Run the BAA 10k in under 40 min

I started running in December as a way to keep active after college sports ended for me. I had run during high school for soccer but no real long distance runs. I then ran a little in college but soon realized it hurt my progress in volleyball so stopped. I have really enjoyed running and want to challenge my self and compete.

This week of training was a decent week. I got in 3 training runs for a total of 13.1 miles for the week. This is much less than I would hope. I am starting to see that in order to take the next step up with my times I need more consistency in my training runs. On this Monday I started a long run and was feeling great so I decided to go for a 10k PR to see where I am at. I finished with a time of 49:40 which is below what I would have expected. It was a little disappointing to see but I think it shows that more consistency and dedication is need if I am going to achieve my goal.

This week was my best week as far as mileage so far. I ran 18 miles this week. I think I pushed it a little too hard on these runs as I am feeling it today. I think being better about picking and choosing when I go hard is my next step that will help me continue to up the miles.

I have increased my weekly mileage to an average of around 20 miles per week. This has definitely helped me feel very fit but the increase has definitely been taxing on my body. My Garmin watch has my estimated 10 k time at 44 min. I have also started reintroducing Muay Thai training and want to start strength training again as well. This cross training has been stressful when combined with the increase in mileage but my body has started to adjust. This might not be the best time to add additional training but it’s definitely made my training more fun and definitely benefits my overall conditioning.

The past couple weeks have been great! I’ve started to feel very good on my runs and better with the total mileage. I’ve had a few big tempo runs which have really helped me. Most notably I ran a 5k tempo run and was able to PR with a 5 k time of 22:41. This felt good but was definitely hard. I am going to reframe my goal to be 45 min. I think this is still going to be very challenging but will be a more achievable goal. Going forward I just need to keep pushing hard for 2 more weeks until I start to taper!

Had a pretty good week of training. Slacked off a little bit in training early in the week which I think hurt my times but helped some of my nagging pains. I feel good going into my last full week of hard training. I also got my bib and race package only increasing the excitement!

Another good week in the books! My highlight run if the week was a hard 8 mile trail run / hike on Sunday. It was very difficult run. I think it was a good reminder of how hard I can push and showing myself that I can get through difficult patches of a run and hit a second wind. For me it’s important to have some runs that I really struggle in to prepare myself mentally to give it my all in the race. This week I am just trying to stay in a good rhythm while not putting too much stress on the body. I feel confident that I will be able to hit my goal of 45 min.

44:48!! I completed my goal with 12 seconds to spare! This was a very very difficult race. My plan was originally to run slower then speed up in the last 3 miles. I ended up going a little faster (7:15) at the start and then really struggled in mile 3 but I pushed very hard in the end doing the final 1.25 miles in 8:30 (6:45 min/mile) to finish under my goal time. https://rtrt.me/ulink/BAARA/BOSTON-10K-2024/tracker/RCZAMNEG/focus