can't perform up to my workouts?

comparing your breathing probably isn't the best idea there, I usually think I'm breathing way less as well only to have to others tell the same about themselves.

I do think that your times indicate some better 5k time, you just have to try some more! Also it could be mental, you have been dreaming about running faster but once you're off pace you think too much..?

My experience is that if you always run your workouts controlled and finish strong you need to race yourself into shape.

If you ran a PR, you ran a PR. So with running more controlled in your workouts, you are already showing the improvement.

As another poster said, you likely just need to race more.

Surely that 70 minute tempo is too fast. If you can only run 15:40 on the track, going through every 5km on the road in 17:30ish is very hard! Either you race terribly, you are training too hard and essentially racing your tempo like it's a half marathon, or you need to focus on the roads instead.

Saying all that, your training reps look very good and I would estimate you could race better than you did. You should be hitting 15:20s and faster no problem.

Maybe you weren't fully recovered from your 1/2 marathon @ 5:40 pace. Looks like you went out okay for 3 k, if you would have held 3 k pace, that would be 15:20 so your wheels didn't really fall off. Might try some 1000's at a little faster pace than you ran 4 x 1600. I think the one poster made a good point of more racing. Looks like you have good strength. 5 k time should drop.

How much time did you spend AT your race pace?

maybe try 2 x 3k @ current race pace.

or instead of going down the ladder, start with the 1k repeats and go up to 2k.

what does a typical week look like? everyone always posts the hard efforts ... how about the recovery days? many people go "medium" on recovery days ... not fast enough to actually improve fitness, and not slow enough to actually recover. in college we berated what we termed "easy day racers".

There's an old saying, consider... "You're leaving it all on the practice track."

OP here, thanks for your comments. My mileage has been hovering about 70-75 mpw the last few months.

I'm sure that I can run better than I did. I did concentrate a lot on strength stuff this winter and did almost no short repetitions, maybe some fast 400s and 600s would do the trick?

Probably the mini-taper of about 3 days was also not the best thing. I do my hard workouts the day after lifting and jumping pretty hard, and never had any problems with that, so after the muscle tension theory i should probably try that next time, or have a session of hill sprints the day before the race?

My easy runs are currently about 7-7.5min pace, altough with a lot of hills.

Is it possible to fall apart not because you don't have the strength, but because you lack the coordination?

lot of things could be the problem here...7-7.5min/mile in the hills is probably not truly easy recovery for a 15-15:40 type. If you want to RACE well, you should try making these very easy short days, say 4-6 miles at a comfortable pace (could be as slow as 9:30/mile) on a flat surface. I've trained a lot in the hills and even easy runs in the hills zap your legs for racing.lifting/plyos the day before a hard workout is a bad idea! neuromuscularly it will fry you for your hard work (not to mention physically) and that hard work you're doing the next day is not as hard as it could be. Do the lifting plyos the same day as your hard day (after the running workout of course).So yes, you can have trouble racing due to neuromuscular fatigue rather than general strength.Now, go do some sharp fast stuff 1x/week (2x if not racing), really-really easy runs, and RACE. To be good at racing you need to race. Nothing in practice is quite the same. The 1st race is often crap, throw it out and try again. It will take 3-6 races before you nail a good one.Have fun and good luck.

aladin wrote:

OP here, thanks for your comments. My mileage has been hovering about 70-75 mpw the last few months.

I'm sure that I can run better than I did. I did concentrate a lot on strength stuff this winter and did almost no short repetitions, maybe some fast 400s and 600s would do the trick?

Probably the mini-taper of about 3 days was also not the best thing. I do my hard workouts the day after lifting and jumping pretty hard, and never had any problems with that, so after the muscle tension theory i should probably try that next time, or have a session of hill sprints the day before the race?

My easy runs are currently about 7-7.5min pace, altough with a lot of hills.

Is it possible to fall apart not because you don't have the strength, but because you lack the coordination?