preparing for my 10K (Read 804 times)

As I have previously mentioned in another thread, I am doing my first ever race on new years eve, 10K. I have about 3 weeks left to race, so has anyone got any tips at all for improving my time. I said that I was aiming for 55 minutes, and I have just got back from a practice run I plotted on this site. Here are my splits: 1 mile 07:52 2 mile 08:07 3.1 miles 09:02 4 mile 08:52 5 mile (forgot to record) 6.2 miles 52:20 Please have a look at my times, and help me if you can, thing to note is that I did it point to point, so the first half was a lot ofshallow downhill, and so the way back was harder, uphill with wind in face. I find the first 2miles the hardest, but as you can see I went harder to get warmed up quicker, I thouht, but believe that it affected my next few miles, as I was suffering. It is hard for me to know what spped to go at the start. Do you guys think that in a race environment times improve over running alone? Please guys, any tips or help will be great. Should I be doing a 10 K 3 or 4 times a week? or doing a 8 miler, with a quick short one etc?

I agree with JakeKnight...if you can run a 52:50 in training, then, in theory, you should be able to run faster in a race. The adrenaline, the crowds, and the whole racing experience will give you extra energy. Without seeing your log, I have to ask whether you did this training run a maximum effort? In general, its not a good idea to race your training runs, mostly because of the increased risk of injury. You will typically get better results by doing a combination of longer slow running, plus a little shorter speed work. May once a week you should do some tempo runs or shorter speed work (400m or 600m intervals). I plugged your 52:50 into McMillan race calculator, and the suggested tempo run (2-6 miles) training paces are 8:32 to 8:54. Notice that the recommendation is to run slower than the pace you would run for a 52:50 10K (8:25). With the exception of intervals (discussed below), your training runs will normally be slower than race pace. The suggested paces for the intervals is between 8:20 and 8:32. Notice that these are very short intervals, and you should take 90 seconds to 3 minutes between each interval to recover (walking or slow jog). Since you have only three weeks left before your race, your going to have time for 2 (maybe 3) speedwork sessions at most. The rest of your running should be at an easy pace (McMillan suggests 9:53 to 10:23). (One last comment: the term "point to point" generally means that you started at point A and finished your run at point B. I think you meant to say "out and back," which is where you start at point A, run half your distance, then turn around and run back to point A.)