From Academy Win, Runnea's online training club, we want to discuss with you how to train for a 10K. In a previous post we gave an answer to the question: How to approach the first 5k race? Now, we go one step further and continue the progression. This time we will talk about a 10k race. Although all the tips we have been talking about in previous articles are also useful for this distance, but obviously we will talk about and expand some sections and give some other advice.
The priority is to approach a 10 km race with the maximum possible guarantees. Not only of success during the race, but also to take into account aspects such as subsequent recovery, which is vital for the enjoyment of the sport and therefore, in the acquisition of good sports habits.
In this article we will talk about fundamental aspects such as:
- Objective in the test.
- Pace of the test.
- Compensatory work.
- Nutrition.
These are four fundamental aspects that must be taken into account when planning on the part of the coach, the physical trainer and the athlete so that he/she assimilates all the workloads well and obviously enjoys his/her training sessions and that on the day proposed for the test all the objectives set are achieved properly.
Proposed objective
In the first place the objective has to be real; in addition to this aspect each athlete must have objectives totally individualized to their characteristics and these objectives can be divided into two large blocks: an objective aimed at health and another towards high performance.
It is clear that they are totally different. For example, the objectives prepared towards health, should be:
- To finish the race in the best possible way.
- To know our race pace. In this way, we will be controlling the race.
- To have a personal best, but to see our improvement with training.
On the other hand, the objectives of a high performance athlete are more directed to:
- Improve on your athlete's personal best. But without forgetting that while we do the training our athlete must observe the improvement acquired so that his motivation vaya.
Pace of the test
Now we are going to focus on giving guidelines on the pace of the race; how it should be trained, how it should be, in short give small tips for the day of the test to go all as we hope.
Therefore, the race pace should be similar to the one we have been training and not increase it for the motivation of the day of the race, as this can cause various problems before finishing the race and we do not enjoy it, which is our main goal.
Another important point to comment is that our athlete has to know how to differentiate the pace of training, which should be varied and thus our athlete will be more complete, with a smoother or more intense continuous race depending on the time of the season or how close or far away our main goal is. Also another topic is the fartlek and series training, something that we will deal with in later articles. And the race pace, which is the pace that the runner can or should hold during the whole race.
In addition, if you are not a professional athlete (as it happens in a high percentage) you should not be obsessed with the pace during the race. Maybe that day for various circumstances we are not able to reach the pace set during training, but that's okay, we lower the pace so that the goal of arriving in the best possible conditions is met. There are more races throughout our sporting life that we will tackle and with work and desire things will go better.
Also and closely related to the previous paragraph, we must learn to know our body. The heart rate along with the rhythm should be similar to the training done; if it does not happen this way it is possible that we do not arrive in the best conditions or suffer more than normal, so it is advisable to slow down the pace without problem, if as we said above the goal is to arrive and enjoy (weather conditions, mood, motivation, ...) are subjective aspects that we will take into account when performing the desired race.
Finally, usually and as a general rule, the race pace is approximately 75% of the maximum pulse, but with many nuances, each athlete has his idiosyncrasy.
Compensatory work
In compensatory training to the "main part" of the training we can focus on several fundamental aspects for the improvement of our sports practice and therefore of our enjoyment in running.
These aspects are varied, for example, today we will focus on:
Core work.
We think that the compensatory work both abdominal-lumbar and pelvic floor is very important to solve back pain. This work is called CORE, which consists of the combination of abdominals, lumbar and buttocks. The abdominals and lumbars have the important mission of supporting the trunk, protect the organs, have a better body posture and protect the spine. On the other hand, the buttocks have the mission of stabilizing the hip and intervene in the upright position.
Strength work
Strength work is essential, for example, both in the ankles and knees should be a work performed regularly for these joints to gain the necessary strength. Another work is the eccentric work; it is important to perform exercises in such a way that this type of activity is performed since, there are a lot of injuries (especially adductors and hamstrings) that are caused by eccentric movement (material for this work we propose a Russian belt).
Injury prevention work
Proprioception is the control of movement at the neuronal level, that is, the brain tells us how the muscles are, with it, we get an improvement of strength in the joints that we work. For this it is essential to work in an environment with instability to improve this concept (with materials such as the bosu you get a good job of this type).
Stretching
As for stretching there is much controversy about it, because there is no conclusive research, but we believe from experience gained over the years, that good stretching prevents injuries, the greater the flexibility the fewer the number of injuries.
Food
Today we want to address the issue of nutrition. It is essential to apply a good and individualized diet to improve our goals. And for that, the most important thing is to be in constant communication with your nutritional advisor but we do not want to leave you like that, so we will give some general guidelines that can be very useful.
For example, the day before you should eat very rich food in the morning, lunch and dinner.
And the day of the race, the meal before the race should be light and digestible with the margin of hours to make digestion, from there to the race hydrate a lot and drink a drink with a mixture of slow carbohydrates and sugars.
Conclusions
It is clear that not everyone can do a 10,000 but with desire, work and enthusiasm, the goal will be achieved in less time than you expect. That is why doing things well and with good planning is fundamental.
We know that there are many more sections to comment, so from the Academy Win training platform we are committed to continue talking and discussing as we increase the distance with different and diverse topics.
Photos: Mikel Agirregabiria-Carrera Popular Puente Bizkaia.
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