RUNNING 10K road races is highly popular with runners of all levels and abilities. You’ve only got to turn up at events from one end of the country to the other to find evidence of this trend. But, whether you complete the distance in 30 minutes or 60 minutes, one fact is indisputable - during the race, athletes run the equivalent of 10 x 1000 metres or 5 x 2000 metres or 2 x 5000 metres with NO recovery. Or, if you like, 25 x 400 metres or 50 x 200 metres or 12 x 800 metres, plus 1 x 400 metres or 3 x 3000 metres, plus 1 x 1000 metres, again all with no recovery. So, equipped with this information, an event-specific training programme to reduce their personal best times for 10K can be devised by athletes and/or their coaches.

Let’s return to the runners who cover 10K in 30 minutes and 60 minutes respectively. The first athlete runs the equivalent of 10 x 1000 metres in three minutes each with no recovery. The second takes six minutes for each 1000 metres section with no recovery. Or, again if you like, the first runner completes 25 x 400 metres in 72 seconds with no recovery while the times for the second runner are 25 x 400 metres in 2 minutes 24 seconds with no recovery. This means that training at, or slightly faster than, race pace is an important aspect of a schedule for athletes wanting to fulfil their 10K potential. Equally, important is the amount of recovery between repetitions. If running a 10K race non-stop involves completing a series of distances without recovery it is obvious that the time of the pauses between 10K training repetitions must be short.

For elite athletes, that means about 60 to 120 seconds between 1000 metres repetitions and as low as 20 to 30 seconds for 400 repetitions. Top African runners use sessions like 3 x 3200 metres at or slightly faster than race pace with just 90 seconds recoveries between reps. The objective of training at race pace with very short recoveries is to enable the athlete to string together series of distances like 10 x 1000 metres or 25 x 400 metres sections with no recovery once the race gets under way. Specificity is the name of the game and nothing is more specific than training at the required race pace with a short recovery.

The session is made even more specific by covering 10,000 metres cumulatively during the work-out. For example, 10 x 1000 metres and 25 x 400 metres each add up to 10K. So, if the athlete aims to complete 10K in 45 minutes, he/she would run 1000-metres repetitions in 4 minutes 30 seconds or slightly faster. That’s because 10 x 1000 metres in 4 minutes 30 seconds equals 10K in 45 minutes. However, the speed, recoveries and the number of repetitions will depend upon the age, fitness, experience, training capacity and recovery rate of the individual athlete. Once the athlete has worked out their race pace for each 400 metres section it is easy to calculate the equivalent training pace times for other distances. So someone aiming for 33.20 for 10K - that’s 80 seconds per lap - would target times of 2.40, 4.00, 5.20, 6.40 and 10.00 when using training distances of 800, 1200, 1600, 2000 and 3000 metres.

Each athlete should calculate their own training paces from their own individual race targets, based on previous performances in racing and training as well as their immediate race objectives. These sessions might seem daunting but they must be embraced by serious aspirants for international selection at 10K. It is scientifically acknowledged that repetitions at 10K pace should generally be a minimum of three minutes duration to develop VO2 Max - that’s the amount of oxygen which can be extracted from the air breathed in and distributed via the cardio-vascular system to the working muscles. However, occasional sessions of shorter repetitions like 20 to 25 x 400 metres sessions at faster than 10K with a very short recovery do have their place in sharpening the athlete mentally and physically.

Runners hoping to compete at world-class level cannot afford to neglect their 5K, 3K and even 1500 metres/800 metres speed - especially as some last laps in 10K races and even marathons have been run in under 60 seconds. Work-outs at these distances train the 10 per cent anaerobic requirements in 10K running - which is around 90 per cent aerobic - and help athletes to insert, or respond to, pace injections and cope with fast last lap sprints. Sessions at 5K and 3K pace for under-distance speed follow the same principles, although the recoveries between repetitions tend to be slightly longer to accommodate the more anaerobic elements of the session.

The lap times for 5K training/racing pace are approximately 4 to 5 seconds faster than lap times for 10K. For example a runner aiming for 33.20 in the 10K (i.e. 25 x 400 metres in 80 seconds) would run something like 12 to 16 x 400 metres in 75 to 76 seconds with about 30 to 45 seconds recovery during a 5K session. Kilbarchan AAC’s Robert Quinn, a UK international in road, cross-country, track and mountain running, regularly ran 12 x 400 metres in around 64 to 66 seconds with just 20 seconds recovery. Other typical 5K sessions are 6 to 8 x 800 metres with 30 to 45 seconds recovery OR 5 to 6 x 1000 metres with 60 to 90 seconds recovery OR 4 to 6 x 1200 metres with 90 to 120 seconds recovery. If sessions cannot be done on a track or over measured distances they can be replaced by fartlek adaptations. For example, instead of 8 x 1000 metres in 3 minutes with 60 seconds recovery, the athlete could run 8 x 3 minutes with 60 seconds recovery jog. Long repetitions should also be used in fartlek session.

Sessions like 15 minutes, 10 minutes and 5 minutes running at or faster than 10K pace with 2 minutes recovery jog after each repetition should be part of an elite 10K runner’s training programme. So should 12 minutes, 10 minutes and eight minutes repetitions at or faster than race pace, again with 2 minutes recovery jog. Track and fartlek sessions are cemented together by long steady runs which can include 8 to 12 miles at half-marathon pace and 15 to 20 miles at marathon pace.

These develop maximal oxygen uptake, capillarisation (the development of tiny oxygen-carrying blood vessels), the body’s capacity to metabolise mechanical energy from chemical energy, mental determination and running economy. An elite athlete would also be running for 30 to 40 minutes most mornings of the week. Make no mistake about it. Training and racing 10K requires great mental and physical toughness. The words of the poet, Pindar, in his Horatian Ode written thousands of years ago in ancient Greece, home of the Olympian ideal, should be the inspiration of all ambitious 10K runners: ”Without toil there triumph only a few.”

Including daily morning runs of 30 to 40 minutes, a two-week cycle for an international 10K runner could be:

Sunday: 75 to 90 minutes off-road running.

Monday: 8 to 10 x 3 minutes at 10K pace with 60 seconds recovery.

Tuesday: 6 to 10 miles steady run.

Wednesday: 10 to 12 miles at half-marathon pace.

Thursday: 12 to 16 x 400 metres at 5K pace with 30 seconds recovery.

Friday: Rest or 20 to 30 minutes jog.

Saturday: 15 to 18 miles at marathon pace.

Sunday: 75 to 90 minutes off-road running.

Monday: 5 x 6 minutes metres at 10K pace with 90 to 120 seconds recovery.

Tuesday: 6 to 10 miles steady.

Wednesday: 10 to 12 miles at half-marathon pace.

Thursday: 5 to 6 x 1000 metres at 5K pace with 60 to 90 seconds recovery.

Friday: Rest or 20 to 30 minutes easy run.

Saturday; 15 to 20 miles at marathon pace.

Obviously, this schedule would be far too severe for most athletes. But it gives you an idea of the type of work that is necessary to reach the very top level as a 10K runner. However, the programme can be modified to accommodate your age, experience, level of ability, health, the number of times you train each week, and the phase of the training and competition year.

by Derek Parker (UK Athletics Level 4 Coach)

(Scottish Performance Coach of the Year 2006 - Kilbarchan AAC Coaching Adviser)