How to train for a 10k?

[Squishedstormtrooper]

I’ve recently got quite into running. I’ve been slowly increasing my distance and can comfortably do a 5k now in about 32 minutes or 30 if it’s flat. So of course I had to get cocky and when a friend suggested a 10k race I signed up.

The race is in 8 weeks. I’ve never run a 10k in my life. How do I do it? Online talks about timings and intervals but I just go out and run, do I need to do that?

Do I increase slowly? Do I do lots of 5ks in a week or do I slowly increase so at the last week I’m doing lots of big distance runs? Panicking now! I just went to the gym and ran 6km on the treadmill and it near killed me!

I used this app, starting about week 9 I think once you can run for 30 mins
apps.apple.com/gb/app/10k-trainer-by-c25k/id511600311

If you've heard of couch to 5k, there's definitely similar plans from 5 to 10k, so that would give about 8 weeks worth of training to get you to the race. I had an app years ago so can't remember the exact one but a few options on Google

There's lots of plans out there, but the usual basic gist is to build up one longer run a week. That might be gradually extending the length of running, or mixing walk breaks lile the mid-stages of C25k. Keeping a regular 5k is good, and you might feel ready to start playing with pace on a shorter structured session each week. Milage shouldn't increase by more than 10% each week.

Do your longest run about two weeks before and "taper" so you do gentler, shorter runs so you're fresh on race day. Certainly take it easy the last week.

It's one of the easiest increases in distance if you're already comfortable with 5k (and 30-32 mins is a great start) Realistically you could be running 10k in 1hr-1:05 so it's not the most daunting of time and commitments. Walking is acceptable in races too (there's an interval style called Jeffing that's like the early weeks of C25k of frequent, shirt bursts of run/ walking) One way I've built up long runs before is to play back to back repeats of C25k runs!

I completed my C25k in the March, had signed up for a non-standard event a few months later that was over 10k, got to 10k in training, accidentally ran it all after expecting to walk sections, and then found myself being talked into my first HM for the autumn!

I followed the BUPA half marathon plans to do a HM, and they do 10k plans.
However, the jump between 5 and 10k really isn't bad if you are comfortably running 5k.
Mix up your runs; go a bit slower and run for a bit longer, or do 5k a bit faster some days, or do some intervals ie running full speed to a certain point then back to a jog, and repeat. This will all help you to go further/faster rather than doing the same distance at the same speed all the time.

I think you're likely to find you will be out running one day, planning to run maybe 6k and find it so comfortable that you keep going, and before you know it you've done 10k. That's what's happened to me, and also with others I know