Endless Momentum: What does it take to run a 10K PB?

In partnership with Under Armour

As Jess builds up her 10K training she’s been giving us regular updates on some of the workouts she’s running, so we thought we’d share what it looks like to try and set a new 10K PB. 

Easy Runs, Parkruns & Intervals 

Jess is typically doing two easy runs a week, and these are helping to build up her base fitness. She’s also doing two harder sessions each week which are specific to a 10K race. To help the training feel more fun as it gets more challenging, Jess is incorporating Fartlek sessions and Parkruns into some of those faster runs.

One recent workout started with a Parkrun aiming to finish in 20 minutes, followed by another 5K at a slightly slower pace. It helped break her run into two sections, while also getting to run half of it in a bigger group, just like she would on race day. 

Another workout was a pyramid of 5-4-3-2-1 minutes of quick running with a short jog rest between each rep, which she repeated twice. As Jess says, “it was a great way of getting lots of speed into my legs without feeling intimidated by doing 30-minutes of hard running!” 

Is this the best workout for a 10K PB?

Jess’s main workout this week was a classic for runners training for any distance from 10K to a marathon: 8 x 1K.

Jess’s coach explained that this session alternates between running 1K at 4:00 pace (close to her benchmark 10K pace – see Jess’s 10k Benchmark video here) and then 1K at 3:45 pace (slightly faster than PB pace), with 200m jog in between. With these ‘over and unders’ she gets to run at race intensity while building up great speed endurance.

“I find interval sessions really tough, but rewarding,” Jess says. “It’s a great way to practise pushing yourself but with rests to build up to your target.” It’s a challenging workout that many runners have done a version of, and they know that it’s never easy.

“I still get nervous before my interval sessions but when I have completed it it gives me the confidence to go into the next session,” says Jess, and she’s taken inspiration from when she spoke with New York City Marathon champion Sharon Lokedi.

“Sharon said something lovely around this, saying that she reminds herself that if she did it in training, she can do it again, and she takes this all the way to race day with her.”

Striding towards a PB!

Another piece of advice which Jess has taken from Sharon is to add strides, or short fast sprints, to the end of her easy runs. Sharon adds these reps into her training so that she’s practising running at faster speeds. Jess has already seen a benefit: “To get speed into the end of an easy run and focus on form when you’re not too tired has been really good for me.” 

You can follow Jess’s training on YouTube and pick up more tips from Instagram as she prepares for the La Cursa El Corte Inglés 10K in May. 

Jess is running in Under Armour’s Infinite Elite for all her training and she’ll wear the shoes on race day. Learn more about the Infinite Elite here.