Fair play to Coach Dion... in commenting on my 10k ambitions he has done two things: 1) question whether it's really ambitious enough, and 2) given me a nice nudge to do some serious speedwork. On the first point: well, 48mins is not exactly Mo Farrah territory, but it would be a PB for me at this distance - if I can get to that for October 13th I might look at a year of reducing 10k PBs.
On the second point: the Coach has suggested that I run around 3 times a week and for one of these runs that I do the following: 10 repeats for 60secs at faster than race pace, with 60 second rest in between, or else to run 8mins twice, or three times, at faster than race pace, with 60secs in between.
Now, I have done repeats or intervals before, but the simplicity of the Coach's message has just given me that extra shot in the arm to get at them again. On Thursday last I did my first set of the Coach's repeats on a treadmill at home - choosing to opt for the 8minute treatment. I was a little over enthusiastic and set the pace a little too high (8.5) so I reduced it significantly for the second round (down as far as 7.5). The rest in between runs was also way too long. On Monday last, however, I got up on the threadmill again for another exciting edition of the Coach's repeat runs. This time I set the speed at the right level and took just 60 sec breaks. Three rounds of 8min runs were completed and I felt a fair degree of improvement. Hopefully I can keep this going and will knock that PB down! Only bad side of this last week's training was the fact that I didn't get out for a long run....
Of course, if you do that speework once a week, such as repeats and rest, you'll improve your pace sharply. I've planned to do it on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteLosing weight is important too ... I'll give it a try :)
OK maybe I was a bit hard on you, but I get excited about running...
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the training
Thanks for stopping by Team BHI. Good luck getting down to 48 minutes (or faster) in the 10K. Cheers!
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