Dippy Donuts
Marathon to 5k fitness 5/1/2012 11:51PM Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
I just finished a marathon. My training was mediocre towards the end, but I have a pretty good base. What is the best way to translate that endurance into a 5k PR by mid-June?

Details:

A good marathon buildup week for me would be about 65 miles.
3 shorter easy days, 2 med-long workouts (progression, tempo, or fartlek), rest day, long run.

Just ran a 13 minute PR of 3:10, 5k PR is 17:30.

What should I do? I am interested in how to change my weekly structure.
silver, blue and gold
RE: Marathon to 5k fitness 5/2/2012 12:50AM - in reply to Dippy Donuts Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
I am surprised you did not go 2:55-ish if the 17:30 is current.

Perhaps recover, drop the long marathon-type long intervals down to shorter, quicker reps for a few weeks and go race.
joho
RE: Marathon to 5k fitness 5/2/2012 8:39AM - in reply to Dippy Donuts Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
Depends on what kind of runner you are. I have always run my best 5Ks off of pure marathon training. I took the time to specifically train for a 5K with lots of shorter intervals and speed work and still couldn't match my marathon-training PR.
Dippy Donuts
RE: Marathon to 5k fitness 5/4/2012 10:52AM - in reply to silver, blue and gold Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
Thanks for the responses. I posted this and forgot about it for a couple days. I've found that I have good (not great) races in the middle of marathon or ultra training, and that I do better after a short period of rest. My PR was at the same race in June; the only difference is I ran the half instead of full marathon 6 weeks earlier (so I might be a little stronger aerobically).

I may just do some intervals during the week, and scale back my long runs to focus a little more on quality (hard progression or tempo).

I know my marathon is relatively slow compared to my 5k, but my training suffered a little bit this year. I ran well within myself last weekend, too. I did a thread a while back about pace conversion, because it always projects a much faster marathon than I think I can run.

I'm going to give sub-3 it an honest shot this fall, though.
blaznbison24
RE: Marathon to 5k fitness 5/4/2012 10:58AM - in reply to Dippy Donuts Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
There was an article about this very topic in the June issue of Running Times.
Dippy Donuts
RE: Marathon to 5k fitness 5/4/2012 11:04AM - in reply to blaznbison24 Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

blaznbison24 wrote:

There was an article about this very topic in the June issue of Running Times.


I JUST noticed that after I sent the second post. How convenient!
samblackbones
RE: Marathon to 5k fitness 5/4/2012 2:02PM - in reply to Dippy Donuts Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
I am in the same shoes. I will say one important thing is to not get discouraged if your first race after the marathon really sucks. I had a real disappointment of a race a month or so out from my marathon PR last year, and was pretty frustrated until someone reminded me that I really couldn't have expected to run well.