What pace to run at?

[Wavey16]

So about to embark on my second Bridge to 10K adventure. I graduated about 4 or 5 years ago. But covid hit and I developed diabetes and I went back to the couch. I graduated from C25K today and want to build myself upto 10K and maybe HM like I did previously.

I wondered about pace. I ran a ParkRun in 31.58 today and would love to do 10K in around 1hr 5mins. I noticed in one on the posts that's it's recommended to bring the pace down on long runs. But if you do that, how would you increase the pace for when you want to run a 10K in 1hr 5 mins? Shouldn't you run your long runs at the pace you would like to run it at eventually?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Annieapple Administrator]

🍏My best suggestion is to download the NRC App and do their 10k race plan . They also have a half marathon plan.

[Beachcomber66 Graduate10]

What an interesting question! First, hitting your 10k pace target is well within your grasp.Your 31.58 5k tells me that. I have done under 63 minutes, but that was a while ago! I tend to run longer and slower now (aged 71). It is a question of how you build up to that pace and distance, and that involves finding your pace, or rather paces. You need to run at below your 5k pace in order to add distance, then speed up again once you are comfortable at 10k.

My easy pace is 7:30 per k; that is my default long run pace when building up to a 10 mile or HM run. I can do 7 min/k 10 mile run still, but that pace comes through a build up, including running intervals and a weekly 5k at faster pace. I think that the free NRC app will help you find your own 10k pace through the usual pattern of one 5k, one long run increasing in distance every each week and , crucially, one interval run per week. One major benefit of the app is that it records each interval individually, tells you when to sprint and when to back off and which of your paces to run at (so it helps you to find your own 5k, 10k and 1 mile paces over a period of weeks). When I did my sub 63 min 10k, my 5k best pace was around 28:17 min. So I had the pace, I just needed the weekly plan to gradually spread that pace to 10k through building up fitness and stamina. I hope that makes some sort of sense!

[RollingPea]

Hi Wavey16. You registered an impressive sub-32 parkrun time on Dec 16, having recently graduated from C25K. Congratulations for having done so through these challenging wet, cold weeks! Hugely impressive.

Now I have a question for you. Does this mean you are aiming at sub-32 5 km every time you step out for your consolidation runs from now on?

Hopefully you answered no. If you answered yes, I would raise an eyebrow and worry that you were pushing yourself too hard. Read up again about consolidation runs on the forum. It's time to start exploring different distances and paces. The great thing is you have caught the running bug and you want to keep running regularly. Now you are aiming for 10K, please do take care to increase distance very gradually. I'm not an expert, but I think the advice is to increase by no more than 10% distance per week?

The main point is that when you get out there and run regularly, at any pace, you are building fitness and stamina towards your 10K goal. If you are push too hard on pace, you may well overdo it and end up back on the injury couch. You need to try hard to avoid that. Especially in winter when there are extra slip hazards and cold muscles need extra warming up.

You already know that your 5 K time in a parkrun can be faster than your normal training pace because the pace of the 'race' is affected by the super-fast athletes and club runners at the front. They tend to "pull" the main bunch along a little faster than usual.

The same applies to 10K. If you are in a 10K race, you will almost certainly run faster than you would on training runs. The point is that your training will have given you the strength and stamina to pull a good time out of the hat in the race. If you build up sensibly you will be able to do that.

As an example, I had a similar goal to you earlier this year. I built up to 10 K over a period of about 4 months and my last few training 10Ks before the race were around 1h 10min. To my great surprise I registered sub-60 in the 10K race I had signed up for! Undoubtedly there was a "pulling effect" from the front runners. I would definitely not feel comfortable running at that pace every time I train 10K. The training enables you to do a special time every once in a while.

Enjoy your second running adventure!