10K Running

[adnewg73]

Hi Everyone

Just wondered, a bit of advice. I was running 10K weekly, as one of my runs and have a couple of 10K races booked next year. Now the nights are dark after work and cold, I'm running on the treadmill twice a week then a 5K parkrun on a Saturday. I'm trying to do some Fartlek on the treadmill which is hard work, but hopefully beneficial once the nights start getting lighter and I can go outside again.

My question is, if I'm only running (sometimes quite hard) a couple of times a week on a treadmill and then a weekly 5K, will I need to build up again to the 10K distance or will I still be able to run it. I am planning to run a couple over the Christmas period, during the daylight when I'm off work.

Thanks in advance for any advice, it's really helpful this forum (I have a lot of digests to catch up on though, but am getting there slowly). Thanks 👍😀

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10]

If you are running regularly either on a treadmill or outside running a 5K that's fine, to gradually increase that distance to 10K you can use the 10% rule by running a little longer on the days you run or use Ju Jus magic 10K plan, once I graduated from C25K I increased my distance to 10K by running 1K longer once a week until I got to 10K

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

I guess it depends how far you are running on the treadmill - but you will gradually lose that endurance if you are not running 10k fairly regularly. Could you add on a run to your parkrun sometimes, so you are doing parkrun 5K plus your own run afterwards?

I know how hard it is to get out when it’s dark and cold but this way you could use the weekend daylight for that longer run.

Good luck - what events do you have in the new year btw?🙂

[adnewg73 Graduate10 in reply to Sandraj39]

Thanks Sandraj39 - I've got the 10K Chester run in March, 10K Run the Lights (Blackpool - illuminations, so a 9pm start) in August and a local 10K in October. I might do another one locally in the year too, but so far those are the only ones I've got on.

[Sandraj39 Graduate10 in reply to adnewg73]

Sounds fab! I love a 10k event…and especially the bling!🏅

[damienair Administrator]

It’s hard to get a proper routine for running during the winter months. Like you I run 5K twice during the week and usually one of those runs will be an interval session. I also run parkrun every Saturday morning and I usually give it a good effort. On Sunday mornings I run a nice easy pace 10-12K run. Even if you’re able to fit in a 7K run it will mean that you will have to do very little to build back up to 10K.

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10]

I ran 10k in September having not gone further than 5k in the previous two months. I wouldn’t recommend that as a training strategy-I’d been ill. Normally I’d have run the whole thing but I decided to run/walk instead and had one of my nicest races. It’s just a case of adjusting your goals and your race plan to fit your build up.

You can build from 5k to 10k pretty easily if you’re used to running that distance (like you are!) I totally agree with damienair -if you can stretch one of your runs fairly regularly to 7k then that puts you in a really great position to do a 10k basically whenever you want.

It sounds like you’ve got a great race schedule! Knowing you’re going to be on a start line on a particular day really helps with winter motivation! Good luck!

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10]

 MissUnderstanding took the words right out of my mouth... walk/run, being two of them...maybe too, as the others say, just try to stretch the run into a 7K.... slow and steady is the way, you will be ready to face the day!

Or night in the case of Blackpool. Loads to look forward to ! Enjoy!