Training for goal 5k and 10k races

At the start of this year I blogged about my running goals.

Turning 50 in July - I wanted this year to be special. Running in the M50 category in July and August was a real chance to do well and to target this period.

I also wanted to do a marathon performance I was proud of in the spring. This would have the double benefit of giving me the core endurance strength to then build on for later in the year.

So...

Jan-Mar

Went from 90k a week at the start of Jan to 120k a week at end of Mar (summary here) - this hard work resulted in a 2:54 marathon which was a 4min PB in April!

Apr-Jun

So the foundation was in place. It was time to tweak the training and focus on the 5k and 10k races in July.

I dropped the distance a little - so stepped right back from 120k a week and took things back to 80-90k per week. The typical week was...

  • Mon - Easy
  • Tue - Hard session of 8x200m, 4x400m, 4x400m, 8x200m
  • Wed - Easy
  • Thu - Intervals - either 8x1k, 4x1mi or 8 hills.
  • Fri - East
  • Sat - Hard parkrun
  • Sun - Medium pace HM
The idea behind the Tuesday session was to run lots of fast paced short stuff. Really hard work mentally and physically. Going hard for 400m brings an element of pain/discomfort. 200m less so - but still tough. So repeating again and again 24 times over 6.4k/4mi is something that you have to really get your mind ready for.

Over this eight week training block I largely averaged the same pace for each session. Ever so slightly below 35s on average for the 200m efforts and 75s for the 400m.

So... will it work? Time will tell - and I'll update this blog post in a few weeks. 17:10 is the current 5k PB and 35:37 is the current 10k PB.

Three weeks ago I got a 17:01 parkrun PB - so signs are encouraging. Especially being comfortably sub-3:30 for each split. In my control is (a) staying fit and (b) tapering/preparing for the race - out of my control is weather - so fingers crossed for no strong wind or intense heat on the days please!

Update:
To come at end of July. Hoping to report 16:5x in 5k and 35:2x in 10k.

Update 08/08

5k - July got a 17:10 at the NE 5k championships. Very disappointed after all of the hard work that was described above. Why did it go wrong? (a) Went out too fast in first 500m and then never felt on top of things for rest of race and (b) Had a bad cough the weekend before which meant I couldn't finish my long run - think that hadn't fully cleared.
But then in August got a 16:57 on Newcastle Quayside - so delighted with that - currently 42nd fastest time over 5k for v50 on RunBritain and a huge PB :)

10k - August got a 35:42 at Darlington. Again, not the 35:2x I wanted. But Darlington is a little undulating and I cocked up the pacing a bit - 18:17 for first 5k was miles away from 17:40-17:50 I wanted. Kicking myself on second lap I got a 17:24 for second 5k showing what is possible. So we go again later in the year. I'll pick a flat 10k and go for even splits to get low 35:xx PB.

...well, we'll see :) - I'm enjoying running and that's the main thing.

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