By the time you get to this point in the 8-week programme to a faster 10k, you are well and truly ready for this workout.
Each week I will be posting the Friday Fartlek Run Sessions that you can do to enhance your running. Fartlek is a Swedish term that runners often use and it means speed-play. See a previous post about training intensity (levels) to know how hard to work.
Over the next 8 weeks, I will post a workout that when done in sequence will help you run a faster 10km. The key to success is to set a realistic 10km time that is challenging. Over the coming 8 weeks, we will look at a hypothetic goal time for a typical person trying to run 10km under 50min, 45min, 40min, or 35min. These sessions are best done on an athletic track.
This is the seventh workout in this series the previous sessions can be found here:
Include each of these speed sessions once per week in your normal training.
3x 2 Miles
- 10min Warm Up Level II;
- 3x 2 Miles, 5min RI;
- 10min Cool Down Level I-II;
- 10min Stretching
The warm-up should be done at an intensity that is steady but not overconsuming at Level II. Run for a minimum of 10 minutes. Feel free to add some stride-outs in after the 10 minutes is up to increase your heart rate.
The main set: run three reps of 2 miles around the track (just over 8 laps) – a lot of tracks won’t have a ‘2 Mile’ start point marked, so just pace from the finish line back to the 1 Mile start point and then take the same number of paces behind the 1 Mile start point to work out where you start your 2 Mile rep from. Run it at your goal 10km pace. See the table below to determine what your target time will be based on your goal 10km time. After you have done your 2-mile rep, jog for 5 minutes to recover prior to commencing the next rep.
| Goal 10km | 2 Mile time |
| 50min | 16:05 |
| 45min | 14:29 |
| 40min | 12:52 |
| 35min | 11:16 |
To execute this session correctly you want to be hitting each repetition just a touch faster than your target time and definitely no slower than the target time. That is within 20 seconds for the 2 Mile rep.
The cooldown is at a low intensity, jogging for a minimum of 10 minutes.
Finish with 10 minutes of stretching to assist with the recovery.
Credit for the inspiration of these sessions needs to be given to Greg McMillan who is a coach and writer for Runners World.
Add your times as a comment below. You can add your results to future posts to ensure that you are keeping on target as you work through the 8 weeks. Here is a link to my Strava file.
If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.
I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.
I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729.
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This 8 week programme will take you through challenging sessions that will build your fitness and speed in order to run 10km faster at the end of the programme.
Designed for an intermediate runner aiming to run their 10km in the range of 35 – 50min. The primary goal of this training plan is to prepare you to RUN FASTER.
8 weeks long this programme can start anytime, this plan progresses through phases to build you to your peak performance. Each week includes 4 runs as well as a flexibility session. This programme includes a 10km time trial in the 9th week so you can see how much you have improved. Although not necessary, I recommend using a heart rate monitor in conjunction with a GPS watch (such as a Garmin).
Prior to using this plan, you should be able to run comfortably for 90 minutes.
Purchase of this plan gives you access to my fortnightly coaching calls where you can ask me any training or racing related questions.
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