Always question yourself, is it a realistic goal? This is a 6:26 pace per mile after all! If your personal best is around 41/42 min, then with the correct training it is a realistic goal. If your time is more around the 48min mark, then maybe you should try to work towards a target of 45min. Of course at this stage you won’t break the 40min mark tomorrow, but pick a realistic date to work towards. Give yourself lots of time to prepare for it, ideally a minimum of 16 weeks.

This plan will also allow you some leeway if you do happen to pick up an injury from training / over training and it wont be as mentally challenging. For the first run - if you have more leg speed than strength pick a flat course or if you feel strong in both areas a course with hills might suit you best, but this would not be the majority of you.

Usually I would recommend the hardest sessions to be on the track and road and the intensity is determined by heart rate or pace. HR and pace depends on the athletes really, I do personally believe in pacing because Hr work sometimes stop athletes from pushing themselves further and pass the limit zone which I call “wall of perception”, I will explain this in greater detail in my next article. Pacing can also cause problems as the course route can vary due to weather conditions.

Just running on the track alone or only training with a heart rate monitor is not the best way to train. You need to use a combination of different running terrains and different ways to determine your intensity and pace. I always advise athletes to run in different weather conditions, whatever the weather you have to go and train, I do believe it does make you stronger. As a coach I need direct feedback from the athletes like at what pace they are running and at what intervals on the roads or trails, or at what heart rates and this will allow you to train without worrying about pace. Again it is not a personal coaching choice, as the coach has to adapt his training to the athletes and not the other way, and God knows how wrong I was when I started coaching 13 years ago.

Don’t get too caught up with what pace you are running or always watching your HR. Every day is different, you feel different, your body reacts differently, your mood, what you eat, the weather etc.… In my plans or my athletes plans, I ask them to rate their sessions each time from 1 to 10 regarding if they slept properly, the intensity, the enjoyment, their form of the day. This gives a good indication on how to plan next. Sometimes you should just run depending on how you feel on the day and not just because the plan says to. Listen to your body and enjoy some runs, like if you were driving around and cruising.

When I was training I always thought the harder I trained and the often I did it, the better I would become. Today I believe the more you listen to your body, the better you will know when to work hard and when to relax.
I complied a small schedule that you can try and if you do try it out I would welcome feedback to see how you got on. Of course any coach can find some good and bad points, so I will put myself on the line to critics, but if you want develop this plan further then feel free to comment.

The rule I try to apply, is that if you miss one session, never try to catch up, let it go, don’t put yourself under pressure. In the other hand if you have some spare time you can do a session that you missed, I hope you understand the difference.

If you have been running consistently over the past 6 months then you should be able to get right into the program. Consistency and recovery are the keys of success and I hope you will succeed to achieve that sub 40 min 10km.
Finally, if you are prone to injury, visit a specialist such as Catherine McKiernan, her Chi-running technique helps a lot of runners every year. I recommend my athletes see her before they get injured as prevention, the same with Physio, go before you are injured as maintenance, not as treatment.

Sub 40min 10km Training Program: