With the weather being less good for riding over winter and as I approach Vet status (40 next May) I’ve been putting more effort into my running recently.

I’m very lucky to have access to group track training with a shared coach and some really experienced runners through work and I’m thinking about using that to work towards a really good PB as celebration(!) of hitting 40.

My current 10k PB is 39:35 last September. I was fit at the time but hadn’t done much speed work. I also got a massive cramp in my quad at 5k so with more speedwork and no injury I reckon I could push that to a sub 39.

On a recent track session we did 5x 800 and my average was 2 min 43 secs.

I’m trying to work out then what kind of PB to work towards. One of the guys at work reckons after seeing me run I could get to 35 mins. I’m not sure that’s realistic, it seems like a massive leap.

So how do I work out what my PB really could be and would it make sense to a) buy lightweight racing shoes for my next race (13th Jan) to see how that can help and b) find a personal coach to give it my best shot for next year?

Any thoughts from some experienced racers?

Training with a coached group that’s better than you sounds perfect.

Find out their PBs and see where you could fit in.

I did 35:30 10k last spring off 3 interval sessions per week and a bit of cycling. I trained for a bike race after that and haven’t run much since.

Now starting to get some motivation for running back and at this standard (let’s face it, we’re not world-beaters!) two approaches will help – running more miles and running hard intervals.