Getting ready for 18 April
Three ways to arrive at the start line prepared, whatever you are starting from. Plus a calculator that works out your splits on this course, and where to find a coach five minutes from the finish line.
Three plans, one race
Start whichever plan matches where you are now, not where you would like to be. All three finish with the same two-week taper.
Your first 10K
Get round comfortably and enjoy it. Finishing time does not matter.
- Length
- 12 weeks — start late January
- Runs
- 3 a week
- longest run
- Builds to 8 km
- Walking
- Encouraged. Run–walk finishes 10K perfectly well.
Two easy 25–35 minute runs midweek, one longer weekend run adding about 10% each week. Every fourth week, drop the long run back to give your legs a rest.
Break 60 minutes
The most common target in a first 10K, and a realistic one off 12 weeks of consistent running.
- Length
- 10 weeks - start early February
- RUNS
- 4 a week
- longest run
- Builds to 12 km
- Target pace
- 5:57 per km · 9:35 per mile
Two easy runs, one session of intervals or a tempo run, one long steady run at the weekend. The session is the one that moves the needle; the easy runs are what let you do the session.
Chasing a PB
This is a flat course with long straights and few turns. If you are going to run a fast 10K, run it here.
- Length
- 10 weeks - start early February
- Length
- 5 a weeks
- longest run
- 16km
- Key Work
- Threshold volume, plus 1 km reps at goal pace or quicker
Two quality sessions — one threshold, one at 10K pace or faster — with easy running either side and a long run at the weekend. Race a parkrun in weeks 4 and 7 to check where you are.
Full week-by-week plans as downloadable PDFs.TBC If you are new to exercise, have been unwell, or are returning from injury, talk to your GP before starting a plan.
Three sessions that make the difference
Whichever plan you follow, these are the workouts doing the work. Everything else is easy running that lets you do them.
The long run
Slow, conversational, and longer than race distance by the end. It builds the endurance that stops the last 2 km falling apart, and it is the run people most often do too fast.
Threshold
Comfortably hard — the pace you could hold for about an hour, where you can speak in short sentences but would rather not. This is the single most useful session for a 10K.
10K-pace reps
Repetitions at your goal race pace, so the pace feels familiar rather than shocking on the day. Run them on the track at Linford Christie if you can — it is the surface you will finish on.
Work out your splits on this course
Set a target and get the pace you need in both units, your halfway split, and which pacer to run with on the day.
Even splits, which is how the pacers run. Most people find the first 3 km along Scrubs Lane feel too easy at this pace — that is correct, and it is the whole trick.
How this course runs
Scrubs Lane, 1 to 3 km. Gently downhill and full of adrenaline. This is where people throw the race away by running 20 seconds a kilometre too fast. Hold the pace you planned.
Wood Lane to the Green, 3 to 5 km. Settle in. You will pass the halfway point around Shepherd's Bush Green with the crowd at its thickest.
Uxbridge Road, 5 to 7 km. The long west straight, wide and flat, and the fastest part of the course. If you feel good, this is where to use it.
The Scrubs, 9 to 10 km. Quieter, and the hardest kilometre mentally. Then you turn into the stadium and finish on the track, so leave something for the last 200 metres — you will be able to see the line the whole way.
The last seven days
Run less, not nothing. Cut your volume by about half but keep some sharpness — a couple of easy runs with a few short strides.
Nothing new on race day. Not the shoes, not the gel, not the breakfast. Practise all of it on a long run first.
Eat normally. A 10K does not need carbohydrate loading. Eat what you usually eat, a bit more of it, and have a small familiar breakfast two hours before the start.
Arrive early. Gates open at 07:30 for a 09:00 start. Bag dropped, toilets used, ten minutes of jogging and strides, then into your wave.
There is a coached session five minutes from the finish line
Thames Valley Harriers — the local cause this race supports — runs coached sessions at Linford Christie Stadium, the track you will finish on. It takes members from complete beginners through to internationals, across track and field, cross country and road.
You do not need to be fast to join, and you will be training on the same ground you are about to race.