How to get ready for your first 10K for beginners?
Have you started running a few months ago and are now regularly hitting the roads and trails? This is the perfect moment to prepare for your first race or your first 10-kilometer run!
If you're unsure how to prepare for your first race day - don't worry! Our blog post will show you all the important points to make your training a complete success.
How to get ready for your first 10-kilometer run
Endurance is the Foundation
Endurance forms the foundation for any training. This applies equally to running beginners and running professionals. Endurance is the basis for your subsequent performance improvement in terms of running duration, distance, and intensity.
It is important to lay a kind of foundation for your running capacity. How do you do this? By preparing your cardiovascular system for endurance stress, strengthening muscles and tendons, and increasing your recovery ability.
Endurance runs can be performed in a variety of ways - sessions over different times (45 mins to 1 hour) and longer runs of at least 1 hour and 10 mins to 1 hour and 15 mins, where the maximum running duration depends on the target distance. In preparation for a 10-kilometer run, runs of one and a half hours are sufficient.
Interval Workouts to Increase Running Performance
Improving endurance is important to prepare for a 10km run – there's no doubt about it. However, variety within the training plays an important role. Vary the routes and recovery phases, especially the load times and your running style. Be flexible.
This is where interval training (also known as "split training") comes into play, which, unlike continuous training, involves alternating between fast and slow running within a training session. Although it should not be overdone, interval training is essential if you want to make progress and reach a new level.
Train with the speed you would like to run at in a race, considering your running goal and desired intensity!
To train optimally for a 10km run, it is advisable to run several times 1-3 km at roughly the pace you intend to complete a 10km run; ideally at 85-90% maximal aerobic speed (MAS) or 90% maximum heart rate (MHR), provided you know your MHR and MAS. These MHR and MAS should be reached in total over 5-8 km per training run. During your recovery run, which you should "trot easily," the pace should take half as much time as the intense run.
Example: 5x 1,000 m, 4x 1,500 m, or 3x 2,000 m at target pace, i.e., 85-90% of your MAS or 90% of your maximum heart rate (recovery run = ½ intense run time, run at a calm pace).
Run Faster Thanks to Your Maximal Aerobic Speed
Are you looking to prepare for a 10-kilometer race and boost your running speed a bit? Here, maximal aerobic speed plays a crucial role.
(MAS refers to the lowest training intensity at which your body reaches its maximum ability to take in oxygen (VO2max). The maximum aerobic speed can usually only be maintained for a few minutes.)
Since the 1980s, the MAS has been established as a benchmark for developing running levels. The higher your MAS, the greater your ability to increase your pace and run quickly.
A runner maintains his MAS for about 6-7 minutes. The MAS can be very useful for setting and controlling your running pace - it is very often suggested in training plans. Try to stick to it as much as possible because this guideline will help you run faster on both short and long distances.
MAS can be increased over individual training sessions, hence the term "MAS training." Depending on the duration or distance of the tempo units, a distinction is made between so-called MAS short training, MAS middle training, or MAS long training.
In preparation for a 10-kilometer run, especially short and middle training sessions are used, for which we give you examples here:
- 2x (6-8x 30 sec. or 200 m fast run / 30 sec. or 100 m slow run with or without walking) with recovery = 3 min. slow run between individual fast run sessions.
- 8-10x 1 min. or 300 m fast run / 1 min. or 150 m slow run
- 6-10x 1 min. 30 sec. or 400 m fast run / 1 min. 30 sec. or 200 m slow run
- 5-8x 2 min. fast run / 2 min. slow run
Helpful tip: Start increasing your running speed by building up your MAS during a MAS session per week over several weeks before you start targeted split training for the 10km pace.
The Right Running Technique
Running may seem simple, but optimal running requires the right technique. Running beginners often struggle with proper breathing while running.
The most common mistake is chest breathing, where the chest and chest muscles are inflated. With this type of breathing, the airflow and the volume of inhaled air are actually very limited. For those who want to breathe optimally, it is advisable to learn to inflate the abdomen while inhaling to fill the lower and upper parts of the lung (abdominal breathing).
Chest breathing is the most common mistake. In chest breathing, the airflow and the associated volume of inhaled air are very restricted. Full breathing is the ideal form of breathing - for this, you must learn to breathe through the abdomen, i.e., to inflate the abdomen while inhaling to fill the lower and upper parts of the lung and fill the full capacity of the lung. The breathing rate (number of inhalations and exhalations per minute) is ideal if you breathe every two steps during a competition distance of 5-15 km and exhale every two steps again.
This is the so-called 2/2 breathing frequency, where the breathing cycle (inhaling plus exhaling) lasts 4 steps. If the running pace is less intense, your breathing frequency can increase from the "2/2" frequency to the "3/3" frequency, i.e., to 30 breaths per minute.
This is the moment to prepare for your 10km run. The key to your success now lies in making your training sessions regular and varied. Remember to ease up on the training in the week before the race to balance out the fatigue accumulated during the preparation weeks and to fully exploit your potential on race day.
