How To Train For A 10K

Well, I'm going to give you some outlines about training for a 10K run. If you're relatively new to running but have been practicing less than a regular running routine, I'm guessing that a 10K run for your first time as a race might take you something like fifty or fifty-five minutes for 10K. So, you see, you do need to build up the capacity to run that long at a fairly strong speed.

As that happens, that kind of running duration, as it is with most people, that is what is called a lactate or an anaerobic threshold which is in simple terms, it's an ounce of lactate acid that you can build up and you can maintain running at that level of blood lactate for about fifty minutes. So, your lactate threshold becomes a key physiological parameter that you need to train at and to improve your 10K form. So, as a specific 10K training, you could do a sustained run of about forty or forty-five minutes at very close to what would be your 10K race pace.

You might do that maybe once a fortnight or you should probably be varying that with some slightly faster running, say, some repetitions that might be about a thousand meters, maybe a mile at the most. So, you're running at, for something like between maybe four to maybe six minutes per repetition, slightly quicker than your 10K pace would be, and after each install, you would be taking like a slow walk or jog recovery of about two, two and a half minutes, and you'd be looking for that kind of install training session about thirty, maybe thirty-five minutes of fast running all together as the harder part of the session. And that's the kind of thing you might do maybe twice every three weeks.

At your truce, you may be looking to do a week in the long run. How long that would be, would vary in what you are used to, what you're built up to. Here, we're probably talking about something like nine, seven to five minutes, maybe ninety minutes max as a continuous run at a conversational pace, but not an easy jog but something that you're working at by the end of it.

You're particularly going to need more than ninety minutes, if a 10K is your targeting. And you should probably back that up with two or three other runs, maybe one other harder session per week. So, you might have two harder sessions per week and the second one might be something, for example, hill sessions are always recommended for strength endurance, often high and back into maybe shorter hills.

Maybe twenty-five, thirty seconds per hill so you're physically working at a different speed, you're using different running movement from what you're using on the interval sessions. Now, they're the hardest sessions there. Now, they will be tiring.

And so the other days of the week, think about holding back on the pace. So, hard days and easy days is the very standard and recommended balance of your training. So, those are some real basic outlines for preparing for a 10K race.

In this VideoJug tutorial, David Chalfen explains the variety of trainings necessary when preparing yourself for a 10K run. The secret lies in planning ahead and developing a practice plan that will strengthen your body and prepare it for the race. If you listen to and watch this video, David tells you of each step and why each of these training steps is significant when training for the 10K.