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[Terry Tibbs]

What's the 10k course like? The McMillan calculator reckons you could do a 41:30 based on a 19:59 5k, which I'm confident you've got in you at the moment.

My suggestion would be to negative split the race and aim for 43 minutes or better to factor in the heat. Tackle the first 5k at 22 minute pace (4:33/km or 7:05/mile) and then the second 5k at 21 minute pace (4:12/km or 6:46/mile). If you end up feeling better than expected, pick things up.

lol, did I mention I wasn't going to aim for anything spectacular? You have a lot more faith in my abilities than me! :-) 44:11 is my current (and very recent) best on 10k, and that was with almost perfect conditions (cool, flat, not too many other racers). On another equally good day I might be able to manage between 43-44, but sub 42....no way! I don't trust those race prediction calculators, I think they assume a certain amount of endurance training in order to achieve those times.

The course for sunday is multi terrain. Weirdly the website says fast and flat, but I had an email from the organisers to say there are various trip hazards such as tree routes within a forest area, so who knows! I quite like the idea of sticking around 4:35/km then trying to speed up in the second half, but as for pulling off a 21min 5k for the second half, all I can say is I wish that were possible. Especially with heat....ugh! This is where endurance training (or lack of) comes into play. I can see myself managing a couple of km at 4:15/km (in the second half), then dropping off massively. I don't think it's just mind over matter here either. Certainly, when I did 44:11 my pace at around the km 7-9 was near to 4:30/km and there was nothing I could have done about that. My HR was approaching max. and I was putting everything in.

I definitely aim to follow up on Charles' suggestion and start doing threshold sections in my long weekend runs, as well as extending those runs to give myself better endurance capabilities. So I'm not forced to slow down after 30 mins at a given pace.

[Taka]

You've got a good point there regarding the calculators. They do indeed make many an assumption and one of which is that we're equally trained across all distances (which simply can't be true).

The 10k distance if run at your absolute best is a bit of a beast. It requires almost pin-point accuracy in terms of equal pacing for maximal results. It's neither short enough like a 5k where you can suffer through it if you've gone too fast, or as long as a half marathon where you can ease yourself ever so slightly at the beginning and work up to it. It's sustained discomfort all the way, which marries closely to what threshold and tempo runs feel like (my least favourite sessions).

Play it by ear and see how you go. Treat it as your long run for the week with others.

[Terry Tibbs]

Will do, cheers dude.

I agree, for me the 10k is one of the most challenging of the traditional race distances. I regard it as a sustained pain tolerance test (curiously, my favourite distance, so not sure what that says about me!). As you say, with a 5k you can mentally scream at yourself "just a few minutes left!", but "just 20 minutes left!" isn't so reassuring when all your body wants to do is stop. I generally try to focus on each kilometer at a time. We'll see how it goes anyway.

[charlesr]

Focus on the person in front. Ask yourself if you feel you can jump to the next group of people. Keep doing it till you find a good group. Move back a group if need be. Don't get sucked along - any increase in pace must be your decision. I love 10k. Real test of Willpower

[Terry Tibbs]

I definitely need to practice this. When I race I tend to completely block out other people -- racers and spectators alike. It's a sheer battle between me and the numbers on my watch.

Package arrived by the way, Charles. [emoji106]

[Taka]

Wedding related stuff and a cancelled Parkrun event this morning meant I made my way to my nearest running track for a Saturday dose of speed. Absolutely love running on the track and couldn't quite believe it had been a year since I last set foot on one. Buddy of mine egged me on to try for 6x reps which looked like this:

1) 3:00 / 3:45/km
2) 2:59 / 3:45/km
3) 2:59 / 3:44/km
4) 3:01 / 3:46/km
5) 2:59 / 3:43/km
6) 2:58 / 3:43/km

Really, really chuffed with today's sesh. The firm yet forgiving nature of the track defo helped squeeze that extra bit of speed out of me.

[Terry Tibbs]

Great session, Taka! I'm looking forward to this week's intervals. Might have to be early morning again, depending on the forecast.

Well, my 10k race happened. It was an inaugural event, and given a quite limited budget, the organisers did a fantastic job. The only minor gripe was the fact it was described as a fast course on the website. A few bits were on road, but the bulk of it was along uneven field edges, farm tracks with deep trench puddles (very slippery!), and paths with tree roots to catch your heel on every 10 meters. Because of the terrain, much of it forced single file running, and there were a few funnel zones despite the small numbers. On the farm track sections where there was more space, overtaking meant choosing which embankment to ascend, or giant hole to hurdle. I almost turned my ankle more than once on that bit. At least there were no hills (we don't have hills around these parts...hehe).

So, no PB from me. In fact it was the slowest 10k I've run in ages (47>), but the fact my legs ache considerably today shows I had to work very hard. They don't normally ache like this after intervals, for example. Perhaps I need to get into trail running and toughen up some other muscles.

[charlesr]

Hah, if you haven't done any trail training and suddenly race on trails, you'll be all kinds of achey. Definitely take a few days rest to avoid injury. Trails are great fun and work out more muscles than road due to the non-flat ground, but won't train you for road running. If your target is a road run, then the majority of training needs to be road. If it was me, I'd do 1 trail a week, preferably on hills. Glad you had fun anyway!

[Taka]

The only minor gripe was the fact it was described as a fast course on the website.

I hate race organisers that over-egg or even outright lie about the elevation/terrain profile of their events. Working in marketing, I can kinda see where embellishment can creep in, but I've participated in some shockers in the past that in no way resembled the course description. The most accurate description was from a couple of years ago that openly advertised the race as "hilly with a sting in the tail".

Anywho, glad you saw it through, Terry. Think of the aches as the beginning of strength adaptations!

[Wools]

It's been 2 years since I took up running and despite running most lunchtimes at work, 10 - 20km runs on weekends and improving my fitness in all areas, I had still not entered a marathon or event. Also, I generally run alone so running with others was going to make or break me. I was considering the Windsor Half Marathon but excuses made me miss it so on a whim, I entered the Elstead Marathon last Friday as that was the Village where I grew up in.

Despite the Marathon name, it's not a full or half marathon at only 8.7km distance but it's a hard enough challenge for me! I've only ever run on a treadmill, tarmac or grass but this race was 1/3 tarmac, 1/3 sand and 1/3 field with a river splash at the end and I did not know how tricky it would be. My start was good, once the crowd had split up, I got up to my running speed and then passed lots of people and kept an eye out as other runners passed me. Once I settled into that pace, I found myself edging myself to run faster as the person or group in front of me were occasionally slowing me down but after 7 or so minutes, I found myself getting out of puff with the extra speed I was putting on. Sensing this was a bad thing, I eased myself back to a decent pace and just in time as that's when we went off road.

We entered the woods and that's when I realised this was going to be so much different to what my lunchtime work out routes take me on. At one point a bloke in front of me face planted the ground so I stopped to help him, what saddened me was the 6 or so people in front of me and behind him did not stop to offer any help. I got him back up and pushed on. We then went over Heathland with sand underfoot which is the trickiest bastard to run in and with those conditions I had my lowest point around 5km in as we were running up hill in sand. Luckily it was plain sailing downhill and into woodland again as we jumped into a field where Land Rovers had dug deep trenches into and we were expected to run along them! People were falling over, most people had slowed to a walk just to avoid breaking their ankles but I ran as fast as I could through the tracks in till we reached the village Pub and through the River Wey! About 100 people were watching all the runners launch themselves through the 3ft river but I think they were more interested in the ones who fell into it! I managed to wade through the river, scramble up the bank and then run the few 100 yards to the finish line.

I ran the 8.75km course in 51:11 at an average pace of 5:51km with a total climb of 253 meters and got a medal to prove it! Very happy with my first event and pleased I did not let the stress of running with others (I'm the lease competitive person in the world) get to me or burn me out if I attempted to keep up with the front runners at the start. Really enjoyed it and now need to find another event to get my teeth into.

[charlesr]

Wow, amazing first race. Sounds like you did well just to stay upright!

[Taka]

Nice report, Wools. Good on you for helping the other guy up - I'm ashamed to say I probably wouldn't have because I'd be too in the zone...

Reckon you'll sign up to some more events? Embrace the red mist that flows!

[Wools]

Thanks Charles and Taka!

It was such an eye opener to more competitive running that running solo could never teach you. Having men and women running just a shade under your pace in front of you makes you want to speed up (Not always a good thing) and having people match your pace makes you settle in behind them as a pace marker.

I think I was expecting the race to beat me down as I'm not competitive and I've also never run truly off road. But I never stopped, was not particularly phased by certain aspects of it and I arrived home mid pack with some other experienced men and women behind me. Not bad for a first attempt! I've thought about Tough Mudder, Windsor Half Marathon and others but not sure what direction to head off in yet.

Treated myself to a new pair of running shoes over the weekend as my old Adidas Zeros (Which I brought for my first day at the gym 2 years ago) were long in the tooth and rubbing badly. The river splash may have freshened them up though!

[Terry Tibbs]

Excellent write up, Wools. Hope you can get signed up for another event asap. Looking very chipper in that photo! [emoji3]

Have you thought about doing parkruns? They're good race simulations.

[Wools]

Thanks Terry, I was quite happy in that photo! Also as a Software Tester, the 404 number bib was not lost on me.

I considered doing Park Runs as there's one about 3 miles from my house but a few things had thrown me off. I do a 5km run during lunch at my workplace so at weekends, I'm normally more interested in doing a longer run between 10-20km. Despite not originally being interested in running at all a few years ago, when I realised I could run for longer than 5 minutes without dying, I really enjoyed the oddly relaxing nature of out door running. As time has gone on and I've run in different locations, my favourite run is an early morning Sunday run when no one is around my local town, my chill out music is on my iPhone and it's just me against my own will power.

After my little marathon it's made me realise that an organised race is not necessarily stressful so I'm more willing to give some something a go.