Aiming for a 10K by late December

[ejvcruns]

Graduated C25K about three/four weeks ago and have been running steadily 3x a week since then. I've been doing run/walk 5ks for the past few weeks and am ramping up to a continuous 5k run on November 1st - a Halloween virtual race from the Zombies, Run! people.

I've also entered entered the "run the solar system" virtual race (runthesolarsystem.com) which ends on December 20 -- I have my sights set on running it on Saturday the 16th. I have a 7 week training plan which starts with the assumption that you are a beginning runner who has completed a 5k distance. I'm going to give it a shot and I guess the worst that can happen to me is that I have to walk part of the 10k, right?

I've also got a reward in mind -- a whole spa day on the 17th of December (although I haven't talked to the family about it yet -- but I think they'll be OK with this).

Would anyone like to join me?

Training scheme as follows:

Week 1: 1) run 15, walk 2, run 15; 2) run 15, walk 2, run 15; 3) run 3k

Week 2: 1) run 20, walk 2, run 20; 2) run 20, walk 2, run 20; 3) run 5k

Week 3: 1) run 30; 2) run 30; 3) run 5k

Week 4: 1) run 30; 2) run 30; 3) run 40

Week 5: 1) run 30; 2) run 40; 3) run 50

Week 6: 1) run 45; 2) run 45; 3) run 10K

Week 7: 1) run 30 easy; 2) run 25 easy; 3) 10K race!

[Fiendarina Graduate10]

Good for you in keeping up running after couch to 5K, and setting yourself a target to aim for. Just a thought about the training programme from my perspective as a slow runner - it takes me between 35 and 40 minutes to run 5K, and it took me 1 hour 15 to do my first 10K. That means I'd have to jump from running 50 minutes at the end of week 5 to an extra 25 minutes, half as much again, to reach 10K at the end of week 6. You may well be a lot speedier- but don't beat yourself up if you don't quite hit 10K at the end of week 6, even running 60 minutes would set you well on the way for your race at the end of the next week. Hope you enjoy the training and good luck!

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

Great goal and it's brilliant that you are getting into a habit post graduation.

The golden rule about increasing distance is to make sure you keep the total weekly increase 10% or less. In your plan there are a few bigger increases which puts you at risk of doing too much too soon and injury.

You could aim to run 7/8K before your race and I do believe you will complete the 10K on the day. You don't have to do the distance beforehand although many people prefer to do so.

ju-ju- has put together a plan to get to 10K which you might take a look at.

Check out the pinned posts here.

Alternatively lots of people increase by 1X 5K run, 1X shorter, faster run say 3K and then increasing the longer one each week. Just keep to the 10% rule on the TOTAL increases.

Whatever you decide, good luck and enjoy the ride.