5K

Dash you dark horse, I thought I'd lent that basque to Stevie G, wondered where it was.

Mike well done, interesting to note the Bolton run was won in a slow time yesterday so maybe the wrong time to try an alternative Parkrun, never mind you're putting out very good times, and in every improvement there are some ups and downs, no one ever went forward without set backs in the learning process. .

And lastly Mike Mo Farrah did his local parkrun last year and recorded a time of over 28 minutes.

Mo did the Bushy parkrun in 15:06 7 years ago when he was 20-21 years old. This gives me confidence because I think im capabale of recording them times in 2-3 years, obviously hes trained very hard since then working at altitude and under guidance of one of the best athletic coaches around. But when I see people my age running the parkrun in sub 15 it makes me wonder why most of them don't go on to become olympic medal hopefuls.

That's the trick to life Mike, at that age we're all world beaters, I look back at people I knew who made careers in Football, and Rugby but couldn't get a game at 18, but then those of us who kept them on the sidelines discover the usual (Girls and beer) and fall by the wayside.

There's no real answer to it other than hard work and sacrifice, but it's possible for anyone willing to take this option

Mike, Mo Farah is a world class athlete...probably best not to compare to that level

Also he'd run 14:05 for 5k in 2000 when he was 16/17, so the park run you quote would just be a tempo effort...

I know a guy who has run a 15:09  park run who has run for England at half marathon...so that shows even low 15s take serious natural ability and hard training

(note...that park run is a MT one...not like Bolton with a beautiful smooth track)

Lofty ambitions can be good, but you need a good few more attainable short termers on the way first...cracking 18.30 for 5k i think wouild be a very doable 6week aim for you...and then sub 18 before the turn of the year...

Damn 14:05 is fast for a 17 year old 

Just ordered a running watch w/ split times, I can finally time and pace myself during the race, which is one of my main problems. 

Im aiming for 10-20 secs improvement every week for the first few weeks; this is 2-4 seconds faster for every km.

So excited about running with a watch for the first time!  

Why am I hardly improving, I don't know my official time yet but I only beat my pb by 4-5 seconds. I feel so down, considering the diet im eating and my progressive training I expect at least 15 seconds improvement, maybe I'm setting unrealistic goals?

I want to become one of the best runners in the country and hopefully world class but at this rate it's going to take me years.

How is 4-5 seconds improvement every week? Is that a more realistic goal for me? 

18:43 - 23mpw.

Upping mpw to high 20's this week, maybe 30 depending on how my legs feel. 

Mike, now you're understanding that improving over 5k is hard and is a long term goal.

I think you could do with a good month or so, just getting used to running 25miles a week, no racing, no speedwork.

Then when you can handle 25 with no problems, then you can start to add some speedwork in....

and so begins what needs to be a long term aim....there's no short term fix

Thanks for all your help Stevie, I will do as you say apart from the racing part, I want to race every saturday to see my steady progression and its a good workout in itself.

I guess I can look at it this way, if I improve by 4-5 secs every week on average which may be possible. Thats around 3min 20secs improvement for a year and that will take me down to sub 16mins.

Do you think thats possible Stevie? 

Im not convinced doing the 5k every single week will aid your chances, but if you do that, maybe have that as your 1 fast session of the week, and do the rest relaxed.

Then when you find that you're doing a nice 25-30miles a week, with no issues, you can add a more detailed speed session in.

The vast vast majortiy of runners never get under 16mins for 5k, so i certainly wouldn't count on getting under that time within a year.

I'd be thinking more sub 18:30 as a 2month target, and then 18:15 as a 6month target etc....

And join that athletics club asap....i'm sure they'd have you swap the 5k park run for a hard track session most weeks..

Mike - you're doing all the right things but MASSIVELY underestimating how hard it is to improve. Sage advice from Stevie that you need to set much more realistic medium and long term goals to work towards

Your initial trajectory and time frame was always going to be unachievable.

Don't get too disheartened. If you're in it for the long haul you will def see improvements by simply upping mileage but stop setting yourself unattainable goals since there's no surer way of getting pissed off with the whole process and giving up. Taking a few seconds off gets harder and harder the quicker you get. You're STILL setting unrealistic goals by talking about 4 secs every week and 3 minutes or whatever in a year

18:47 - 21mpw

Not been a good week, missed one day training which was my quality session because I wasn't feeling well. Lots of traffic at the event today because of a 5-aside football tourny going on, cars all over the place.  You can see in the results of the Bolton Parkrun that only 14 PB's were ran out of 159 runners and only 2 pb's in the top 20, quite alot of headwinds to. I love making excuses. 

In better circumstances im sure I would of beaten my pb, cant control the variables I guess. 

Mike, would you not prefer to go away for a month, get a decent block of training in, and then race again?

Doing a 5k every week at your stage I fear opens you up to regular disappointments.

Id rather race every weekend because it is a workout in itself and can be counted as a quality session, and its something to look towards to every weekend. My dad and bro goes so its lots of fun. 

Well if I kept improving at the rate I was I would be breaking the world record sometime next year. . But yeh its harder than I thought, it will only make me work harder though.

Nope not yet, costs £50 to join for the year, money isn't a luxury I have in abundance at the moment. But, next month or the month after I will.