If you’ve completed one or more such races, you’re running regularly two to four times a week, and you aspire to move up to the 10-kilometre distance, good for you! Although this is a bigger challenge, it can also be double the fun and satisfaction with the right training.

The program that follows is designed to get you comfortably to your first 10-kilometre finish line. A simple way to get a sense of what you’re capable of on a normal day is to take your last or typical five-kilometre time and multiply it by 2.1

I’ve personally finished close to 300 10-kilometre races over the last 35 years, but I learned more from my first than from any after that. It was a cautionary tale of poor preparation and grossly optimistic pacing by going out too fast, followed by intensely painful cramping after the race.

As I subsequently learned how to train for the distance, I have never had trouble with cramps in or after a race again. In the words of Oscar Wilde: “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”

None of us needs to live through a day like that. The goal, particularly in a first effort at the distance, should be to have fun and finish comfortably; 10-kilometres requires a bit more preparation than does five, but it’s far from insurmountable.

Before you begin training, it’s important to consider your objectives and set some targets:

• Select an upcoming event 12-14 weeks out; for many people, committing is half the battle.
• Understand the time you can devote to training. If your lifestyle or interest allows about four runs per week, this program can be fit into it; you can even add another run per week if you feel it helps you.
• Set your time goal. This can be a broad range of times (e.g. between 45-55 minutes) or a set of conditional targets like an ‘A’ goal (45 minutes if everything goes perfectly), a ‘B’ goal (50 minutes on a good day) and a ‘C’ goal (55 minutes if it’s a tough day). A simple way to get a sense of what you’re capable of on a normal day is to take your last or typical five-kilometre time and multiply it by 2.1.

This training schedule:

• Focusses on consistent running and slowly adding mileage with 4-5 runs per week. Most of these runs should be at a steady, conversational pace (you can comfortably carry on a conversation during it).
• Includes a weekly longer run (also at conversational pace) to build endurance, gradually increasing over the 12 weeks.
• Features the main workout of the week, a 10-kilometre goal race pace run (somewhat akin to a ‘tempo’ workout in other programs) to accustom your body to running at your goal pace for several kilometres.
• Has several cross-training days (cycling, swimming, xc-skiing, elliptical training, etc.) If you feel you can fit in more running time, you can substitute an easy run for ONE of these per week.

Enjoy the journey.

10 km Marathon Training Program

Photography: Todd Fraser/Canada Running Series (CRS)

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The 21.1 km program is primarily aimed at intermediate runners who have already been running regularly for at least a few months, have a few races behind them and want to take their training to the next level.

Coaching Tips

KISS (Keep It Simple S…..) – Some training programs describe paces with an alphabet soup of terms—threshold pace, interval pace, lactate threshold pace, etc.—which lends them ‘exactness’ but unnecessary for the beginner or intermediate runner. My program expresses itself in terms of a single measure e.g., HMP, easy, steady (see Legend).

Race your way into shape – Incorporating ‘test races’ into training serve to both test a runner’s fitness—allowing them to adjust their training paces in upcoming workouts—and to add a few extra workouts to the schedule. A time trial at race pace can be substituted if there isn’t a half-marathon on a race calendar. Use these efforts to honestly assess your ‘race fitness,’ both physically and in terms of your perception. If they are faster or easier than expected you can carefully lower your training pace;
if they are slower, adjust your target
pace to be a bit higher.

Ladders are our friend – The program makes use of ladders in two variations: (a) ‘up-and-down’ ladders where the repetition distance starts short, increases to a maximum, then works back down and (b) ‘down’ ladders—in which the maximum distance is the start point and the entire workout works ‘down’ the ladder. The rest period between repetitions can be easy jogging for the same length of time as the previous repetition. The decreasing length of the later repetitions allows the runner to easily maintain pace through the entire workout. 

Race pace as a habit – The weekly schedule consists of a rest day, a strength-workout day, a half-marathon pace run, and several easy runs, one of which is a long run. By the time you arrive at the start line you should have experienced enough kilometres at your target race pace that the effort feels both familiar and, in the early kilometres, easy. This only comes from rehearsing
the pace consistently during training.

Legend

HMP – Half-marathon pace is the pace
being aimed for in the target race. 
Easy pace – Used in the majority of runs and for warm-ups and cool downs, is conversational pace.
Steady pace – Conversational pace but
any conversation is brief and a bit difficult
Strength – Is a percentage of HMP.
WU – Warm-up.
CD – Cool down.

The program’s Target Paces:

Download a PDF of the training Plan How to Take the Half-Marathon to the Next Level

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(1) the day they become invisible to young people of the opposite sex (around age 35, assuming they have no unusual levels of fame, wealth, or physical attractiveness) and (2) the day they realize their career prospects have peaked (generally in the 50-60 range – although it could be influenced by levels of fame, wealth, or physical attractiveness).

I can’t say exactly when these life events happened to me; I married early and well so the first slipped by unnoticed. I chose I.T. as a career, a profession that declares everyone a dinosaur before they see their 40th birthday. As I approach my 60th birthday, my running times have followed the usual age-grading curve downward and I have more trouble recovering from hard runs or workouts each year. Still, most days I feel like I’m just getting started with life, with running, and with accomplishing things in the world. In fact, when I ignore past milestones and everyone else’s preconceptions about what this age is supposed to be, I can get in a mindset that what’s ahead is about new possibilities, limited only by what I can imagine and find time for.

I started running 28 years ago, initially as a one-time marathon challenge and later as a source of relaxation, personal accomplishment and social interaction. I’ve run in hundreds of road, cross-country, and track races all over the world, run the equivalent of more than 2.5 times around the earth, collected four shoe boxes full of race medals and run more than 100 marathons (50 of them under 3 hours). My running library includes more than 100 books, many on training and performance theory. I’ve done this running thing about as completely and whole-heartedly as anyone could, while working full-time and helping to raise a family.

I should be happy about another birthday; most runners look forward to being instantly competitive in a new age-group. With my family grown and retirement on the horizon, the coming milestone seems monumental because it forces decisions, many of which I’ve been ignoring or postponing. I should also be thankful that I’ve been blessed with so many injury – and illness-free years.

So, how to mark this milestone? I’ve always been motivated by setting goals, so some sort of stretch goal that’s different from the cycles of training and races I’ve filled the decades with seems in order. Also, it would be great if it was about more than me; a lot of my running and training in the past has been about me spending time on my own goals.

Some time ago, I read how a young man named Patrick McGregor had broken his former coach’s record for sub-5 minute miles for 105 consecutive days.

This led me to target a similar streak (6:00/mile for age 60) for at least 60 days. 60 in 6 starts in July.

I’m excited and energized about the attempt. Maybe it will help reassure me that the proper path is being followed and give me an indication of the remaining distance to my next milestone.