So i’ve just completed my first race in 2014 of distance 10KM. I came in 9th position with a timing of 40min12s. I was expecting a better timing and position actually, but oh wells.. that leaves a lot of room for improvement! I’m gona share abit on how i trained for 10km races, hopefully this is helpful for you :)
Preparation
Having signed up for the race only about 1 month before D-Day, i have little time to prepare a comprehensive training schedule. Luckily i’ve been doing consistent base trainings so my fitness is not too bad to begin with. This is my Google Calendar training schedule over the month leading up to the race.
Summarising my schedule:
- First session was a time trial which i got a timing of 47min23s with the exact race route.
- Subsequent weekly trainings consists of 1 Speed interval day, 1 endurance interval day and 2 long run sessions.
- Speed intervals consists of 6 - 8 sets of 600m with 50% run:rest ratio.
- Endurance intervals consists of 8 - 10 sets of 1KM with 50% run:rest ratio.
- The rest of the days were littered with recovery runs and i rest every saturday.
I taper off by having a 8km recovery run 2 days before and a rest day on the day before. Strictly speaking, 10KM distances are too short to actually do tapering but since its my first 10KM in awhile, i wanted to better prepare myself.
On the day before the race, i ate small meals consisting of pasta, bananas and apples and drank about 4 litres of water in total. Carbo-loading to prepare for a race is pretty important not only for the physical benefits but also mentally, you can tell yourself ‘i’ve prepared well for it.’ Sometimes, if i didn’t prepare well enough for a race, a small part of me will haunt me during the race saying ‘it’s ok. dont push so hard, you are not fully prepared…’ Screw it, get that out of the way.
Race Day
Woke up at 6 and made my way to venue. The race starts at 8am though. I just wanted to be early so i can do race pack collection, warm-up, stretching and drills without time pressure. ( It’s important to stay relaxed on race day! )
There were a couple of kenyans joining the race as well and pretty much thrashed every singaporean/caucasian around. The actual route was pretty hilly and had many flights of unnecessary stairs. Seriously…?
Shoutout to race organziers: DONT PUT SUCH OBSTACLES IN A RACE, THIS IS NOT A VERTICAL MARATHON. BE MORE PROFESSIONAL
As we were the first pack of runners, we have to rely alot on the road marshallers to guide us the correct path but the marshallers seem even more lost than we are and lead us to many wrong turns. For competitive runners, every little mistake like this could make a difference between Personal Best and Normal Run.
I was cruising at a pace between 4min/km to 4.30min/km for the race. I would say the first kilometer was a bit of screwed up. It was a 53m general elevation and yet i did a time of 3min50s. I definitely over-exerted myself there.
Here’s my split timings:
Afterthoughts
It’s a good start of the year with a base race timing to improve on and i’m pretty happy with the month of intensive training for the race. I’m hoping to do more progressive races throughout the year and gun for a Personal Best for Stan Chart Marathon at end of the year. Cheers to running!
Oh by the way, I’m personally a fan of nike inspirations so i use their Nike Running App to document my runs. If you use it too, add me at hguochen.
My new nike toy is a Nike+ Sportswatch, used keep track of pace and distances. Its packed with a nifty GPS which maps your running route everytime and syncs with the running app afterwards.
Here’s my love:
P/S: Special thanks to Audrey and Daniel for staying back with me on countless training days to do my painful intervals and running with me, you guys are awesome :)