aquathon

Hi all, would appreciate some advice, im doing a aquathon in 5 weeks and would like to improve my 5k time.
Im a begineer and have been running for around 10 weeks. My current 5k best in training is 32.26, i would like to get this to around 28 mins if possible by the aquathon.
im wondering if i should up my training at the mo i run 5k three times a week with some walk breaks in it. Im also wondering if i do some speed work, i have access to a grass track and have experience of speed work having done 400m decreasing intervals as pre season for rugby. any suggestions would be great.

Hi - I'd recommend running a speed session such as 5 or 6 x 1km, trying to do each rep in about 5:40 (just over 28 min pace) - take a 90s standing break between each rep. A couple of weeks later try reducing the time to 5:35 or 5:30 per km rep (<28 min pace)- that should make your target pace feel a little slower on the day.

The idea of this is to get you used to the pace and improve 'VO2max', which is a big factor over 5km.

It would also be a good plan to increase the distance of one of your weekly runs. Run this one slower than usual, and take a short walk break if you feel that you need to in order to cover a greater distance.

Good luck!

Thankyou very much!