I’ve always been able to run long, now I’m trying to work on getting faster, so I’m starting a training plan that will include tempo & interval work. I’m also working on dropping some weight. I want to break 50 minutes for a 10K in May (or sooner) → I know, I’m really slow, but working on that.
Ran a 5K over Thanksgiving and plugged that time into McMillan. Based on that, it’s predicting a 10K time of 53. But I’ve run lots of 10Ks around 53 with no speed work training at all, so I really think I can improve a lot.
Question is - should I use the paces that McMillan is giving me based on my current 5K time? Are they calculated to help you improve your times? Or are they calculated to assume that you just need to extend what you did for the 5K up to 10K? I want to get faster for both my 5K and my 10K.
edited to add
So I guess the question is - do I plug in the speed I am now and do intervals/tempo based on those paces, or do I plug in my goal time and do int/tempo work based on those paces?
McMillan, as with all the good equivalent running calculators, tells you where your fitness currently is and if you were to train properly for a the other distance (in your case a 10k) the time you would expect. If you train properly at the times provided, you should be able to meet/beat the posted time for the 10k. You then would take that 10k to “reset” your training paces.
You want to be resetting this zones periodically but either racing or doing a self-timed 5k, 10k or whatever.
Also keep in mind the equivalent speed is more accurate for the distance nearer the one you used to generate the paces. IOW, its better to use a half-mary time to predict your mary than to use a 5k time.
Thanks for your response. That’s kind of what I thought, that it’s just predicting a ‘linear’ progression so to speak. For me, I feel like a 53 is about my ‘standard’ 10K time and endurance isn’t an issue. I could pretty much run that tomorrow.
So I’m guessing that to make improvements, I would need to do work faster than McMillan recommends based on my current times?
You want to use the time that reflects your current fitness, so use your last race. If you think you are in better shape, do another 5K, and if you are faster use that time. Otherwise, you would be doing your intervals at too fast of a pace for your current condition.
A workout you could use to get a benchmark for your fitness without a race is:
2 mile easy warmup, 4-5x1000m (4’ easy jog rest) @ pace from “speed workouts/Long distance runners”, 1000m column., 2m cool down
You are pretty much going all out by the end of the 1000s.
If your avg time for the all the 1000s is below the range in the mcmillan table, you could probably adjust your paces down a bit.
As I recall, Mcmillan’s calculator gives you both. The chart of equivalent paces at different distances is based on your current fitness. The training paces are what you should run to improve. Read his running university, or whatever it was called, it explains how to use his calculator’s output.
Edit: I went and checked. The training paces and workouts are described in his 6 step training system.