Kristen’s 10K Training Plan (Such as It Is)

I sure do enjoy racing with friends.

In case you haven’t heard, the FBGs (Jenn, Erin, Tish and Kristen) are currently training for the Rock ‘n’ Roll 10K in Brooklyn this October courtesy of Brooks Running. This week, each FBG is sharing how her training—or lack thereof—is going!

I’m pretty excited about the upcoming Rock n’ Roll 10K in New York that I’ll be running alongside my fellow FBGs. Well, by alongside, I mean possibly a little behind. Or maybe a little ahead. I really don’t know.

Don’t misunderstand me; I’ve been training quite a bit. I’ve just been focusing most of my training on the sprint tri distance and building speed and strength there, so my 5K run? It’s looking good. My 10K pace, well, it has yet to be determined.

I like the 10K distance a lot; it’s far enough to require me to train, but not so far that I’m miserable afterward. Usually, anyway. But I have yet to decide how I’m going to approach this particular race.

Part of me really, really wants to set a goal and work hard to meet it. I’ve run a 10K in juuust under 60 minutes, and man, I’d love to beat that. This could be a perfect opportunity, too, with the cool weather and the motivation of knowing my friends are also running.

Then again, I hated the last longer distance race I did, and I don’t want to feel like that again, ever. I hated how I felt, I hated missing every single one of my goals. I hated it. But then again, it was a 13.1 miles, not 6.2, and it was hot and humid, while this shouldn’t be.

Throughout the summer, I’ve mixed in lots of easy runs, interval runs, track workouts, functional strength work, and yoga (in addition to copious amounts of swimming and biking), and truth be told, I feel great. (Well, at the moment, I’m nursing a jacked up back, but I’ll be back in the game in a few days and shouldn’t lose my fitness level.) Even though I haven’t been doing much more than four miles at a time, I feel really confident about building my distance over the next month and being really ready.

I guess I just need to decide if I’m ready to try for a PR or if I’m ready to enjoy a fun race with friends at a comfortable pace. Any thoughts? —Kristen