How to train for a 10-km race

Recently, it’s become trendy to run the longest possible races and not even running a marathon will take your colleagues at work by surprise anymore. Yet anyone with ambitions bigger than just running the longest possible race should consider the 10-km race fundamental. And people doing athletics should focus on even shorter races. If you can’t run a decent 1,500 meters, you can’t do a decent 3-km race, or 5 and 10 kilometres, and not even a half-marathon, and so on. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule that are faster or, on the other hand, better at longer races, but it applies to most people. And it’s important to be fast even for running a marathon.

Not many of you used to do athletics as kids and ran all these distances. For adults, it’s almost impossible to close the gap between them and athletic speed preparation; still, don’t skip the 10-km distance and spend several years polishing it before running a marathon. In addition to speed, you’ll learn what splits are, what pace to keep, and you’ll be better at estimating your expected performance at new, longer distances. Then you won’t run a marathon with the aim of simply finishing it somehow, but with a clear idea of a specific time you’d like to achieve in your mind.

What will you need? GPS, definitely. 

This running watch is a great, but only when it serves you, not the other way round. I swear by it, though, and can’t even imagine running without it, even though I remember the days when a watch measuring your pace and distance was a bit of science fiction. It’s the watch with the GPS feature what makes the difference between just going for a run or doing some serious training. The watch won’t let you slack off, as you can see your pace all the time. In the past, you could train and keep track of your pace only when running on a track or a measured stretch with a stopwatch. Today, you can do the same on any more or less flat stretch, and it’s absolutely essential, as you’ll find out in the training plan below.

Modern GPS watches offer thousands of pointless functions, ranging from various predictions of racing times, lots of configurable data fields to Facebook notifications. However, you’ll only need the following three indicators: average pace of the lap (between splits), lap distance, and total distance. This allows you to start from basically anywhere and follow your average pace, then push the split button to reset the lap pace and distance, letting you run, for example, a one-kilometre stretch at the planned pace. Careful, though! Not all GPS watches offer the functions I consider essential; instead, they try to “outperform” by offering all kinds of useless things you’ll never need in training. Of course, it’s crucial to wear good running shoes and comfortable running apparel. The 10-km distance is short, so even minor things such as equipment can help. For your training and races, it’s recommended to have two different pairs of shoes; tempo shoes that will handle a lot of kilometres without making your muscles and feet hurt, and light race shoes you should keep exclusively for races. After training in heavier, slower shoes, switching to lighter shoes for a race will leave you feeling like you’re flying.

What about intervals?

Everybody understands that simple jogging will never improve their performance (unless you are a true beginner); it’s the intervals at your 10-km race pace (or faster) that push you forward. If you want to start training and get faster, you should first do some jogging, until you can handle slow running without much effort. It’s not difficult to come up with a training plan or find one online; it’s harder to stick to it without destroying yourself, though. Training gets painful, and if it’s not painful, then it’s not intense enough. For the 10-km race, you should systematically prepare for at least a month (the very minimum), during which you’ll feel fatigued and tired and running won’t feel good. That said, listen to your body – there’s positive as well as negative fatigue! It’s never a good idea to stick to the plan and pace the watch gives you at all costs. If you feel positive fatigue, you can still break your personal record; negative fatigue, on the other hand, may easily result in an injury.

Your training plan should be tailored to your needs, and you should do some running under a coach’s supervision at least from time to time to consult your training and adjust it to your current condition. It’s not always possible to do some hard training to the very limits. Your life isn’t just about sport, so it’s important to plan the heavy training for the days when your program isn’t too packed and you feel fine. Of course, it’s important to actually do all this training and not take pity on yourself, either.

No questions? Well, let’s go do some serious training. See you at the start of the race!

Vítek Pavlišta - Top4Running Ambassador