10k, a classic race distance The 10k is a classic event, and might even be considered the truest test of endurance running fitness. The reason is that 10,000 meters can be run right on your threshold pace, that red-line pace where you are just under control of your body; and to go any faster you would quickly get out of whack and have to slow down through exhaustion. You are at what we call your true running “threshold pace” where you are puffing hard but just under control, where your blood acid-base balance is just about to tip over into becoming too acidic but again you have it just under control; your muscles are feeling the pinch but they keep churning out the power. That is how a runner feels when he or she is running at “threshold pace”. The very top runners have a very high threshold pace. They are able to maintain control of their breathing, their blood and their running muscles at a very fast speed for around 30 minutes. It is not rocket science to work out that training to increase threshold running speed is what distance running is all about. Well, nearly all about, because in the marathon, we have to make sure the fuel tank is big and full enough to get us through 42 and bit kilometres, but that’s another story. So how do we increase our threshold speed? That’s not rocket science either. You simply train at or close to your current threshold speed at least once a week. Now training isn’t the same as racing...you can’t expect to go out and train at threshold speed for 30 minutes without stopping. That only comes when your are well rested in the week before a race, and we call that tapering for an event. In the middle of a training week where you are still feeling the pinch from training the days beforehand, the maximal time you can run at true threshold with a reasonably short recovery is around 4- 6 minutes. So a really good running threshold session is a set of 5 minute efforts with a 1 to 2 minute recovery. That isn’t to say that running solidly for longer periods isn’t useful, because solid efforts of 20, 30, or even hour runs are very important parts of a training program. It’s just that the longer efforts can’t be run at your threshold pace in training. The best training programs always include plenty of variation and one threshold pace session per week makes a lot of sense. Now the Suncorp Bank Sydney Harbour 10k on the 8th July is a perfect 10 hitout. The course is flat so gives you a great opportunity to hit that threshold pace from the start and stick to it and run a well-earned personal best time. The 10k race is an end in itself, something to make a real focus, but for many runners it can have an additional role. It can be a great lead up race to one of the longer events that make up the winter and Spring racing calendar over 14k, the half and full marathons. I like programming in a 10k for my marathon runners in the lead-up to their ultimate tests for three reasons. Firstly it breaks up the lead-up period of several months of preparation into sections and provides a reason to ease back on training the week before, something that marathoners don’t often do, but need. Secondly the race itself provides a great stimulus for the threshold fitness of the runners because, in tapering down they can stick to the red-line running speed for all of the 10k, not just 5 minutes as they might do in training. Thirdly, the race tells me what the runners’ current threshold pace really is, and I use this information to plan the speed of their threshold training in the next training phase. So... the 10,000m race might be considered a purist’s race as it is really the one race distance that depends almost entirely on threshold speed. But it’s also a very useful race a part of a build-up for longer races, as it’s not too long so as to flatten you for training the following week. However, you should respect any hard 10k race and not try to train too hard the following week, so you can benefit from the fitness you gain from the hitout. Train well and enjoy the experience. Dick Telford Dick is currently a medical research fellow at the Canberra Hospital and Medical School, ANU. A few coaching snippets.. Coach of Olympic Silver medallist Commonwealth Games gold medallist Lisa Martin (Ondieki); Commonwealth Games 5k gold medallists Andrew Lloyd and Kate Anderson; Paris marathon winner Nickey Carroll, Australian record holder, half marathon and World Championship 10,000 m finalist Darren Wilson; Commonwealth Games bronze marathon medallist Jackie Fairweather, former Australian 10,000m record holder Carolyn Schuwalow, Commonwealth Games 10000m medallist Kylie Risk, multi-distance talented Liz Miller and Australian one mile record holder and Olympian Lisa Corrigan. Dick currently coaches the recent New Delhi Commonwealth Games silver medallist in the marathon Michael Shelley and bronze medallist Lisa Weightman; and over the years has coached 6 of the 20 Australian runners who are in the history books as having run under 28 minutes in the 10,000. He has coached many other Australian champions and Australian representatives and currently enjoys coaching his group in Canberra. He also had the pleasure of coaching the Race Director of the Suncorp Bank Sydney Harbour 10,000m Wayne Larden and was physiologist/nutrition advisor to Rob de Castella throughout his running career. .