Six-Week Plan to Improve Your 10K Race

What if I told you that you can improve your running in just six weeks? I’m talking about faster average paces and quite possibly new personal records in your races.
 
Although I have already written a few articles about plyometric training, in this article I am sharing a full plyometric training progression for you, based on a recent scientific study, that will improve your running speed within six weeks. The goal of this article is to give you the tools and set you on your way! We wont dive into specifics today. However, I will provide links for all of the articles quoted in this article, in case you want to do some more researching for yourself.

Plyometric works by stiffening your tendons. Did you know that about 30-40% of the kinetic energy stored during an impulse is caused by the energy stored in the tendons? Our tendons play a huge part in a successful running career - and training plyometrics will improve your tendons' ability to store and release energy.

​THE PLAN
I was inspired to write this article by a research study done in 2018. In this study, 14 participants (all had at least 2 years of running practice) were split up into two different groups, the ‘sprint group’ and the ‘plyometric group’.
 
As the names indicate, these groups were told two follow two different training protocols – a sprinting protocol and a plyometric training protocol. It’s important to state that both of these groups continued their normal training without making any significant changes to their training sessions.
 
Before beginning the experiment, each participant had to complete three tests: a progressive treadmill exercise, a jump test and a 10-km time trial. The participants followed their training plan for six weeks. When they came back to the lab, the same tests were applied again, to see if there were any improvements since the previous results.
 
In the end, both groups (sprint and plyometric) had improved their race times, but the plyometric training group had considerable improvements in their results (refer to the study for more information).

THE WORKOUT
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Week #1
Alternate leg bounding × 3 × 30
Double-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 3 × 10
40 cm depth jump × 3 × 10

Week #2
Alternate leg bounding × 4 × 30
Double-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 3 × 10
40 cm depth jump × 3 × 10

Week #3
Alternate leg bounding × 4 × 30
Single-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 3 × 5/side
Double-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 3 × 10
40 cm depth jump × 3 × 10

Week #4
Alternate leg bounding × 4 × 30 
Single-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 4 × 5/side
Double-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 4 × 10
50 cm depth jump × 3 × 10

Week #5
Alternate leg bounding × 4 × 40
Single-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 4 × 5/side
Double-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 4 × 10
50 cm depth jump × 4 × 10

Week #6
Alternate leg bounding × 4 × 40
Single-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 4 × 5/side
Double-leg 30 cm hurdle hop × 4 × 10
60 cm depth jump × 4 × 10

​THE EXERCISES
While performing these exercises, make sure you are as explosive as possible during the push-off/jump phase. Produce as much force as you can!

If you have any questions regarding this article or the exercises used you can reach out to me by commenting below, sending me an email or engaging in our Running and Race Training Facebook group.

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About the Author​

​​Paulo Piedade is a Certified Track & Field Coach, based in Portugal.
Paulo is the advising Running Coach at the Running and Race Training group.
His Runner Profile - runpage.com/profile/paulo.piedade