Ready to build on your 5K success? The next step is doubling the race distance and signing up for a 10K. But that doesn’t mean you need to double your mileage. Instead, we’ll add a few dozen minutes of running per week and focus on training at 10K race pace.

If you need to work on base, spend some time building to consistently running three or four days a week, with cross-training to get you to five aerobic sessions every seven days. Don’t forget the importance of days off, which should come at least once a week, and keep up your core strength and flexibility with yoga or Pilates. Refer to our 5K plan for details on choosing a race, running surfaces, equipment, and how to shuffle workouts. Be sure your shoes are still fresh!

BUILDING TO 10K

Running a 10K requires more sustained focus than the 5K. While your pace may feel slightly less intense, you’ll need to concentrate for twice as long as in a 5K. Practice makes perfect here, so the longer intervals become fruitful opportunities to observe your mental process as you push toward discomfort. These are good runs to do alone, or at least silently, and without the distraction of your MP3 player. You’ll probably learn some interesting facts about yourself and how you handle intensity, and this in turn gives you more strength in all areas of your life.

The 10K may take you up to an hour—give a little, or take a lot—so it’s time to consider your nutrition before, during, and after your training and the race. While you may be capable of completing the training and the race without planning any extra nutrition, keeping your stores up will ensure a good experience. Naturally, you’ll need to stay hydrated. If you find yourself very thirsty during or after your runs, plan to carry a bottle or to pass a stash of water on your route. If you run first thing in the morning or late in the day, you might benefit from drinking a sports drink just before you begin your run. Experiment with nutrition for your longer runs: determine a breakfast that works for you (something low in fat and low in fiber), and plan to eat it on race day. Add a small carbohydrate-rich snack (100–200 calories) after your runs of over an hour: this can be more sports drink, a banana, half a whole-wheat bagel with peanut butter, half a PowerBar, a cup of soup or yogurt, chocolate milk or soymilk. This recovery snack will help replenish the glycogen you’ve just burned.

FIRST FOUR WEEKS

Tuesdays in the first four weeks will get you acclimated to spending time at threshold. You may remember this feeling—the edge of intensity—from your yoga practice. It should be pretty hard but sustainable. Try to run your least interval just as strongly as your first one.

Thursdays are for hills (or simulated hills on a treadmill set to 4–6 percent grade, if you live in a flat area). Hill running builds strength! Put out an effort that makes you feel glad to reach the end of the interval but still able to think and talk as you walk or jog back to the base of the hill to begin the next repeat. Time here is in minutes:seconds, so that 1:30 means one minute and thirty seconds.

Saturdays, you’ll run long. These long runs should be conversationally slow. If you do not cover six miles in 70 minutes, consider adding in the second four weeks so that you have gone the race distance. If you cover eight miles or more in 70 minutes of easy running, you’re fast, and the extra distance will be money in the bank come race day.

Supplement with easy running or cross-training. If you’re cross-training, you can go up to an hour each day, depending on your schedule, history, and mood.

	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
WEEK 1	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 3 x (6 min. medium hard, 2 min. easy). Follow with Balance and Bowing.	Run 30-40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Core Flow.	Hills: Run 45 min. with :30, :45, 1:00, 1:15 and 1:30 steady up a hill. Follow with Lunge Series.	Rest; include Relax.	Run 50 min. Follow with Standing Stretches.	Run 30-40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow.
WEEK 2	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 4 x (6 min. medium, 2 min. easy). Follow with Balance and Bowing.	Run 30-40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Core Flow.	Hills: Run 45 min. with 1:00, 1:15, 1:30 and 1:45 steady up a hill. Follow with Lunge Series.	Rest; include Relax.	Run 60 min. Follow with Standing Stretches.	Run 30-40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow.
WEEK 3	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 3 x (8 min. medium, 2 min. easy). Follow with Balance and Bowing.	Run 30-40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Core Flow.	Hills: Run 45 min. with 1:15, 1:30, 1:45 and 2:00 steady up a hill. Follow with Lunge Series.	Rest; include Relax.	Run 70 min. Follow with Standing Stretches.	Run 30-40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow.
WEEK 4	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 3 x (6 min. medium, 2 min. easy). Follow with Balance and Bowing.	Run 30-40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Core Flow.	Hills: Run 45 min. with :45, 1:00, 1:15 and 1:30 steady up a hill. Follow with Lunge Series.	Rest; include Relax.	Run 50 min. Follow with Standing Stretches.	Run 30 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow.

SECOND FOUR WEEKS

In the second block, Tuesday intervals are shorter and harder (think 5K pace or faster), and the rest between them shortens. These could be run on the track. Be sure you are covering the same distance or more with each consecutive interval.

Thursdays in this block are for putting it all together, simulating the 10K with longer tempo sections. Pay attention to your thought process and your body’s feedback in these workouts. You’ll learn useful tactics for race day.

In week 6, be sure you have covered at least six miles. Week 7 is your dress rehearsal: try out the clothing you plan to wear, including relatively new shoes.

	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
WEEK 5	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 4 x (4 min. hard, 2 min. easy). Follow with Lunge Series.	Run 40-50 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow.	Tempo: Run 50 min. with 20 min. medium hard. Follow with Pigeon Sequence.	Rest; include Relax.	Run 60 min. Follow with Standing Stretches.	Run 40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Core Flow.
WEEK 6	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 5 x (4 min. hard, 90 sec. easy). Follow with Lunge Series.	Run 40-50 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow.	Tempo: Run 50 min. with 25 min. medium hard. Follow with Pigeon Sequence.	Rest; include Relax.	Run 70 min. Follow with Standing Stretches.	Run 40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Core Flow.
WEEK 7	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 5 x (4 min. hard, 1 min. easy). Follow with Lunge Series.	Run 40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow.	Tempo: Run 50 min. with 30-40 min. medium hard. Follow with Pigeon Sequence.	Rest; include Relax.	Run 50 min. Wear clothes you plan to race in. Follow with Standing Stretches.	Run 40 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Core Flow.
WEEK 8	Rest; Yoga or Pilates	Intervals: Run 45 min. with 3 min. medium hard, 2 min. easy, 3 min. hard, 2 min. easy, 3 min. medium hard. Follow with Lunge Series.	Run 30 min. easy or cross-train. Follow with Warrior Flow. Or, rest instead.	Taper: Run 30-40 min. with 3 x 1:30 comfortably fast. Follow with Pigeon Sequence.	Rest or run 10-15 min.– just enough to calm you down. Include Relax.	Race! Include a warm-up of 10 min. with 4 x :30 fast, timed to finish close to the start.	Take an easy walk to work out any stiffness. Follow with Relax.

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RACE DAY

Give yourself time for a warm-up and a moment to take a few deep breaths before the race, reflecting on the work you have put in.

Where you position yourself at the start can have a big effect on your time. If you are competitive—or hope to be—don’t be shy about starting pretty close to the front. As runners pass you in the first quarter mile, notice how they look from the back: if you pace yourself right, you’ll reel most of them back in over the next six miles. If you are a slower runner, it’s fine to start farther back.

Wherever you line up, don’t start too fast. While that strategy can help at the 5K distance, it can spell disaster in a 10K. Apart from the first mile, where adrenalin may speed you up by 10 seconds or so, aim to pace yourself evenly. If you are feeling strong as you roll past the halfway point, very slowly begin to push the pace. Your goal is to hit the six-mile marker and run strong to the finish line (6.2 miles). If you can pick up the pace a lot, you may have been sandbagging. If you can maintain your effort or increase it slightly, you’ve probably paced yourself right.

Expect a rough patch along the way, possibly in mile 4 (it could come sooner!). Know that this is normal. Check in with your best form: stay light on your feet, engage your core, relax your shoulders, and lower your chin. Breathe as deeply as you can in the moment. Form and breath will get you through.

SAGE ROUNTREE is a USA Triathlon Certified Expert Coach, Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher, author of The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga and The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga, a contributor to Runner’s World, a member of PowerBar Team Elite, and one of Athleta's Featured Athletes in 2009. She loves competing in triathlon and running races of all distances. Through her business, Sage Endurance, she teaches yoga to athletes and coaches clients in running, ultrarunning, triathlon, and duathlon... {more»}

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