I've signed up to a 10k in May!

[laurav33]

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all who commented on my previous post my 'bad run', your comments really helped.

It's a lovely day here today so I thought I would get out again and put those gremlins well and truly to bed! I did 8k in 55.13 which I'm pleased with. (My 'long' run pace- ie the pace I can keep up fairly comfortably- is 7mins per km and I managed a mini sprint finish!)

And then I came back home and signed up for my local 10k race in mid May! Which is not that far away! Eek!

Can I ask for some advice about training? I've run 7k twice, 8k twice, 9k once, and 10k once. So I know I can do the distance. If I mix up 5k 'faster' runs and longer runs at my slow pace, I'm thinking that should be okay. But do you think I should run the full 10k again or do you think making the 8k comfortable will be okay? (I'm imagining that adrenalin will get me through another 2 on the day?)

Thanks everyone and happy running.

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Well done and a good run today 😊

You are probably right about the 8k and the excitement and crowd on the day pulling you through the extra 2k  

On saying that if I would wont to run 10k+ beforehand but that is me  

[Steve_L Graduate10]

I think you'll find that as you run more, you'll get to find 10k a relatively easy distance and one that becomes part of your normal routine.

[Steve_L Graduate10]

Oh, and good luck with the race, and well done for signing up for it.  I'm sure you'll have a real blast with it!

[JoolieB1 Graduate10]

People say you can enter a race before being able to do the distance because adrenaline would spur you on!  However, like you I wouldn't want to risk it, I have an event in June - 10k.  My speed is around 7-7.30 mins per km but really could slow down because long run speeds are usually more like an 8 but it's hard to run at a speed that doesn't feel right and so I will stick to what I am doing.  Main thing will be avoiding injury, so I would stick to what u r doing now unless u have a fantastic run day and then u could do a bit more

[Bazza1234 Graduate10]

I like the concept of doing longruns (up to race length+) SLOWLY - and also doing a run which is 1/2 of the latest longrun at goal race pace. You could do a couple of 10+ klms between now and May for psychological reasons and also to improve your endurance - but just slowly. And , once per week, a shorter 5K run at 10K goal race pace . This latter run is to give you a "sense" of how it feels to run at race pace.  Any other short runs would be at an easy/recovery pace.

I have found that the vibe of the race day does boost me.

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

That's really exciting Laura! Go you! Whether you run a 10k again before the race is really up to you but my guess is that you will! As Steve says, with the distances you are running now, it will most likely become a regular (weekly/fortnightly?) thing before your race anyway. Good luck😀

[mfamilias Graduate10]

Well done for signing up! You're right that the atmosphere tends to pull you along at the end - but I agree with the others, you'll probably want to do a 10 k just out of curiosity before the race. Mixing fast 5K and slower long runs is ideal in my book (I do slow 5k's and slow long runs, cos I've got two speeds, "start" and "stop".) If you can do 7/8 on a regular basis, you'll fit the two extra k in on the day, no probs.