After 4 years of stagnant progression, I beat my previous 10km PB by 45 seconds. Here is what I changed…

Speedway 10km 2026

The following changes took my time from 32:21 (3:16/km) down to 31:36 (3:10/km) for the 10km distance. This blog is going to detail how I did it, the sessions, the strategy, and the mistakes I had been making along the way. I’ll give as much detail as possible as I’m sure there will be plenty of people who can relate to this situation.

Here’s some background. I’ve been involved in elite level triathlon for over 10 years, transitioning from short course to long course over the past 5 years. I have always been a ‘triathlete’, never specialising in any of the three sports involved (swim/bike/run).

Previous to this year, my peak running form was in the years around covid. Training full time, no worry in the world except for when my next ride or run was. I ran comfortably under 15 minutes on numerous occasions for the 5km. I didn’t take the opportunity when in this shape (regrettably) to race any longer distances, but in theory you could extrapolate those times to around a 31:00 10km and 1:10 half marathon. I didn’t get close to either of those off the back of that form in the years after.

Now you’ve had the context. Let’s get stuck into the details.

What did I change to make this improvement? 

I’ve had coaches ever since I started competing, however after I finished my 2024 season I decided to take up the challenge of going self coached. This is where I began to implement the first changes into my training that led to this PB a year later. 

Change number 1. More easy volume, zone 1 & 2, RPE 2-3, conversational pace, you get the gist. Over the past years I’d been consistently doing 1-2 hard sessions a week, however I never managed to string together the consistent supporting volume to go with it. I was stuck in a cycle of: complete a hard session, niggles flare up (shins), no easy running in the days after whilst waiting for the legs to recover and be pain free, maybe one easy run squeezed in before another hard session, and repeat. This cycle meant the majority of my running was hard, with little focused aerobic work. To get out of this cycle, I took a 5 week off season after the 2024 70.3 world championships in Taupo. This involved no ‘training’. I completed a few runs during this time to maintain a little bit of load on the legs and to get some exercise done whilst travelling around New Zealand. However I did even less than I’d have liked as I was managing a knee niggle off the back of a long, hilly, moderate (a.k.a stupid), run I did after a week of complete rest after the race. This reset was critical for building the run mileage up afterwards.

Shown below are my yearly weekly running averages (km) from 2020 until present (18/06/2026). It was a downward trend from 2019 to 2024, and it’s no coincidence my form has dramatically improved since ramping things back up in 2025/2026. The increase has come from nothing else other than more running at the easy intensities mentioned above, which week on week is usually around the 5:00/km mark. I aim to get as much of this done on soft surfaces such as the grass or trails as possible, as opposed to the pavements. This helps me manage impact on the legs.

My recent Strava graph showing a consistently higher volume in amongst a busy race schedule

2019 - year average 45.4km

2020 - year average 48.2km, minus a period of injury with no mileage, this figure better reflects the entire year 

2021 - year average 48.7km 

2022 - year average 41.9km

2023 - year average 41.2km

2024 - year average 35.5km 

2025 - year average 56.0km

2026 - year average 57.3km 

This leads us nicely into change number 2. Implementing planned rest and recovery periods strategically throughout the year. This was my first proper ‘off season’ in all of my years doing triathlon. I’d previously trained through seasons year on year, never taking any planned time off. The time off in New Zealand, even with the niggle, gave me the mental and physical reset I needed to get down to some serious hard work when I got back. It led to what was likely my best ever training block in the lead up to Outlaw Half Nottingham in May 2025. Outside of the main ~2-4 week off season at the end of each season, I also changed to a regular schedule of roughly 4 weeks on, 1 week ‘off’ in the longer training blocks. Previously, I’d take rest days when I’d get to the point of being forced to take one due to fatigue, or life simply getting in the way and forcing me to. The big learning from this is the body doesn’t differentiate between stresses, whether it’s training stress or life stress, the effect is the same. Taking a rest day when life got busy wasn’t actually doing the job of a pre-planned rest day where I’d have very little going on. 

Change number 3. Implementing a threshold based approach to my training. Previously I had been a bit sporadic week on week with the sorts of sessions I had been doing, often with little specificity to my events and no clear progression between sessions. It made it difficult to track progress or understand whether I was adapting to the training I was doing. Also, a lack of control of the intensity was killing my body, going far too hard, too often. A more controlled threshold based approach suited how my body responded to training. Most, if not all the races I do are linked closely to your threshold/LT2 pace. The higher your threshold, the faster you’ll go over these distances. The distances in question are 5km, 10km, half marathon, and 70.3 racing. I ensured sessions built clearly on each other as the weeks/months went by, manipulating rep lengths, rep speeds, and rest intervals to achieve this. Simple progressions such as 6 x 1km, to 8 x 1km, to 10 x 1km over the months allowed me to very clearly see improvements (or not) as time progressed. This training methodology allowed me to arrive at the specific phase for Speedway 10km after my short 1-2 week off season in late November already carrying some very good fitness.

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Change number 4. Properly periodising my training. In simple terms this means training for different outcomes at different points in the year, structured around what my goals are at that given point. This can vary from base phases, threshold phases, VO2 phases, and more. The phase leading into the 10km is what I’d describe as a ‘specific block’, which lasted throughout December and January. This is a final phase where I am training specifically for the race at hand. It followed on from a long period of base building and threshold focused training. 10km pace typically sits slightly above threshold pace, and amongst high volume across swim/bike alongside the running, I usually train at a sub-threshold pace to ensure I’m not going too hard day to day. This pace is usually in the 3:20-30/km range, with my true threshold (40-60mins sustainable pace, LT2) sitting around 3:15/km. This meant I knew I would have to do some faster running nearer to actual 10km speed in order to get used to what I’d need to do on race day, and feel comfortable doing it. My sessions during this specific preparation are as follows.

10-16 November:

4 x (1km threshold [60s jog], 400m 3-5km [2mins walk/jog])

3:23/1:15, 3:21/1:12, 3:16/1:11, 3:08/1:06

17-23 November: 

3 x (5 x 60s [60s jog], 5mins tempo [60s walk/jog])

60s progressing 3:15-3:00/km over the sets, 5mins at 3:30/km

20/20/20mins build 4:10-3:50-3:35/km

24-30 November:

5 x 1km [90s], 5 x 400m [90s]

1kms 3:20-3:08, 400m 1:14-1:10

1-7 December: (away in Chile)

30mins uphill light tempo (off road)

6 x 800m threshold [200 jog/light float]

800s 2:40, 200s 50

8-14 December: (away in Chile)

3 x (5 x 60s on/30s light jog) [2mins walk/light jog]

60s progressed 3:20-3:05/km

15-21 December:

8km TT 25:52, 3:14/km

22-28 December:

20 x 400 [45s walk/jog] 

Progressed 1:20-1:10, averaged ~1:13-14

2 x 20mins light tempo [5mins]

3:45/km & 3:43/km

29-4 December/January:

10 x 45s hills [jog down recovery]

8 x 1km [90s walk/jog]

Progressed 3:25-3:10, averaged ~3:15

5 x 6mins light tempo [90s walk/light jog]

Progressed 3:45-3:30/km

5-11th January:

10 x 60s hill reps [light jog down] + 10mins tempo

3 x 8mins 10kp [2mins]

3:08/3:09/3:13/km 

12-18 January: race week

4 x 4mins [90s], 4 x 60s [60s]

The final few meters at Speedway 10km to run 31:36

This all resulted in my new 10km PB of 31:36! I hope there are some useful takeaways from my ramblings above. I haven’t broken any world records or done anything remarkable, however it is an honest recap of the things which I found worked to get over a long period of stagnant progress in my running. The majority of these are foundational changes which apply across numerous sports and ability levels. Thanks for taking the time to read!