Running News Daily

Try this progression mile workout to improve your 10K

If you have a 10K race on the horizon, it’s important to make sure that your workouts are race-specific. With tons of spring 10K’s happening across the country, we have the perfect 10K specific mile progression workout that will help prepare you to handle the physical demands of kilometres six to 10 in your race.

When training for a 10K, you’ll want to make sure you are covering at least 50 to 70 percent of the race distance in your speed workout. Therefore, one-kilometre and one-mile repeats are essential, as it builds up your endurance to get you more comfortable with your goal pace over the distance.

The workout

Four to five reps of one mile (1,609m or four laps on a track) progression with two minutes rest between reps

The pace: Since the mile is four laps, divide your mile rep up into four paces. On the first lap, you should aim for 10 seconds per kilometre slower than your goal pace (for example, we will use a goal 10K time of 45:00, 4:30/km), so the first lap should be around 1:52. On the next lap, pick up the pace to five seconds per kilometre faster, hitting the next 400m in 1:50. The third 400m should be done at your goal 10K pace of 4:30/km, which is 1:48 for the lap and the last being five seconds faster (4:25/km) in 1:46.

The idea of this workout is to get your body comfortable with faster paces, when it’s experiencing fatigue. If you can hit the paces on all four or five reps, it’ll get you ready to negative split your next 10K.

The two-minute rest in between each rep is a standing or walk rest to help bring your heart rate down before you start up again. Ideally, the paces of this workout will be easier to manage if it’s done on a 200 to 400m track. If the track is under 400m, divide the time per lap by four to determine your pace per 100m. If you do not have access to a track, use a flat 400m, 800m or one-mile loop and set markers along the way. 

Control your pace early on and make sure you are hitting the times on the first two reps. If you go out too fast, it’ll ruin the rest of the workout, which isn’t the intention.