Skirt Runner
I've been half marathon training since the beginning of June. My prime focus for the past 4+ months has been building endurance, as 7 miles was my maximum long run going into training. I didn't do much speedwork during HM training, generally just an uptempo shorter run and a fartlek each week. I think my speed may have taken a hit while focusing on endurance, but I'm not entirely sure as I have not raced a shorter race all-out since May so I'm not entirely sure if that is true or not.
Now that the half is over, I am dying for a 5K and 10K PR seeing as I have not had a PR in awhile (or tried for one). I have a 10K lined up on November 10th and a 5K on Thanksgiving. I could PR a 10K without any extra work (my PR is 1:04:45, and I have unofficially PRed it during a 15K race and am fairly confident I could get around a 1:02 tomorrow if I wanted), but I REALLY want to get a sub-60. My 5K PR is 28:16 and I would love to do better, as that was set May 5th. I would LOVE to get under 27:07, just because my first 5K was 37:07 on 10/13/12 and taking 10 minutes off would be a huge milestone.
Any ideas on how I can improve my speed between now and mid-Novemvber? Is it possible to get much faster in that short amount of time? I have never done much formal speedwork, with the exception of fartleks, those uptempo out and backs, and races.
PRs: 5K- 28:16 (5/5/13) 10K- 1:00:13 (10/27/13) 4M- 41:43 (9/7/13) 15K- 1:34:25 (8/17/13) 10M- 1:56:30 (4/6/14) HM- 2:20:16 (4/13/14) Full- 5:55:33 (11/1/15)
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Are we there, yet?
You've got your base so what you need is race specific workouts. Since the 10K comes first, I'd suggest tempo runs and longish intervals at 10K RP. Add some strides as part of your warm up for any intervals. After the 10K, shorten the intervals and speed up on them to 5K RP with slightly more recovery.
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05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
This has been my model for the last three years - focus on shorter distances after my mid-October half. I'm assuming you focused on tempo paced runs during your half schedule. I would maintain some sort of tempo workout while introducing another workout @ your 10k pace. A good place to start might be to combine the two; 2x15:00 with the 1st 7.5 minutes @ half pace and the 2nd 7.5 @ 10k pace. 2-3:00 recovery jog and another repeat. This would satisfy both elements [tempo / race pace] in one workout. Then you could transition to more specific 10k work - 1000m repeats @ 10k pace. Gradually increase the number of repeats. I also like to do longer repeats for 10k; 2000-3000m. Something like 2000m, jog, 1000m, jog, 2000m. To work on your speed you could do a few 200m sprints following the workout.
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I agree with all of the above-- now that you've got a good base take advantage of it with some race-specific work.
3 types of workouts that (I think) you'll want to focus on:
1- short, fast type stuff for leg speed/turnover-- this can be in the form of hill sprints, 100m-200m repeats, or just strides at the end of an easy run
2- VO2 Max type intervals-- These are the classic, 3-5 minute intervals-- on McMillan your 800m repeats should be between 3:57-4:10, so that's a perfect distance for this. You can start with 400m repeats to ease into this, but if you can work up to 4x800m or 5x800m that's probably a good workout
3- Race-specific workouts. I like to do a very race-specific workout early in the week of a race-- so on the Tuesday before a Saturday race, for example (that's probably the latest I would do it) something like 4x1-mile for a 10K at 10K pace or 5x800m at 5K pace for a 5K. I find it's helpful to get my body really ready to run at the exact pace it's going to for the race.
Since everyone has their own improvement curve it's hard to say how much speed you'll be able to gain between now and then, but my best advice is to do your best and see what happens. As you get some more experience you'll get a better idea of how quickly you tend to improve and what goals are reasonable for whatever timeframe you have.
One of my favorite workouts is 6 X 1200's at tempo pace. I run easy up to the track which is about 1.25 miles, then get right into it. My recoveries are usually around two minutes, or 400 meters depending on how I am feeling on that day.
You can also run these on your standard route sans the track, hopefully avoiding traffic lights and what not. For you, you would just run them at your current 10k pace of 10:26 and based on your weekly mileage, probably only do 3 X 1200's, or 3 X 5 minutes.
Thank you guys!
I have a really n00b question..... if I am not running on a track, how do I measure things like 1000m or 3000m? I have no concept of how far that is, as I am a terrible judge of distance, especially in the metric system. Is there a comparable workout to the ones you guys have mentioned in mile increments that I can use my Garmin for (such as 3 x .4 miles or something)? Or a time equivalent (10K pace for 4 minutes)?
As for judging my improvement curve, it is so hard to do that now..... in my first 6 months of racing I ran four 5Ks, PRing each by 1-4 minutes, for a total of almost 9 minutes off my first 5K time with no speedwork, just easy miles in training. Obviously that kind of improvement can't continue, or else I'd be an Olympian in no time. It was reasonable last year to expect to shave 3 minutes off my 5K time in a month (because I did it, more than once) but I don't see those kind of improvements to happen again, even with race specific workouts....but I do want to get faster!
1600 meters is a mile (or close enough).
Kristin- I still find that I am improving a lot with getting consistent mileage and gradually increasing that. Yes, I've been doing track work, but I honestly think it's still the mileage that's doing the most good.
Thank you guys! I have a really n00b question..... if I am not running on a track, how do I measure things like 1000m or 3000m? I have no concept of how far that is, as I am a terrible judge of distance, especially in the metric system. Is there a comparable workout to the ones you guys have mentioned in mile increments that I can use my Garmin for (such as 3 x .4 miles or something)? Or a time equivalent (10K pace for 4 minutes)?
Use 5 minutes and 15 minutes. If you can set up a couple landmarks so you are running the same distance each time, that will help otherwise the temptation is to run slower and slower as you get tired.
1600 meters is a mile (or close enough). Kristin- I still find that I am improving a lot with getting consistent mileage and gradually increasing that. Yes, I've been doing track work, but I honestly think it's still the mileage that's doing the most good.
I'm not positive, as I haven't fully put it to the test, but I definitely think I've gotten slower through HM training, and at peak I ran more than double the weekly mileage that I ever had before. I attempted to run a 5K at 95% effort 2 weeks ago and it was 2.5 minutes slower than my PR. Granted I was just getting a head cold and was having a lot of trouble breathing, and ended up having to take a little walk break, but even the first mile, which was my fastest and I was feeling good, was several seconds slower than PR pace.
I wonder if it's just the residual fatigue rather than actually getting slower. Especially since you had a couple of setbacks with your vacation and getting sick that made it harder to adapt to the mileage you were doing, so you had a lot of fatigue during your training.
I remember seeing a post by Nobby on the main board about how getting past 2 hours on a LR can also work to lower LT, and for me I know that the shorter distances, and even speed at those distances, seems to come so much more easily once I am past that 90 - 120 minute barrier for my LRs (and once I've had a month or so to adapt to that level).
I wonder if it's just the residual fatigue rather than actually getting slower. Especially since you had a couple of setbacks with your vacation and getting sick that made it harder to adapt to the mileage you were doing, so you had a lot of fatigue during your training. I remember seeing a post by Nobby on the main board about how getting past 2 hours on a LR can also work to lower LT, and for me I know that the shorter distances, and even speed at those distances, seems to come so much more easily once I am past that 90 - 120 minute barrier for my LRs (and once I've had a month or so to adapt to that level).
Interesting. Well many my long runs have been over 90 minutes since the end of May, so that is interesting. And it is possible that ramping up the mileage has resulted in residual fatigue. Plus I ran in a lot of heat and humidity all summer, so paces suffered. And there has been some little setbacks.....interesting. I guess I will see in November!
ALSO, what should my long runs be like while training for shorter distance races?? I've been used to 9, 10, 11 mile runs.....should I cut that back a bit while working on speed?
What are your goals beyond November? Do you see yourself training for another half in the spring, or continuing to focus on shorter distances?
Depends on your weekly mileage and the number of times you run per week. You still need a lot of aerobic runs for the shorter races unless you're talking about dropping down to the mile and 800m. Even those events need significant amounts of aerobic training. If you can maintain your current mileage while adding more speed work, that would be better, but you may need to reduce mileage slightly while increasing intensity, especially if you're feeling fatigued and not just slow.
I loved running the half....I loved training for the half.....I think I am going to be a half marathon girl at least for the forseeable future. I already have a goal half for April and have purchased another Running Wizard plan for it that will start in December. This plan has me running a lot of runs in the 12-14 mile range, so I may throw in HMs in February and March as supported training runs. Before I jump back into half training though, I have a 5K and 10K on the schedule, and it's been so long since I've had a PR (or raced a shorter race all-out) that I would really like to race them and hope for the best.