10k to Half Marathon

Sky Blue 20 wrote: »

No you need to be doing the shorter distances faster than your overall race distance.
You will slow over the 10k race but it shows in your mind you can do a faster pace.

Not really, you're giving your mind way too much credit. You won't outrun your bodies capability and your bodies capability comes from training. What if I told you that 27 minute 10k Kenyans run 80-90% of their training at much slower than marathon pace. That some of those guys shuffle out the door at 8 minute mile pace somedays for a 10k run(in a race, they can hold under 4:30 per mile pace for that distance). That they never ever run 3 miles straight at 10k pace or faster in training.

Running is an endurance event and the key to gaining endurance is to run more, how can you do that if you are bollixed from running hard all the time? You can't. There is a reason the vast majority of the best runners run 90-150 miles every week and the only way they can do that is by monitoring the intensity of their runs. If your theory on training is the best way, why don't all these guys stop wasting their time running 10-15 hours a week and just go out and run 27 minutes at 10k pace 5 days a week and 13 minutes at 5k pace 2 days a week as that would only cost them 3 hours of time every week?

Believe me, what you are suggesting is the oldest form of training known to man, basically go out and run as fast as you can for that distance. People stopped doing that because they figured out it doesn't work best and training evolved over a hundred years since and the 10k world record dropped over 7 minutes since to the point where Eliud Kipchoge running his recent marathon World record would've been a mile ahead of the 10k world record holder from 100+ years ago at 10k and he would keep going for another 32km after while they lay wheezing on the side of the road.

A lot of volume at lower intensity with a hint of interval type workouts is key.

For the OP who is looking for advice. Drop back the pace a good bit on those midweek runs and try to add more distance to them like reguraly getting 5/6 milers in midweek, once you do that, add another day of running and build that up to the same. Forget about extending the long run for a while, the long run is overrated for newer runners as it causes more recovery problems than gradual stimulus across the whole week. Midweek mileage is so much more important than the long run. Drop the 400's completely for a while and build up that run to 5/6 miles, when you get to a point where you can run all those midweek easy 6 milers very comfortably, add in one workout like 2 miles @10k pace into those runs and do it every second week, This is what they call a threshold workout which is about 20 minutes at the pace you can hold for one hour in a race which just so happens to be your 10k pace right now(if you get your 10k down to 50 minutes, the tempo will be slower than 10k pace)This is not an all out effort but should feel a little uncomfortsble. For the week in between, add a workout of 3-4 miles at half marathon pace, this is called a tempo workout and will be the pace you can hold RIGHT NOW- not dream pace for just around two hours. So basically a progression like this:

Gradual buildup to

Slow runs substantially
5/6 miles 3 times a week w/8m LR

When comfortable
Add day and build-up to that 5/6

When comfortable
Add workout mentioned above 1 day per week and alternate it bi-weekly with other workout

When comfortable
Build long run to 10 miles(no futher)

When comfortable
Add another day and build-up to 5/6

When comfortable
Add another day and build-up

Every 4th week, cut back mileage 75%(if you are doing 28 the week before(run 21 on the down week)(not an excuse to run faster because you are running less miles-the idea of this week is recovery so treat it that way)

You can also add strides early on 1-2 days a week(these are sprints for about 10 seconds at 80-90% of top speed(leave 2-3 minutes in between each one and repeat 4-6 times)

This is a really simple plan but that's what you need right now imo, this should take you a while to build up to-gradual is key here to keep you healthy and consistent-Listen to your body and have patience in doing these steps. You've got 9 months here so no rush. When you get through these steps, you should be well setup to try a half marathon plan. You will not beat frequency and overall volume in training