Sub 20min 5k!

Hi All,

After getting back into my running over the last few weeks, and building up a few miles in the old legs, i've decided to concentrate my efforts on the small distances, trying to get into 5k and possibly 10k races over the remainder of the year...

 I found that running over the longer distances preparing for marathons really affected my natural speed, and when playing my beloved football had found myself very badly off the pace!

I've drawn up this little schedule and be delighted if there was any feedback on it!

Monday - 4m run at lunch, slow pace ... 3m speed session in the evening

Tuesday - 5m slow run

Wednesday - 4m run at lunch, slow pace... 3.5m speed session in the evening

Thursday - 6m slow run

Friday - Rest

Saturday - 5k run at race pace

Sunday - Rest

Hi Boysie

So these speed session distances aren't including the warm up distance? I'm guessing.

Your longest run is only 6 mile, it isn't particularily long, you would benifit from adding at least one run a week a bit longer than that, especially if you are considering adding 10k races as well. 

Your training would be better if you tried to limit your self to only doing a 5K at race pace about once a month and that would leave you refreshed to add another training session on Sundays if you can.

Hope that helps

thanks for all the feedback guys, in hindsight i jotted my thoughts out pretty quickly earlier and didnt drill into any detail...

 I see the merits of a longer run and i probably will build it in over time...

The speed sessions I had in mind were breaking down the 3 miles into 1/2 mile sections and doing fast pace runs into those sections with a few mins recovery... i've never really done any structured speedwork before so was really just coming up with my own... i've a feeling i'll get some  looks from the regular posters ha-ha!

The slow runs I felt if i could set them at 8 min mile pace, just to take them easy and get the miles up whilst not overdoing it

The race pace that i'd set would be initially getting the 5k done in 20mins or less, setting my garmin for that and seeing how close / far i'm at... i done a 5k run on saturday past and finished up in 22.27, so plenty of work to be done!

In terms of football or 5k's... it would always be football but my circumstances dictate that i cant train with my club during the week and have no club to train with in my current location

erm.

So you've tried racing a 5k and did it in about 22.30? Which is about a 7.15 min mile pace, but you think that 8 min mile pace is taking it easy? Unless I'm missing something major you're still overdoing it on your slow runs, substantially. 

Boysie84 wrote (see)

In terms of football or 5k's... it would always be football but my circumstances dictate that i cant train with my club during the week and have no club to train with in my current location

So that's no football?  No evenings of 5-aside, no matches on weekends, no 15m/30m/40m sprint training sessions?  Your "speed sessions" aren't intended to be geared towards football at all?

Good.

Off 22.27 for a 5k, 8 minute miling is not Easy pace.  You need to be down about 9-9:30 minute miling for the longer runs - the majority of your mileage.

Don't know if you meant to use a parkrun every weekend and that's why you've put that 5k down.  If yes, make it every 4-6 weeks, or go every week but don't race the course flat out, use it as a longer, slightly pacy session.  If you do that, drop the Monday "speed session" and do your 5k and faster pace session on the Wednesday.

You can't taper in one day and recover in one day for a 5k race.

Oh, nearly missed it.  Running for the last few weeks, probably better not to do any interval sessions such as you have suggested just yet.  If you want to do some pace variety, try fartlek.  Best just now to get slow miles into your legs and your times will start to drop anyway.

No bed!!

I tried balancing football and running and it does not work, I was always too tired to play football well and too injured to run consistently.  Maybe you'll do better than me. The good news about football being so damaging is I imagine your legs are going to be very tough.

No football at all during the weeks unfortunately folks... and no real short shap sprint sessions, just the odd 50 or 100m sprint during a run

Wow... i thought the 8m pace would have been a decent enough kick back to allow resting, i tried a 5k before the "race run" i done on Saturday and ran it slow at a pace of 9.36, and found it really slow... probably wasnt a genius idea to run the 5k after that ha-ha!

cheers for the feedback Ratzer, i think i will tweak around the schedule, i had always aimed to get my "race" run in on a saturday, but the feedback here would seem to suggest once a week is not realistic and to balance it over the course of a month, with 1 "race" over that period

my whole rationale behind this is that during a game of football i run between 5-8k... and if i can build up a 5k run and balance that pace out over the duration of the match if would improve my play as i aim to play midfield running box to box ...