I spent some time on the "Time to Run" site yesterday, reading the forum threads about 10k training. A guy from, I think, South Africa seems to offer coaching services to runners, and advocates a training system I thought interesting. Starts with a timed 4k to establish a baseline. From this he tells the individual how fast to run a series of 5x2k with 90 seconds rest intervals as speed work. The rest of the week is conventional, short recovery run, longer easy runs and one long run. Alternating weeks seems to be 6x1k intervals with 75 seconds rest, again the coach tells them what times to run. The runner gives feedback in terms of times, feel, starting average and highest heartrate, and sometimes other info. Seems quite a tightly structured method, and lots of feedback about your progress from the intervals. Any comments?

Thanks, Riggs. I like the fact that you can see your progress each week, but I suppose that is most useful to new runners who are making measurable progress weekly!