Health&Nutrition

Formula for long-distance success

January 2, 2012
By Kevin Mackinnon

Running your 10K personal best will probably require that you be in the shape of your life. The race calls for a particular blend of aerobic fitness, strength and speed. If you can achieve that balance, you’ll find it will not only be an uplifting experience, it can also be a great stepping stone to a fast marathon.

In the days before East African domination of the marathon, Portugal’s Carlos Lopes set the standard for both the 10,000m and marathon running. (Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie took it to a new level in the 2000s.) In 1984, Lopes helped Fernando Mamede break the world 10,000m record. (Mamede ran 27:13.81 to Lopes’s 27:17.48. A year earlier, Lopes had set the standard at 27:22). Lopes then set an Olympic marathon record of 2:09:21 at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Using one 10K-to-marathon prediction formula - multiplying your 10K time by 4.7 - it was felt that Lopes should be able to run a marathon in 2:07:36. He accomplished more than that in the 1985 Rotterdam Marathon when he became the first man to break the 2:08 barrier with a new world standard of 2:07:12.

That prediction formula worked for Ingrid Kristiansen too. The woman who dominated marathon running in the late 80s had a 10,000m personal best of 30:13, which, according to our 4.7 formula, should convert to a 2:22 marathon. Her best marathon time? 2:21:06.

Yes, I hear you. There are lots of Kenyans and Ethiopians who are excelling at the marathon who don’t have as structured a 10K background as Lopes and Kristiansen did, but I would argue that many of the successful East Africans have done well at cross-country or other road races during their developmental years.

For success in the 10K and subsequently, the marathon, Lopes and Kristiansen were obviously aerobically fit, with plenty of speed. Regardless of what your goal 10K time is - many people consider breaking 40 or 50 minutes to be a running status symbol of sorts for men and women respectively - you need to strike the critical balance between aerobic fitness and speed to achieve that target.

You need to average 4:00 per kilometer (6:26 per mile) to run a 40-minute 10K. That’s just under 97 seconds per 400m. If you’re struggling to break 1:35 while doing 400m repeats, sub-40 is not a realistic goal as you’re going to have to hold that pace for the entire distance.

I’ve listed a few of my favourite 10K-specific workouts that I used when I was preparing for the road race season. I would typically do one of these per week, adding a strength-oriented workout (hills or tempo run over hilly terrain) and another tempo run with the middle three to four miles at goal race pace on other days. The idea was to get myself comfortable at my goal race pace and be able to hold it for longer intervals without a break.

1) 5 on/5 off fartlek: This was one of my staple workouts every August as I prepared for cross-country season at university. The idea was to run five minutes at race pace, followed by five minutes at slightly faster than your easy-run pace (but not quite as fast as threshold or tempo pace). That recovery pace is critical - you should never completely recover before you start the next interval. My goal was to always work to six sets of all of this, but I would start by doing three or four sets and add one more each week. Done right, the pace you can hold in this workout can serve as an excellent predictor for your 10K time.

2) 16 x 400 m: As daunting as this set might sound, it’s actually fun in a warped kind of way. Aim for a 100m recovery jog after each 400m interval (and do all 16). If it’s your first time, I usually suggest trying this with eight repetitions and taking a 200m recovery break between reps. Try not to use a watch the first time you do this - just go by feel. Then, a few weeks later, do the workout again, but add a few more intervals and keep track of your times. Then try it with only 100m recovery. A few weeks before your main 10K effort, give the full workout a try -four miles of intervals, serving as a great predictor of your 10K potential.

3) 400m/ 800m/ 1200m/ 1600m/ 1200m/ 800m/ 400m: This classic pyramid set can be done on a track or, preferably, on a measured trail or grass loop. Take a 400m recovery jog between each interval and try to hold the same pace all the way through.

Your goal with all of these workouts should be to maintain your goal race pace with less and less recovery. I always tell the athletes I coach that there should never be any surprises in a race — your workouts should prepare you for what’s in store.

Kevin Mackinnon is a senior editor at Canadian Running and the editor of Triathlon Magazine Canada.