10k Training: Speed Workouts & Race-Specific Training

Let’s be honest: we all want to run faster. Nobody signs up for a 10K thinking, I really hope I take as long as possible to finish this.

But getting faster isn’t about just running flat-out like a lunatic every time you hit the pavement. No, no. That’s how you end up:

❌ Injured
❌ Crying on a curb
❌ Googling “Can you die from running too hard?”

Instead, we need a scientific (but also not soul-destroying) approach: speed workouts! So let’s talk intervals, hill sprints, fartleks (yes, that’s a real word), and how to get faster without burning out like a poundshop firework.

Interval training, where you run fast, question your life choices, then jog slowly and pretend everything’s fine.

✔ Beginner version: 30 seconds fast, 90 seconds slow, repeat 6-8 times.
✔ Advanced version: 800m at a challenging pace, 400m jog, repeat 4-6 times.
✔ Masochist version: Run until you hallucinate.

💡 Pro Tip: Start small and build up gradually. Running your fastest 400m once won’t make you quicker. Doing it consistently? That’s where the magic happens.

Want to build power, strength, and speed? Run uphill. Hate yourself. Repeat.

Hills are nature’s brutal, character-building treadmill, but they work. If you can run fast uphill, running on flat ground feels like a cheat code.

✔ Bonus: Hills also reduce injury risk, probably because your body is too busy panicking to overstride.

💡 Pro Tip: Imagine you’re being chased up the hill by something terrifying, like a mugger, or a vegan trying to convince you tofu tastes like steak.

Yes, "Fartlek" sounds like something you’d hear in a school playground, but it’s one of the best ways to build speed and endurance, without feeling like you’re doing a formal workout.

✔ Why it Works: It mimics real race conditions, bursts of speed, moments of recovery, and an overall feeling of what the hell just happened?

💡 Pro Tip: If you do this in a park, people will think you’re insane. Own it.

You can’t just do speed work every day unless you want to wake up one morning feeling like you’ve been run over. Recovery is just as important as effort.

💡 Pro Tip: If you start every run already feeling like death, you're probably overdoing it. Or you're hungover. Either way, slow down.

If you:
✅ Sprint in short bursts,
✅ Run up hills like an absolute beast,
✅ Throw in some sneaky fartlek training,
✅ Rest enough so your legs don’t fall off,

…then you’ll cross that 10K finish line faster than ever. instead of crawling over it, swearing you’ll never run again.

Or, you can ignore all this and just hope for the best on race day. But let’s be honest… hope isn’t going to make you any quicker.

See you next Monday for "The Role of Sleep & Recovery in Training" or as I like to call it, "How Lying in Bed Can Actually Make You Faster."