My asics plan is bothering me!

I am doing my asics plan for my first 10k event early June. I have done 10k distance early this year in 64 minutes a few times. The plan suggests 57 minutes for my event. Initially the plan had me doing slow 6 milers and i felt fine with this. The plan then started speeding up over shorter distances and based on my times adjusted to a faster prediction. I am spending quite a few runs doing faster shorter distances and am worried that I won't be able to do the 10k distance. The tapering is also just in the last 6 days, is that usual?

[poppypug Graduate10]

Hi

Ive followed 3 or 4 Asics plans and am doing one at the moment for my HM at the end of May. I always do the suggested distances per run , but tend not to follow the recommended pace to the letter . I am not a fast runner by any stretch of the imagination , I just wanted to be able to run at a comfortable pace ( for me ) and complete the event .

My taper period was I think a week before my event too so that sounds about right to me .

Good Luck ! xxx

[roseabi]

The Asics plan took you through a "preconditioning" phase, where you let your body find out what it has to do (run 10k). You are now in the "going faster" part, where you are building cardio-respiratory fitness - 10k is a very difficult distance if you are trying to do it quickly, so you need these shorter, faster, sessions to work up to it. After that you should see you will have a period of "race simulation" which will include runs of 10k at the faster pace.

Regarding tapering, if you think about it, the taper period for marathon is generally about 3 weeks, so since a 10k is roughly a quarter of that distance, 6 days should be about right

[Hidden in reply to roseabi]

Thank you, that makes sense. Yes the preconditioning got me running increasingly to 10k but very slowly! Now i am doing shorter faster runs but keeping that pace while increasing distance. I am not sure that the different training aims to achieve to be honest but your explanation makes sense!

[Millsie-J]

I have only done one A plan, for my first 10k race. I did exactly as Poppy has described. I'm a very slow runner, my aim was to just complete the race, time was not a focus. I also decided on my own tapering. I did not like the distance the plan expected me to run quite close to the race. I listened to my body , I still got out running but kept to shorter runs for 10 days before the race.

I think you probably will know what is best for you so be confident in your decision making. You will nail that race!