My current 10km time is 42:32 (17yr old girl) and I'm hoping to get under 42mins this year (I have booked a race in 8 weeks)
I'm wondering what kind of training I should be doing to work towards that?
Currently. I'm running 40km - 45km weeks and doing 1 / 2 sessions in that (tempo / fartlek stuff) but I don't really have a proper training plan - I didn't either when I got my 42:32. I really want to improve and quicker so please help me out.
What is your current 5k PB? What does your current workout volume look like when you do tempo/fartlek work -- how much time are you spending there? Are you getting ready for XC & just doing this for fun or are you going to continue to run on the roads & target longer races?
I probably wouldn't change things up too much for an 8 week block. That's not a ton of time. You shouldn't put a lot of emphasis on trying to make a big improvement. At your age & with your volume, just being consistent & adding some overall volume & workout volume will help you continue to improve.
Bump the mileage to 50-60k/week. Keep it to one hard session/week as you get used to it. I don't think the plan thrown out is "worst training plan" bad. What are your long runs at now? You could benefit from progressing the long runs and making 60-70min of continuous running is no big deal. The workouts don't have a ton of volume but maybe that's more than you're currently doing. If you've been doing 20:00 @ T each week then 25-30 might be right. In the last 4 weeks try some 10k specific stuff. You don't need to get to 10k worth as 3 x 2 miles. Maybe it's 8 x 1k or 4 x 2k or 5 x mile.
I’ve been coming to LetsRun for 20+ years now, and this is quite possibly the worst training plan I’ve ever seen posted.
10k - an event that requires the ability to tolerate lactate and run at VO2 max in the later stages. OP said they have already been doing 40-45k a week with sporadic tempos/fartleks, now we start to add structured thresholds and build throughout the block. Occasionally, VO2 is added because it is necessary, usually when there is no long run present. This is because I assume she isn't at the level of handling two workouts plus a long run, so we make the most of what it rational. This is a very simple block that, if ran correctly, may provide big gains if continued to be built upon in volume and structure. I didn't write an extravagant block with fancy workouts and speed stuff and intricate details because usually people do not like that stuff, and I was working with what info was given. But I really don't know what you expected, as your destructive criticism leaves no help for anyone.
In order to execute the best 10k workout you need a build up. Follow this 8 week training plan so you can do the best 10k running workout for a fast 10k.
current 5km PB is 19:52 and workout volume is like workouts i find online or on instagram. this is because i my school doesn't offer a XC or running program for that matter and i love running and want to continue improving, running on roads and targeting longer races.
current training split is:
monday - rest
tuesday - 6 - 7km run
wednesday - i try and do a workout on this day e.g. 2 x 2km and then 6 x 400m with 2km WU WD
thursday - 6 - 7km run + gym
friday - rest
saturday - tempo run or faster run of some sort usually 10km
Yeah I feel good about what I wrote then. A little more mileage where you can. 6-7k becomes 8-10k. Weekend long run becomes 12k-15k+. Make sure you're not racing Saturday and that it's true tempo work. The Wednesday workout doesn't have volume specific for a 10k so that's something to gradually increase. 6 x 400 is 2.4k of work, prepping for a 10k race. Maybe that can get up to 16 x 400. I would build to 6-8k worth of volume on those days during this build.
