Hitting a European Qualifying standard is a challenging feat. Between the countless hours of training, meticulous planning, long hours of coach/athlete conversations, and mental preparation, it takes a village to perform at the highest level. Tomer Tarragano, a distance runner at the University of Birmingham, just hit a 10k time of 29 minutes, 19.81 seconds. With an EU qualifying time of 29:20, Tomer surpassed this standard by 0.2 seconds! In this article, we will break down the training leading to this accomplishment and the 10k performance itself! Read below to see Tomer Tarragano's U23 European Qualifying time data!

Tomer's watch: COROS PACE 2

Analysis software: COROS Training Hub

University of Birmingham

Being a member of the University of Birmingham, Tomer is under the guidance of Endurance Coach Dean Miller and Athletics Director Luke Gunn. Having fantastic facilities and a pedigree for performance, the University sent its elite athletes to Font Romeau, France, for an altitude camp before their late spring races. Utilizing the athlete's early season build alongside an altitude training camp, Tomer was ready to chase the EU U23 10k Qualifying standard of 29:20.

Training + Altitude Camp

Athletes can monitor their yearly fitness improvements with the COROS Base Fitness metric.

As can be seen above, Tomer was able to put together a solid early season build from March 19th through April 13th. During this stretch, Tomer built fitness by progressively ramping up his training week-to-week. These early season builds are where athletes set themselves up for success later in the season. Tomer and his teammates went to an altitude camp from March 26th through April 21st to magnify the effects of training further. Not only was Tomer building aerobic fitness, but he was also building red blood cell count, which helps his body deliver oxygen to his muscles. His ability to operate near VO2 efforts will improve when returning to sea-level.

Along with building his overall fitness, Tomer utilized a volume build to enhance his aerobic base. Increasing volume throughout the early season with a peak of 136 kilometers run during the week of May 1st through May 7th.

Athletes can monitor the intensity of all training lumped together. This helps athletes understand if they are training in the appropriate zones.

Tomer being a mid-distance endurance athlete, needs to train more than just his aerobic base. While Zone 1 will ensure he can build his volume safely, Zone 2/3/4/5 is where his specific needs are. You can see that Tomer gets 19.4% of his total training in Zone 3 (Threshold) and 22% in Zone 4 (VO2), which is the specific demand for a 10k elite athlete.

Night of 10k PB's Performance

Athletes can review all activities for an in-depth analysis of splits/performance.

As you can see from Tomer's 10k effort, he was steady throughout the race. Perhaps the first metric that jumps off the screen for amateurs is Tomer's ability to sustain 194+ cadence throughout the race. Holding an average of 196 for the entire 10km distance, this is genuinely elite and demonstrates his ability to maintain a fast turnover while operating at his VO2 effort.

The second note from this race is that Tomer's fastest portion of the race was his last mile. You can see that the race was steady, but surges were made late to fight for position. Tomer's fastest mile was his last in an average pace of 4:40/mile, nearly 8 seconds faster than his opening four laps!

Lastly, as seen in the right side of the photo, Tomer was running mostly between his Threshold and VO2 (shown as a training effect) for most of this race. As noted in his previous training, he spent much time in Zone 3 and Zone 4 and at altitude. This allowed him to sustain this pace for his best performance to date!

COROS Technology

While having a dedicated coaching staff, altitude camps, University support, and excellent training are needed, COROS provided Tomer and the coaching staff with the necessary data to dial in Tomer's intensity, peak, and taper for his 10k. The University of Birmingham coaching staff continues utilizing the COROS Training Hub (free for all COROS customers) to dial in all their athletes' performances!

For those looking to take the next step in their training journey, we would love to have you consider COROS. From the watch on your wrist to the data analyzed at home, we want to help you reach your goals as you head out the door and explore perfection!