Better running times

Question
QUESTION: Hi Jared,

I have been running recreationally for the past year and had started training specifically for 10K runs for the past 5-6 months.  My PR for 10K is 62mins.  I'm 41 and have mostly been training with weights for the past decade until a year ago when I decided that my heart was more important than my appearance.  I still weight train 3-4 times a week; mostly upper body and core muscles although I have dialled back on the weight used.  In addition, I run 3 times a week incorporating a tempo run or interval training once a week and also a long endurance run (eg. Tuesday tempo run/intervals; thursday easy run; sunday long run).  My problem is after making good progress over the past 4 months, I seem to have reached a plateau or even started to regress. My first 10K was 74mins in June followed by a 69min performance 2 months later.  Than, a month later I was able to run 63min followed by another 2 weeks later at 62min. Since then, I have found it tougher to maintain my tempo pace - I was able to run at 5:40 mins per km on the treadmill for up to 36mins at one stage.  That has actually declined to about 25mins and with great effort in the past month.  This has culminated in my most recent 10K being run in 68mins.  Have I taken a 'wrong turn' in my training? How can I train to effectively and consistently reduce my times?  I hope to eventually run 50-55mins for the 10K.  Would that be possible to achieve in a year?  I would appreciate it if you could help me work out a program to achieve this goal.

ANSWER: Hold on. You're jumping too far ahead. Training takes lots of time. It SHOULD take 2 months to get a new PR.

The first thing that comes to mind is over training. Analyze your weekly schedule carefully. Are you not giving your body time to recover? Although your running schedule doesn't seem to vigorous, the weightlifting days might be adding the extra strain. It's hard, but you need to look at your body and learn when it's worked too hard. It is easier to overtrain than to undertrain. Are you getting up in the mornings dreading your workout? After your workout, do you feel like crap? Watch out for your pulse, heart rate. If your heart rate increases heavily when you get up do do something, you are over training. Your heart rate on an average work day should only be around 20 more than your resting heart rate. If it's going alot faster than your resting pulse, your body is not rested well enough.

The reason you've seen a halt (I'm not sure about the drop) in your racing times, is that you are a new runner. You recently started, so you're seeing good results. But once your body is in good shape, (like it was after the 4th month of your training), you stop gaining so fast. The more you train, the longer it will take you to attain a PR and you'll need to train more and really tweak your body. It's common sense, the better you get, the less you have to lose (as in bad race times).
The drop is another thing. The only thing I think it could be is like you thought, a training flaw. Now that you are getting more advanced, you're ready to tweak and and start targeting your training schedule more towards your specific needs in the 10k. Analyze what you need... endurance? Speed? Both?
Tell me what you think you need to improve. Can you run a 20k without it making you very sore the next day? How are your intervals, are you breaking down the 10k distance in your intervals, or are you just running whatever interval distances you feel like? You need to lower your 5k time too. I can make you a general schedule if you'd like, just give me a few ideas of what you need to work on, and tell me what days you can and can't run.
Jared



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Jared,
Thanks for your prompt reply.  I did consider overtraining but didn't think that was an issue as my distances were generally short and I only run 3 times a week.  Although I do train quite frequently with weights, the weights I use are in general 20% less than what I was able to handle before.  I'm simply trying to be buff and toned and have in fact lost about 20lbs of my muscle bulk since I started running last year (from about 192lbs at 5' 9 1/2'').  

Ok, my specific needs for the 10K is really both speed and endurance.  I admit that I often have some difficulty over the last 2K and at times need to slow down somewhat.  I can't tell you how I feel after 20K 'cos the longest I have run so far is about 14K.  I feel OK the next day although sometimes just a little sore.  Generally, for intervals I run at 15-20% faster than my tempo pace for 500m then walk or jog for the next 500m.  I usually do about 8 cycles of this on a treadmill.  I usually alternate between tempo runs and intervals between weeks. My current 5K time is about 28mins and my current schedule of running tuesday, thursday and sunday seem to be optimal for my work/family commitments.

Answer
I think you aren't running as much distance as you need to. I think if you kicked up your mileage you'd see better results.

And you need to break down the 10k. Focus on the distance. It's twice a 5K, so to start improving on your 10K time, you need to go improve your 5K time.

Intervals need to be broken down... e.g.  1K?0 or 5K?. But make sure to leave as little recovery time as possible, but don't run the last half of them twice as slow as your first ones. Try to run them with their times as close as possible.


Tuesday needs to be intervals. Alternate, so that one tuesday your intervals are longer and slower, and equal a total distance of 10K.
And the next tuesday, the intervals need to be faster and smaller and equal a total distance of 5K. This is very important, as it pieces together the distances you'll be running on race day, and it pieces together the distance day you have.

Thursday needs to be 5k training. You need to improve your 5k time, so do whatever you can do to improve it. If this means starting out with increasing your 1K speed, then start there. Try just running the distance fast and try setting a new PR every time. If that burns you out, do the distance on rough terrain, like on hills.

Sunday needs to be distance. Run at least a 20k. Remember, it is LSD running, don't try to run it fast. If eventually you can run it with ease and speed, it's time to kick up the distance.

Best of luck, hope you consider the schedule.
Jared