Omar Mansour, PT, run coach and founder of Track Life Ldn offers his best advice for 6.2-mile success this spring.
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1. Warm Up Like a Pro
Mobilise joints, activate muscles, raise the heart rate. Give yourself a good 20 minutes to prepare your body so that you don’t need your first one mile to ease yourself into the race.
2. Find Your 1%
Look at your sleep, nutrition, stress, lifestyle, training and anything else that can affect your performance. By improving these aspects by 1% you can make a big improvement on race day.
3. Build Power
Adding plyometric training into your schedule can make a positive difference to your 10km time. The more power you can produce in every stride then the further and faster you will go.
RELATED: Five of the Best Plyometric Exercises
4. Change Your Pace
Don’t just train at one speed. Train faster than your 10k pace, at your target 10k pace and occasionally slower than 10k pace. Expose your body to different speeds. Training at different paces will prepare your body for a fast race.
5. Visualise the PB
Research has shown that visualisation can improve your physical performance. Practise seeing and feeling the performance you would like to produce. Truly believe you can achieve it in every way. Do this as frequently as possible.
6. Improve Your Work Capacity
Some of us need to stop making excuses and simply do more on the training side of things. Improving your work capacity in a progressive manner will help you adapt to a higher level of fitness.
7. Train With Others
Having a good training partner or group can help you perform at your best. They can help push you in training and create some friendly competition on race day.
8. Finish Fast
It’s more effective to finish fast than to go out too hard and crumble. Most 10k PBs are run where the second half is faster than the first half (the coveted ‘negative split’). Practise finishing your runs at target 10k pace in training.
9. Be Prepared to Hurt
Getting a 10k will be hard work. You’ll have to learn to push yourself both in training and on race day. Prepare yourself mentally as well as physically that the experience will be tough. Your body will not be pushed to its limit, unless the mind is ready to command it to. Be brave.
10. Respect the Distance
Many people who can run the 10k distance underestimate just how tough the distance can be. Expect to have burning lungs, fatigued legs, and sometimes a metallic taste near the end of the distance. Prepare yourself to feel uncomfortable – but also for the best all-round high fives and finishers’ medal!
The Cancer Research UK London Winter Run hits Trafalgar Square on Sunday 9 February. Find out more at londonwinterrun.co.uk and follow Omar Mansour @mromg and Track Life Ldn @tracklifeldn for more 10k tips.
