Twin Cities 10 Mile Prep!

The Twin Cities 10 Mile is now less than 7 weeks away. Yikes!!

I wasn't planning on anything special for the 10 mile. It's a race I REALLY like, but I haven't raced anything more than a 10K for 2 years - since the 2022 TC 10 Mile. So I kinda feel like I don't know where I stand with regards to my "long distance fitness." (My "shorter distance fitness" has been great for 2024 as I set a 5 mile PR in early April, a 10K PR in late April, and a 5K PR in May.)

After feeling a little bummed that I didn't get my 1 mile PR at the Raspberry Run about a month ago, I started changing my focus to the TC 10 Mile. And maybe 2 weeks ago, I thought "Coach Jen coached me for 8 weeks leading up to my 10 mile PR in 2010... should I look back to those workouts and shoot for a faster TC 10 Mile?"

Yeah! Why not?!? Let's go!!

LET'S BE CLEAR: my 2010 10 mile PR had a goal of sub-60, and I ran 59:05. I am NOT going for a PR, and I am NOT going for sub-60!! Even if I believed that's possible at age 43 compared to age 29 (I don't think it is), I'm not ready to put in THAT much effort and focus to make that happen again! I'm thinking about aiming for a "faster" 10 mile, but nothing sub-60!!

So that 4x1600 workout that I posted about last week was Jen's first "unofficial" workout for me right before coaching me for those 8 weeks leading up to the 2010 TC 10 Mile. And I out-did my times from 14 years ago!

And then this past week, I did the 3 most important running workouts from Jen's plans in 2010 - I skipped an easier run as she had me run on 2 back-to-back days each week to fit in 4 days of running, but I'm happy with how injury-free my current routine has been treating me. So I'll add in her workouts, but not DESTROY my routine.

I did the workouts on different days, so it's not exactly what Jen prescribed (also skipping the 4th easier run as noted in the last paragraph). The previous Friday track workouts were the same, but then the 3 runs last week were switched around: the long run was Saturday, but I made it Monday to keep with my normal long runs on Monday. A tempo run with some running drills after was on Monday, but I did that Friday as that's my normal speed day. And the mid-week run I kept the same: it was Thurs in 2010, but Wednesday is my running day these last few years, and it was some hill repeats.

Here's what the last 1.5 weeks looked in 2010 and in 2024:

First 1.5 weeks of Jen's workouts in 2010...


... and the same 1.5 weeks this year.
Less swimming, more biking, longer runs, more strength work.

My Monday run was similar to what I usually do for long runs where I run 6 "pace" miles in the middle, but this version of those hard 6 miles was 2 miles a BIT harder, and then 4 a LOT harder. I hit the 2 "bit harder" miles nearly perfectly (much better than in 2010), and then hit the faster 4 miles in in 23:29. That was 0:40 faster than 2010's 24:09 for those same 4 faster miles! (And my 2 "bit harder" miles were slower in 2010 as well!)

My mid-week run was hill repeats. I did them on a path that didn't exist back in 2010: the sidewalk on the north side of Marshall along the Town and Country Club Golf Course (that was winding "deer trail" under low branches of crab apple trees back then). In 2010, I ran it on the other side of the street, which crossed a few side streets.

My repeats last week.


Pace, with 8 repeats starting at mile 2.


Mt new garmin shows "power" which is nothing I've used for running. (It shows my efforts better.)

I ran the downhills harder in 2010, but the uphill efforts were similar. (Looking at the splits, I treated it more like a tempo run in 2010, and more like intervals last week.) I had a small spread from 1:33 to start, down to 1:20 to end... In 2010 I started with 1:36, but then dropped to 1:18 by the last one.

And Friday was a tempo run. I had 4 descending hard miles of 6:22, 6:01, 5:54, and 5:38 in 2010 (BIG SPREAD) for 23:55 total, but I beat that last week when I ran (a SMALLER SPREAD of) 6:07, 5:59, 5:49, and 5:42 for 23:37 total (0:18 faster).

OVERALL THOUGHTS FROM 10 DAYS OF TRAINING LIKE THIS?...

- I forgot how much Coach Jen focused negative splits. I considered this a WEAKNESS of mine maybe around 2015 through 2020 where I tried to go out harder and "hold on" because I tended to try to start easier and negative split things. I forgot that Jen had partly "trained" me that way. ALL of these workouts were supposed to be negative split!

- Jen's long runs weren't nearly as long as I've been running my long runs over the last 4 years. So I'll tack on a few more cool-down or warm-up miles to her long run workouts each week to make them more "normal" for me. (Really, that's the whole idea behind these next few weeks: USE Jen's workouts how I can, but make them fit into my NORMAL training routine without totally blowing it up.)

- 4 runs in a row that were all hard?!? I'm thrilled my legs still feel OK! A few years ago, I'd run some effort in my long runs on Monday, and then I'd do speed work every-other Friday *if* I was feeling good. So that would mean 5 - 7 harder runs / month. Then these last few years, I've been feeling good and doing speed work pretty much EVERY Friday, so that would mean 7 - 9 harder runs / month. And now I just did 4 hard runs in a row. Nice. But I have to watch my injury-prone legs! (That's why I'm not throwing in that 4th run each week that Jen had me doing.)

- Speaking of speed work... if I stick to Jen's plans, I'll be OFF the track for a long while! Over the last 1.5 years, I've been really focusing on shorter/faster track workouts, and that's helped with some of the early-summer PRs. Jen has more focus on tempo-style runs, so GOOD BYE TRACK! I don't know how I feel about this...

- I'm in decent shape compared to 2010, but I won't see GAINS as quickly as I did back then! I was a "newer" runner back then, so she could take me and make me into something faster MORE QUICKLY than 43-year-old Steve can change. Of these first 4 workouts, I was decently faster in the 4x1600 workouts this year, quite a bit faster in my long run this year, pretty similar on the hill repeats compared to 2010, and a bit faster this year in the tempo run. Being noticeably faster in 3 out of 4 sounds promising, but that DOES NOT mean that I think I can run like a 58:00 10 mile. Nope. I won't gain as much as quickly as I did in 2010.

Alright, let's see how long 43-year-old Steve can hold on to Jen's 2010 workouts for 29-year-old Steve...