How to Run a Faster 10k

A lot of people who buy my Treadmill Trainer running workouts are looking to run a 10k. Many of them are newbies and have never run a 10k race, while others are seasoned veterans looking to run a faster 10k.

So what’s the trick to running faster, regardless of the distance you’re looking to cover?

Here it is – train faster than you anticipate to run in your race.

This is known as supra-maximal (or faster than maximum) training. In plain English, what that means is that you’re basically training your body to run faster than your desired race pace. As a result, when you go and run your 10k race it seems a lot easier and you’ll even run quicker than you projected.

Since it’s difficult to run very fast for long periods of time, the easiest way to accomplish this feat is by using interval training.

Interval training allows you to spend a certain amount of time running as fast as you want, numerous times, because of recovery intervals that are interjected within the workout.

10k Training Example

For instance, if you want to run a 10k in 40 minutes, your race pace would need to be about 6:30 minutes per mile. If you’re running on the treadmill, that’s about 9.9 on the speed setting. Needless to say, that’s a pretty fast pace.

If you’ve never run a 40-minute 10k, most likely you’ll have a tough time maintaining that kind of pace for longer than a few minutes.

That’s where you can use intervals to help you out.

Let’s assume that you can only maintain that pace for 3 minutes. Actually, let’s add the element of supra-maximal training and aim for a 6-minute/mile pace. That’s faster than our anticipated race pace. With me so far?

Ok, so you can run at that pace for less than 3 minutes, let’s say 2 minutes and 30 thirty. So we use that to build up your endurance at that pace by repeating that 2:30 interval (at 6-minute/mile) several times over with a recovery interval between each one.

Depending on your fitness level, the recovery interval will be longer or shorter. The shorter the recovery interval, the more challenging the workout, but also the more beneficial for your eventual race.

After all, running a 10k isn’t about running and fast and then slowly throughout the race but rather running as fast as possible for the entire distance. Therefore, as you get fitter, the goal is to reduce the recovery intervals and lengthen the work intervals in your training so that you are essentially running as fast as you can for a longer period of time.

Here’s a quick interval training example:

Work interval = 2:30 @ 6-minutes/mile

Recovery interval = 2:30 @ 10 minutes/mile

Repeat this sequence 9 times for a total of 45 minutes.

This sample workout uses a 1:1 work to rest ratio. As you get fitter, that ratio would ideally change so that you spend more of your training time at your faster pace.

..