March Training Plan- How to run a sub 40 minute 10k

March training plan

Now the sun is out and the evenings are longer, March and April are time for me to work on my endurance, dust off the tennis racket and lose some body fat.

Strength, power and speed have been developed over the last 3 months (came in useful when the handbrake on my car failed and I saw my son rolling backwards down a hill in the car. Had to sprint and jump in. Stuntman is still a career option I think).

I am aiming to do a sub 40min 10k in 6 weeks, and to lose 2kg of bodyfat.

Sunday– hill running session, 8-10 mins of up and down hill, with a 5 minute hard run at the end. Will progress with an extra set of hills before the end run.

Monday– weights – barbell complex 20, 40, 45, 50, 55kg of deadlift, bent over row, hang cleans, front squats, mil press, back squats. Then pull ups and body weight exercises at the end working on lateral movement and single leg balance. Evening – tennis

Tuesday –core session (back and abs strength, rotation, flexion and extension).

Wednesday– extensive intervals (4 mins run, 2 mins rest) start at 4 sets and build up to 6 sets.

Thursday- weights, ladder complex of dbell clean and jerk with pull ups. 4 sets of 1,2,3 increasing the weight. Hang snatch and over head squat. Or hang cleans, followed by mil press. Front squats.

Friday- steady state run- 10 mins to start, progressing to 30 mins over the weeks. Off feet steady state, either bike or row 40 mins. Tennis

Saturday- intensive intervals– (30 sec on fast\ 30 sec off) 20 sets progressing to 30 sets. Bag work – 5 x 3 mins rounds.

This with a 15 minute static stretch every day and my 8 min morning routine of ballistic stretches and hindu press ups and squats. Plus 30 mins of walking.

You might wonder why there isn’t more steady state running. I am not a fan of it, mainly because I find it slows me down.

Secondly I don’t want to do the “Sunday morning fatty shuffle” and destroy my mechanics. I prefer to run faster and then repeat it.

There is too much focus on garbage mileage in run training, rather than quality work.

The weight will come off when I do my concerted food diary effort using fatsecrets– a great online tool that keeps a good account of what is exactly happening calorie wise.