DO YOU WANT TO BUILD YOUR STRENGTH AND SPEED FOR 10K?
Redway Runners has a free eight-week course designed to help you run a stronger, faster and more confident 10K.
Led by Carlos M, Maya T and Alison M, the course combines progressive Tuesday interval sessions with Thursday tempo runs on the Cattle Creepy 10K route.
WHAT IS BUILD YOUR SPEED?
Build Your Speed is an eight-week training course designed to improve your 10K performance, develop your pace control and prepare you for the physical and mental challenge of racing a full 10K.
The course will encourage you to run by effort, become comfortable with being uncomfortable and develop the determination to keep going when your legs are tired and your mind is telling you to slow down.
Hard running involves discomfort: heavy breathing, tired legs and the urge to ease off. Part of the training will be learning to recognise that feeling and push through it safely. However, sharp, localised or worsening pain may indicate an injury and should never be ignored.
WHO IS IT FOR?
The course is open to runners who:
- Can already run 10K continuously without walking.
- Want to improve their 10K time or run the distance with greater strength and confidence.
- Are prepared to run at a genuinely challenging but controlled effort.
- Want to develop the mental resilience needed to keep going when running becomes uncomfortable.
- Are willing to attend the Tuesday sessions consistently for eight weeks and do some additional runs during the week.
- Can manage their training, recovery and any signs of injury sensibly.
There is no minimum speed requirement, but this is not a beginner 10K programme. You must already have the endurance to run the full distance continuously.
COURSE DATES
First session: Tuesday 1 September 2026
Final interval session: Tuesday 20 October 2026
Graduation race: Cattle Creepy 10K – Thursday 29 October 2026 at 6:00 pm
TUESDAY INTERVAL SESSIONS
Meeting point: End of Garforth Place, beside Teardrop Lakes
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Start time: 6:00 pm
Warm-up: Easy group jog around Teardrop Lakes, followed by running drills and strides.
Intervals: Delivered at Teardrop Lakes.
Cool-down: Easy jog back to the meeting point.
HOW THE TUESDAY TRAINING WORKS
The Tuesday sessions provide one high-quality speed workout each week.
The repetitions should be completed at a strong, purposeful and controlled effort. Rather than becoming overly dependent on a particular pace displayed on your watch, you will learn what an appropriately hard effort feels like and how to maintain it when fatigue begins to build.
Each session format is completed for two consecutive weeks. This gives you the opportunity to become familiar with the session, improve your effort and pace control and build confidence before the repetition distance increases.
The aim is not to race the other runners or run the first repetition as fast as possible. The challenge is to maintain a consistent effort throughout the session and continue working when the later repetitions become uncomfortable.
EIGHT-WEEK INTERVAL PLAN
- Week 1 – Tuesday 1 September: 12 x 400 m
- Week 2 – Tuesday 8 September: 12 x 400 m
- Week 3 – Tuesday 15 September: 6 x 800 m
- Week 4 – Tuesday 22 September: 6 x 800 m
- Week 5 – Tuesday 29 September: 4 x 1200 m
- Week 6 – Tuesday 6 October: 4 x 1200 m
- Week 7 – Tuesday 13 October: 3 x 1600 m
- Week 8 – Tuesday 20 October: 3 x 1600 m
The total distance covered at effort remains broadly consistent, but the repetitions become longer. This gradually develops your ability to sustain a demanding effort without giving in to the temptation to slow down.
THURSDAY TEMPO SESSIONS
Thursday evenings will provide a second course session: a 10K tempo run following the actual Cattle Creepy 10K route.
Running the full route regularly will help you:
- Become familiar with every part of the course.
- Learn where the route feels easier or more demanding.
- Decide where to control your effort and where you may be able to push harder.
- Practise maintaining a purposeful effort over a longer distance.
- Develop confidence in your ability to keep running when fatigue builds.
- Remove some of the uncertainty from graduation night.
These will be controlled tempo sessions, not weekly races or time trials. You should run at a sustained, challenging effort that you can maintain across the session. The purpose is to develop strength, endurance and resilience while becoming thoroughly familiar with the graduation route.
Meeting arrangements and exact session details will be shared with everyone registered for the course.
RUNNING BY EFFORT
A central aim of the course is to help you understand and trust your effort.
Your watch can provide useful information, but pace will vary because of hills, weather, fatigue and other conditions. Learning to judge your effort will help you respond to these changes without becoming discouraged by a particular number on the screen.
You will practise finding an effort that is:
- Hard enough to create a meaningful training benefit.
- Controlled enough to sustain across the planned session.
- Consistent enough to avoid starting too quickly and fading badly.
- Challenging enough to require focus and determination.
Progress means becoming more willing and able to stay with the discomfort of hard running while remaining in control.
WHAT TO BRING
- Running shoes and clothing suitable for the weather.
- A watch or other device that can display your current running pace.
- Water, if needed.
- Headtorches when evenings become darker.
- A willingness to work hard and support the other runners.
OTHER RUNNING DURING THE COURSE
The Tuesday intervals and Thursday tempo run are demanding sessions. The rest of your weekly running should support them rather than compete with them.
You are encouraged to:
- Keep your other runs relaxed and conversational.
- Include an easy longer run.
- Allow sufficient recovery between harder sessions.
- Include strength or mobility work.
- Rest when your body needs it.
- Avoid turning every run into another hard workout.
Training consistently is more valuable than completing one exceptional session and then being unable to train properly for several days.
GRADUATION RACE
The course will finish with the Cattle Creepy 10K on Thursday 29 October at 6:00 pm. Please register as soon as you can.
Remember to use the discount code for members in the club weekly mail. Also to add your event to the club who is racing where page.
By graduation night, you will know the route, understand how its different sections feel and have practised sustaining your effort over the full distance.
When the race becomes uncomfortable, you will be able to draw on eight weeks of training. You will know that tired legs, heavy breathing and the desire to slow down do not automatically mean that you have to stop pushing.
Whether your aim is a personal best, a particular finishing time or simply your strongest possible 10K, you will arrive at the start line physically and mentally prepared for the challenge.
OUR TRAINING APPROACH
This course is intended to challenge you.
It will teach you to distinguish between the normal discomfort of working hard and pain that may indicate an injury. We will encourage you to push through fatigue, doubt and the temptation to give up, but never to ignore sharp or worsening pain.
Progress will be measured not only by your finishing time but by your consistency, effort, pacing and willingness to stay with the challenge when running becomes difficult.
On graduation night, you will know that you have earned your confidence – one session, one kilometre and one difficult repetition at a time.
HOW DO I BOOK?
To book, log in to your Redway Runners Love Admin profile using the following link:
https://app.loveadmin.com/Login/2BA4A302403BD3AEE99421B64A7583FC.htm
Select ‘Events’ and then select Build Your Speed 10K – September 2026.
If you book and later find that you cannot attend, please cancel your place so that it can be offered to another runner.
Email rr@redwayrunners.com and we can cancel your booking.
Details of our May 2026 Build your Speed 5K course click here
