Sub 16 5km and Sub 33 10km - how to make further improvements.

I would say that you should keep doing what you are doing.

1 long run, 1 intervals session and 1 tempo run per week, everything else easy tempo, some with strides.

You could up your mileage, as long as you keep hitting your interval splits. I think a 3rd session a week would be too much, but if you are young, maybe you could handle it.

How long have you been running

Plus have you ever run on the track - 800/1500m?

You must be one of the fatter fast runners around ... 12% body fat? (by runner standards). Kyrie Irving was catching a lot of flak for being 10.2% body fat when he entered the draft.

You probably would benefit from lifting weights and staying at the same weight you are. If you became more msucular at the same weight I would assume you would get better.

I agree - you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. I would also echo the sentiments about your weight. You are pretty fit and healthy by all standards, except those of the distance runner community. If you want to improve your times, you might benefit from getting a bit lighter.Also, start considering doing some little things - keeping your rest between intervals reasonably short (2:00 between 1000s, 2:30 between 1200s, 3:00 between miles) and make sure the rest is active rest. This are small things, but they keep your heart rate high as you enter each interval, letting you get more out of the workout.You may also want to consider some cruise intervals as an occasional alternative to your tempo run. 5 x 1 mile at 5:30 with 1 minute of passive rest will give you a bit more time at tempo pace than your typical 20 minute tempo run at 5:30 pace, but the 1 minute bouts of recovery (I advocate just standing around and not jogging between cruise intervals (in contrast to jogging during vo2max paced intervals)) will still make the workout feel manageable.As someone else posted, you may also want to consider a third speed day, but that does depend on your age and past experience. If you have not done that before, limit it to a short period of a few weeks between major races.

Advisor wrote:

I would say that you should keep doing what you are doing.

1 long run, 1 intervals session and 1 tempo run per week, everything else easy tempo, some with strides.

You could up your mileage, as long as you keep hitting your interval splits. I think a 3rd session a week would be too much, but if you are young, maybe you could handle it.

I echo keep doing what you are doing. The change I'd recommend is gradually increase mileage to 70ish.

Thank you for the comments guys.

I've been on a bit of a weight loss program over the last ten years but I'd plateaued and I finally started to make progress to get down to 137-140lb. When I started running, I weighed around 210lb so I'm working towards that end goal not not being a fat lad. I'll keep working on the weight.

In terms of background and more details, I'm 33 years old and have been running for around 10 years - around 4 years of serious training with consistent mileage. I'm limited to training time so 50 miles is around about my limit (got a baby)!

I think I can probably squeeze in another 10 somewhere though!

You should be in the 1540s for 5K - your 10K is superior.

I daren't tell you my 1500m time then! 😬

4:38!

Yeah, your 1500 is slow, I can see why you are headed for the marathon.

If you want to get faster, we need to know more about your rep, interval and tempo paces. It sound like you have the right combination of workouts but paces become more important if you want to get past "good".

Often people headed for the marathon need to run more than 50 mpw even to run their best 5k. The thing is to get to higher mileage at 33 you need to make sure you do some core and/or stability work to counteract all the sitting you have done in your life. Make sure you do some of your running on grass. Make sure you work your glutes. All of them not just the maximus.

I am sure the stability stuff will feel meaningless when you are 33 and in 32:48 shape. But if you don't do the work to keep up your stabilizing muscles, you will be out of running 5 or 10 years from now.

'5 x 1 mile at 5:30 with 1 minute of passive rest will give you a bit more time at tempo pace than your typical 20 minute tempo run at 5:30 pace, but the 1 minute bouts of recovery '

Might give him more time at tempo pace but you drop off the lactate threshold after every recovery interval so the intended effect is lost for much of the session