Up the mileage indeed. Still do your speed and hill sessions.
10K training doesn't really need long slow runs...so there's the difference.

Shorter distance race times will improve with the longer training sessions as long as the speed work continues.

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I'm not sure it's so much to do with mileage, but the paces you train at (though more mileage will always help to a point). I think you need to run some 1/2m pace sessions if your training for a half or some 10k sessions if your training for a 10k etc.

Richard,

I just had a look at your training (sorry nosey I know) and noticed you did 2 x 1 mile intervals last week @ 5.30p per mile! That's about your 3k pace! This is good training for a 3k but I would say far too quick for a 1/2. And then, if I'm not mistaken you ran that pace in the 1st mile of your 1/2!

A good session for you would be 4-5 x 1m @ 6:20p (1/2mp) with 200-400m jogs between. Or you can interchange a 6 x 1k session @ 6:00p (10kp) with 200m jogs between. Both of these work on your stamina, which is so necessary for those last 3 miles of the 1/2m. I would do one of these sessions a week when training for a 1/2m.

You don't really need to work much on your speed (you have loads) just the ability to hold the speed for 13.1 miles.

LJ, huge thanks for your post, not nosey at all - i'm grateful that you went out of your way to have a look!

the 2x 5:30/mi was supposed to be 4x 5:30/mi but I just felt awful so cut it short - the same pace in the 1/2mara 1st mile was purely by accident on reflection I think it was closer to 5:40, but still much faster than I'd have liked.

I think the thing is that when I'm running a mile repeat at say 6:20, I know I could run it faster, so I tend to... in light of your post though I think it'd definately be more worth my while training at race pace, and if I do 1mile intervals, work on increasing the number of reps over time. Speed endurance is definately what I lack!!!

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I know it's easy to go too fast, I fall into that trap too. My personal thing is I really struggle to do easy runs easy, even though I know I should!

If you think about 4 x 5:30/mi though, you would be running 6.4k at your 3k pace, which is just brutal even with rests. I think you'd find a professional athlete would think 'bloody hell' if they set themselves that session! You wouldn't attempt 20km of intervals at your 10k mile pace for instance.

Doing the 1/2mp 1 miles or 10kp 1km will not feel anywhere near as difficult, but you'll feel like you done a good session without feeling totally wiped out. & to get a bit of a speed buzz at the end you can do 4 x 200m at mile pace with 200m jog between which will keep your speed ticking over.

I'm going to do the 10k session weekly over the next few months & hope to seriously reduce my 10k time. We'll see though!