hobby for life rather than a chore.

Excellent advice there,thanks,pretty obvious but made a whole lot of sense especially the highlighted bit