Don’t Train For Short And Long Distances At The Same Time

Keep in mind that it is hard to train simultaneously for a marathon and for a 10K, or another short race. If you are doing high-intensity speed workouts and weekly long training runs, you are at increased risk of injury because these are two different types of running but both are stressful to your muscles. Focus on one race at a time. A speed workout in a marathon training plan usually involves longer intervals (such as an 8-minute tempo run, or mile intervals), while a runner focusing on a 5K or 10K will want to do shorter intervals, such as 200- or 400-meter repeats. If you are using the 10K itself as a tempo run that is incorporated into your marathon training plan, you don’t need to obsess about doing a lot of 200- or 400-meter intervals to prepare for that 10K. Save your competitive 10K training for when you are not also training for a marathon.