10K Racing 101

The first step to running your best in any race is being able to cover the distance. I don’t care how fast Carl Lewis can sprint; if 5K is a long run for him, he’s not beating me (or many other people, for that matter) in that race. The longer a race is, the more being able to negotiate the distance becomes a limiting factor. That’s why 5Ks to 10Ks are so popular. You don’t have to run all that many miles each week to be able to finish the race. But when you want to do more than just finish the race, then you need to alter your training. How? Here’s a simple training principle that many runners ignore: Different races have different physiological demands; that is, they stress different systems of your body. It’s impossible to effectively train all of the systems of your body in a short period (say, a few months). Therefore, to reach your potential, you should pick a race distance that you want to focus on for a racing season, and then train to meet the physiological demands of your target race.
In other words, you can’t train to be a miler and a marathoner at the same time. The demands of the distances are so different that you have to choose, and then structure your training accordingly. If you want to be a miler, then do a lot of short, very fast speed workouts, and don’t worry about how many miles you run each week. If you want to be a marathoner, don’t worry about how fast you can run a quarter-mile; concentrate on increasing your endurance with long runs.
This focused, seasonal approach is what the best runners in the world do, but many recreational runners are all over the place. They run a 5K one weekend, a half marathon the next, then another 5K, then a 10K. That’s not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t race at a variety of distances. But within any period of a few months, you’ll do better if you focus on a group of distances that have similar physiological demands. That way, you’ll be able to train more effectively because you can concentrate on developing the type of fitness needed for your target races.