Coopah How To: Train For a 10k
In this series of ‘HOW TO’ blogs, we are going to share our tips for the most common questions we get asked by our community of runners, and this blog is all about How To Train For A 10k
A 10k or 6.2 miles is an event in the athletics programme at the Olympics and World Athletic Championships. It is also a very popular distance at mass participation events globally. In 2018, over 1.8 million people took part in a 10km event.
The current 10K record holders are Yalemzerf Yehualaw (ETH) 29:14 for women and Ronald Kwemoi (KEN) 27:16 for men. This may bit too fast for the majority of us, as the average 10k finish time for males is 58:30 and 1:09:40 for females (data from 2019).
If you are new to running, it may take anywhere from 10 - 14 weeks depending on your current fitness level and 10k goal. If you already run regularly and have done a few 5 Kilometre races, it may take as little as 6 weeks to train for a 10k.
WHY TRAIN FOR A 10K?
There are so many reasons why people may want to train for a 10 kilometre distance. It may be because you are an elite athlete and your goal is to run in the 10k at the Olympics in Paris 2024. But for the majority of us, it may be for other reasons including but not limited to improving fitness, or to raise money for charity. Another popular reason to train for a 10k is to participate in a particular race you really like the look of.
CREATING A 10K GOAL
When training for a 10k it is so important to have a goal. We want to train with a purpose, therefore we want to be able to work towards a specific goal. When you go that 10k and you achieve, the sense of achievement is amazing and makes all the hard training worth it.
Whether your goal is to complete the 10k in a specific time, raise a particular amount for a charity or reach the finish line, all are brilliant goals. However, to get the most out of our training, your goal needs to be ambitious yet achievable. For example, there is no point in me setting my goal to run a 32 minute 10k in 3 months as I will not be able to achieve this and the training plan will be too advanced for me, therefore it will just set me up to fail. However, if I set a goal of running 48 minute 10k which is ambitious for me but still achievable, I will be training with a drive to succeed and the paces I need to run in training to achieve this will be challenging but reachable.
If you have a particular time in mind, you can calculate your estimated race pace using Omnicalculator race predictor.
In the case that you have already completed 10km before, do you think you could run 20 seconds faster? Maybe even 1 minute faster?
HOW MANY DAYS A WEEK SHOULD I RUN TO TRAIN FOR A 10K?
It is recommended to run between 3- 4 times a week when training for a 10k. When you sign up to Coopah and enter your data for Coopah to create your personalised 10k training plan, it will usually included an Easy Run, an Interval Run, a Tempo Session and a Long Run as well as Yoga classes and Strength and Conditioning workouts.
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