My Journey to Sub 16 5K, Including My Training Logs. Need all the help I can get

800ftw. wrote:

I think you just over thought your race, put too much pressure on yourself.

Also, trying to go out at 15:30 pace when you've can't break 17 is just a bit silly. Set a target of 16:30 first and run as evenly as possible.

He didn't raced in a while, so of course he was anxious.

The race was in the middle of the training cycle - meaning no taper or easy days around the race.

Plus, no speed work in the past month.

This 5k at 17:15 counts as a single endurance interval.

Next week will have an actual speed work interval.

Then follows a recovery/taper week with a 5k trial at the end.

I bet (for real) $10 he will break 16:43 in that trial.

Sub16_5K, I didn't know what's your exactly fitness level, but if you read a few pages ago, I was saying that the average should be 7:30/mile. That includes the warm up.

It is ok if you run first 5 miles @7:40 and last 3 miles @7:10. As long as you don't do it on purpose, but it happens naturally.

According to the VDOT calculator, your easy pace should be 7:28/mile, if you run 17:15. Pretty close.

I loved reading your race report. Enjoy your weekend ;)

Hey Sub16_5K,

I hope you had a nice weekend and you are rest now.

Hopefully you are not demoralized and have patience to finish the 7 weeks training cycle, as it was planned.

There are two weeks left, this, focused on speed, and the next one, meant for recovery and a 5 k trial.

The most important workout from all the 7 weeks cycle should be this Wednesday.

Here is the plan for this week:

Mo: fartlek, 45 minutes, max 6 miles

Tu: recovery, 50 minutes, max 7 miles

We: intervals, 55 minutes, max 7.5 miles

Th: recovery, 50 minutes, max 7 miles

Fr: tempo, 45 minutes, max 6 miles

Sa: easy, 65 minutes, max 8.5 miles

Su: recovery, 35 minutes, max 4.5 miles

The key training days:

fartlek -> just last week, don't push it.

intervals -> 10 sets of 200/400/200 (that's 8k), with 40s break after 200s, 80s after 400s. 400s could be @86s and 200s @42s. Don't push it hard; if you feel that is too fast, slow down, until you feel more confident.

tempo -> 2 miles @6:25

Hang on for these two weeks, the cycle is almost done.

For the tempo, is it 2 miles @6:25 pace or 6 miles?

Also, do I do the 55 minutes on Wednesday after the intervals or is that the length of the workout?

That's 1.25 mi wu/cd with 8k of intervals or your choice of wu/cd with a double on that day of a 55 min normal run. I'm guessing because these are all singles that it's 2.5 of warmups and cool-downs along with the intervals.

Just 2 miles @6:25. The rest is easy running + warm up and cool down.

For Wednesdays intervals ignore the "55 minutes". Just warm up, intervals, cool down.

The "55 minutes" are an alternative in case of unexpected cases (weather, soreness, really fatigue, etc.).

Hey that's a good 5k rust buster for sure OP - I guarantee your next one will be better just from the experience alone. You are very close to being able to PR.

I've had some setbacks. Had a decent 6 x mile workout on a gravel trail (2 - 2:30 rest, 5:35, 29, 30, 28, 30, 28, 17) and then a crappy long tempo that I bailed on. Light workout this week of an hour of 4 "hard"/2 easy avg. 6:11 pace and am planning to pace a buddy to a sub 1:20 HM this weekend.

Hey sub16_5k,

I haven't seen updates from you.

I hope your enthusiasm didn't fade out.

If you followed the training plan, then this week should be a recovery week.

Just 2-3 miles warm-ups everyday, with 4-6 accelerations, as done before the recent race.

Set your own 5k trial date, for the end of the week.

If for some reasons you didn't liked the training method/plan, don't be embarrassed to say it and keep this thread (and dream) alive.

George Ilie wrote:

Hey sub16_5k,

I haven't seen updates from you.

I hope your enthusiasm didn't fade out.

If you followed the training plan, then this week should be a recovery week.

Just 2-3 miles warm-ups everyday, with 4-6 accelerations, as done before the recent race.

Set your own 5k trial date, for the end of the week.

If for some reasons you didn't liked the training method/plan, don't be embarrassed to say it and keep this thread (and dream) alive.

Sorry about the late update. I have bad news. Life got in the way last week (work, finals, and more) and I couldn't run Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. I still did the fartlek on Monday, and the speed session but on Thursday instead of Wednesday. Friday was a 50 min 7 miler. I have a 5k race this Saturday morning that I signed up for (Certified course, etc.) and the weather will be much better than last race!

Have I screwed my chances of a PR for only running 4 days of the week last week? (Despite doing two of the key workouts?)

The speed session by the way went great, I was actually having more trouble trying to go slower rather than faster. My 400m reps were all consistently in the low 80-83s range instead of 86s, with two of them being under 80s. The 200m reps I kept around low 40s and high 30s. My very last one was 33s. The first set felt like CRAP, my legs were burning, but after the 3rd one on, I almost felt invincible.

Also, I really do love this training plan, the sprints in the middle of the easy runs were really fun, and my legs have felt really good most of the time. If it gets me a PR, I'll definitely stick with this longer, but I hope the days off last week don't cost me my race.

I did a pyramid interval session with 60 sec rest. What kind of shape am I in? I was a bit disappointed but I had to lap runners in lane 3 every single time so the distance for each interval is propably a bit longer

200m 00:37 (3:05 min/km)

400m 01:13 (3:02 min/km)

600m 01:53(3:08 min/km)

800m 02:38 (3:18 min/km)

1000m 03:22 (3:22 min/km)

800m 02:40 (3:20 min/km)

600m 01:55 (3:12 min/km)

400m 01:14 (3:05 min/km)

200m 00:31 (2:35 min/km)

15:50 - 16:20 maybe, at least according to VDOT calculators.

I try not to overestimate, so it could be better.

That was a tough workout, changing the interval distances.

I never tried something like it.

Under 400m are a different class of intervals.

Up to 270m we can accelerate to 100% speed, but then we lose speed and becomes an endurance exercise, not speed.

Probably that's why 400 meters intervals are so efficient; it combines speed with endurance.

200s are mostly for speed.

800m and up for endurance.

Sweden in autumn wrote:

I did a pyramid interval session with 60 sec rest. What kind of shape am I in? I was a bit disappointed but I had to lap runners in lane 3 every single time so the distance for each interval is propably a bit longer

200m 00:37 (3:05 min/km)

400m 01:13 (3:02 min/km)

600m 01:53(3:08 min/km)

800m 02:38 (3:18 min/km)

1000m 03:22 (3:22 min/km)

800m 02:40 (3:20 min/km)

600m 01:55 (3:12 min/km)

400m 01:14 (3:05 min/km)

200m 00:31 (2:35 min/km)

Depends what kind of runner you are. Given my mid-d background I think I could do that while only being in 16:3x shape, but most would probably have to be more like 16:1x shape to do that. Regardless, nice work!

Thanks guys!

I'm not as optimistic as you. There is a total rest of 8 minutes in that workout. The time running was 16:03. As you can see I was jogging the first 200 rep (38 sec) so I could have ran under 16 minutes for the entire workout if that one was faster. It was crazy overtaking 10-15 runners in each banked curve so I probably lost 1-2 sec per lap on the longer repetitions.

I think I'm in 16:45 shape :)

Sweden in autumn wrote:

Thanks guys!

I'm not as optimistic as you. There is a total rest of 8 minutes in that workout. The time running was 16:03. As you can see I was jogging the first 200 rep (38 sec) so I could have ran under 16 minutes for the entire workout if that one was faster. It was crazy overtaking 10-15 runners in each banked curve so I probably lost 1-2 sec per lap on the longer repetitions.

I think I'm in 16:45 shape :)

I don't remember your weekly mileage, so my estimation is based on an average of 50-55 mpw (80-90 km/week).

Mileage for the last 6 weeks (in km)

53

58

60

66

68

51 (recovery week)

Test

I'm trying to post my race update and I keep getting 403 forbidden unsafe operation???

Posting this part by part...

I ran 17:35.

A few seconds worse than two years ago on the exact same course! The course was out and back on road with a small hill ran twice. I went out in 5:16, and I swear it felt way faster. Picked up the pace on the 2nd mile, and even threw in a surge. Felt like I was going even faster than my first. I crossed mile 2 in 5:33...

I just gave up after that. I chugged in at 6:00 on my last mile and came 2nd overall. Again, felt like I was going way faster. Winner ran 16:19, a time I know I should've easily been capable of running. Screw that. Legs were sore coming into the race. Basically to summarize, I went out in 5:16, and faded horribly. Like every freaking race.

It's my fault and I'm honestly not surprised. I didn't take things seriously enough, stayed up late a lot, took too many days off, especially this week when I stayed past 4 am twice finishing essays. Life just kept getting in the way and I lost motivation to run, let alone race. Being by yourself for so long and not in a XC team like HS just takes a toll on you. Man I really miss HS, and I really wish I could run in college.

I don't know what to do at this point. What's my next move George?

I plan on just taking a full week off, and start all over. This time properly train and do things right like I should have in the first place and run higher consistent mileage, sleep properly and give myself a real chance and run some races towards the end of spring. Damn what a waste of a year.

Anyways, I'm Sorry George. Thank you very much for the training plan, it was fun, and I can definitely really see this actually working if I didn't goof off like a damn jackass.

Time: 17:35 (3.14 mi.)

Splits: 5:16, 5:33, 5:59 (ooh at least I broke 6 lol)

Avg pace: 5:36/mi.

Very disappointing.

Hey Sub16_5k,

sorry to hear that you're disappointed about the result.

You asked what's next. You said yourself the problems, so you need to work on them.

Consistency and motivation seem to be major factors.

Is it possible to train with the HS team? If not, maybe you have a local club to join.

Or find other runner, a bit faster than you and see if you can train with him. Make him your running rival - that's really motivating, for both.

To be constant in your training, you need to develop some habits.

Set an alarm clock in the evening, to know that you should go to sleep. Every evening check your running gear - this is way to set your mind for next day of training.

You said you wasted an year, so you have to do something asap, otherwise you'll waste more time. Find someone to run with.

In my opinion the days off are a loss, but depends the context.

In the training cycle you had, there was one easy day per week, sort of recovery, which should've been enough.

I said this often, physically is not hard to achieve a higher level of performance, but the comfort kills the desire. For me, the boredom killed my training. I used to run 90-120 minutes per day, alone. Many times I quit the run after 30-40 minutes, because it was boring. Sometimes I wasn't even leaving from home, knowing how boring will be.

Finally, don't worry about me, I'm not disappointed, I know the difficulties and the frustration you may have. Such moments can weaken or strengthen you.

A week off should clear your mind.

As for training, I found a very promising exercise and tested it for a month, with very good results. I plan to share it, so keep an eye on letsrun until Christmas.