Posted: 12/25/2013 9:19:45 AM EDT
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Here's my goals. The max distance I'm training for is a 10k. I ran it last year in 60 minutes, I want to drop that significantly. Mostly my runs are 2-3 miles in distance, and that's fine with me. Most of the things I do athletically are competitive softball, but I really want to get back into playing football (indoor/semi pro), something I dabbled in lightly in college. Therefore I need to mix the 10k endurance with speed and agility, along with my current strength and power training program.
One of my questions is this. I can run 5-10k no problem, but I get very slow, down to the 10 min/mile pace. Would it be more beneficial to run at my target pace (7-8 min/mile) for as long as possible, then recover, then restart at that pace? I feel like running long distances slowly will just make me a better slow runner. |
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You're mostly correct about the slow long runs though they have their place. Now I could tell you a training schedule to get you to run a 36 min 10k or even faster but I feel that won't be of much use to you.
You can dramatically improve your 10k time on 20-25 miles a week. Focus on running shorter runs at race pace or faster. It is true that training slow will make you slow. Here's something I came up off the top of my head, if should be helpful to you, I'm assuming you're not willing to run 60 - 70 mile weeks so I'm forced to get a little creative with the workouts. Monday: 2 mile run, alternate every quarter mile between race pace or slightly faster and a recovery /comfortable pace. Tuesday: 3 mile run. Run at a threshold pace, almost as if you're racing a 5k but just more relaxed. Wednesday: 2 mile run. Recovery/ comfortable pace. After the run do 10 100m accelerations. Gradually increase your speed throutout the 100m to end at near sprint speed. I see you're in Texas so if you can do these barefoot on a football field or something, I'd recommend it. Thursday: 4 mile run. Progression run. Start at a comfortable pace, gradually increase your place throughout the run to end at slightly above your desired 10k race pace. So at the three mile mark you will be at race pace, for example. Friday: Repeat Monday or if you need rest do the 2 miles at an easy pace. Saturday: 7-8 miles at a comfortably tough pace. Don't push yourself, but don't lolly gag. Obviously ran under race pace. That's a 21 mile week, with Sunday as a recovery day. I tried to incorporate enough speed components to assist in your overall athleticism. This is by no means a hard and fast schedule, only suggestions. Take and leave what you want. In my experience the workouts I listed should lead to improvement if done as suggested. If nothing else remember that varying speeds leads to more dramatic improvement than running a constant pace. 1 mile of sprinting and walking off and on is actually better than running at a constant pace. That's obviously within reason, but keep that in mind when doing your own workouts. |