The finale of our progression workouts, this week combines some fun gear changing with some good ol’ fashioned grind.

WHAT?

Progression 2Ks
3x [1k @ your 1-hour race pace, 1k @ your 10k race pace]3min jog recovery

Terrain: Flat, measurable pathway.

Feels: Step It Up

If your 10k pace is actually very similar to your 1-hour race pace, we will instead aim for the final kilometre in each 2k rep to simply be 10 seconds faster than the previous one.

So, it’s kinda like running the first KM at 1-hour race pace and the second at 40-minute race pace.

WHY?

We’re getting through 6k worth of work today, so there’s a good amount of tempo run-style grind in there as we hover above and below your lactate threshold (which is approx. your 1-hour race pace).

We’re also looking for three nice gear changes midway in each of the 2K reps—reinforcing that skill of closing hard when things are getting tougher.

HOW?

Be sure to have your 1-hour race pace dialled in by using the Race and Pace Calculator at tempofit.org. And, if your 10k race pace is close to your 1-hour race we’ll simply go for a 10-second per km (or 16 seconds per mile) increase in speed for those second 1Ks in the each of the 2K reps.

Also here is a rough guide for those paces:

5k Time	Lactate	10k
15:00	3:15	3:07
20:00	4:17	4:09
25:00	5:14	5:12
30:00	6:13	6:14

Notice that the 25-minute and 30-minute 5k runners will need to just increase by 10 seconds per KM, rather than switch to their 10k pace

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

WHY DO YOU RUN?

By Hayden Shearman

When I take on a new athlete to coach, one of the many things I want to understand is why they run. Is it for general health, times, bragging rights on Strava, a life goal, or to escape for an hour a day?

Knowing the answer to this question can give us the tools we need to get us through those tough in the sport. It can get us out the door on a cold winter’s morning and get us through the tough spot in a workout or race. So, here are three of my reasons why I’ve run these past 14 years.

Mental Health: As a teenager, surfing was my life. Which was great but I lived in a landlocked city with no driver’s license! Every winter I found myself depressed and really down on life. Running has enabled me to exercise in nature every day, almost regardless of where I am and what the weather’s doing. It’s the best possible medicine for my mental health.

Measurement & Goals: I always found team sports frustrating because you never truly new how well you, as an individual, performed. There just isn’t that extrinsic and objective feedback that you get with running. I love being able to see my work and commitment pay off on the stop watch and heart rate monitor. And I love setting goals and building a strategy around how to make them a reality.

Humans Have to Move: Growing up in the 90s I had a sense that exercise was somehow selfish and was more of a luxury than a must-have. And now, while I realise that exercise and running addictions do exist, I understand that, given our otherwise sedentary lifestyles, it is vital that we intentionally move our bodies daily. The physical, mental and even spiritual benefits of daily exercise are massive. For me, that movement is most easily accessed through running as I can do it anywhere and anytime and it has a great value for the time required and it gets me into nature and can be super social.

What are the reasons you run? I’d love to hear! Email me.