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

I agree with everything you posted in this message.

I also agree with the poster that said you're a douche for trying to brag about how badass you are the 2nd half of the race, how much harder you work in life, how little time you have, and how bereft of talent you are compared to us mortals.

It may sound harsh what 1hbj wrote, but life doesn't forgive anyone.

After high school people have more freedom, but this has a price: nobody will force you to do something and if you don't force yourself to do what you want, you will remain with empty hands.

That's the adult life.

He's not a douche for being harsh, but for feeling outrageously self-important.

It would have been completely fine to come in and say you'll never have more freedom than in college and that the OP needs to decide what he wants to do and then suck it up and apply himself diligently.

Who cares if he seems douche-esque or not. It's good advice. I'm all for a world rich in good advice, some of which makes you not like the advisor so much. And there's something fair, about good advice coming with a fee. Often the fee is listening to the advisor go on and on about themselves. Imo that's usually a fair price. What's your goal - to be coddled, or to actually do something?Anyone having an issue with that sort of post, needs to take its advice and toughen up as well.

thread lurker wrote:

He's not a douche for being harsh, but for feeling outrageously self-important.

It would have been completely fine to come in and say you'll never have more freedom than in college and that the OP needs to decide what he wants to do and then suck it up and apply himself diligently.

How many times do I have to reiterate it's not about being coddled?

If you're some tool bragging about how you can close your 17:40 5k in a blazing 5:28 mile and whining about how untalented you are and how hard your life is, I'm going to call you out on it, and it's not because your message is "harsh", it's because you're a blowhard. Or do I need to coddle him?

thread lurker wrote:

How many times do I have to reiterate it's not about being coddled?

If you're some tool bragging about how you can close your 17:40 5k in a blazing 5:28 mile and whining about how untalented you are and how hard your life is, I'm going to call you out on it, and it's not because your message is "harsh", it's because you're a blowhard. Or do I need to coddle him?

What part of my posts asked any of you to care about me and my personal journey in running?

I don’t expect you or anyone else to give a rip about me.

I was telling you about me (as an example) and how a slower, older, washed-up runner (like me) would approach competition (the whole point of training to race) if I were to line up against Sub16. Then I gave him solid advice.

The whole point of my posts was to show that someone like myself, who is much slower than his glory days, still has the fire and drive to run/race/compete. Sub16 seems to be losing that fire.

I am not bragging about myself but I am showing him a glimpse of what a different perspective/set of goals can change everything. If you set the bar lower you will walk away from the race satisfied. Your personal satisfaction is all that matters. No one cares about your times. No one cares about my times, or if I woke up to run, if I quit running altogether. This is a sport about you and your personal journey.

Sub16 seems like a great guy with goals, but those goals come with a price. The price is motivation and ambition. He seems to be willing to put in the work and he appears talented enough to reach his goal. However, a sub 16 min 5k should not be his goal. His goal should be to enter a 5k without a watch and run the first mile of the race in 5:40 – feeling like he is at 90% effort. His goal should then be to aim for a 2-mile time under 11:15. His next goal should be to catch as many people in the last mile of the race as possible.

Baby steps. Sub 16 is not the goal. I have outlined the goal above.

Sub16 – when you leave a 5k race and have executed this strategy, and then you drive home thinking “I bet I can go faster next time”, then you know you have something going for you. My training outline will allow you to feel that way.

1hbj wrote:

I am not bragging about myself

1hbj wrote:

I hunt down guys like you in the last mile.

1hbj wrote:

When we pass the 3 mile mark and we can see the finish in sight, the crowd sees me putting down two footsteps to your one

1hbj wrote:

I wake up to run and go to work shortly after you have (recently) been going to bed.

1hbj wrote:

You are more talented than I.

I don't know what part of the country you grew up in, but it seems we will have to agree to disagree. If you expect to not get called out on saying things like this then you are on the wrong website.

thread lurker wrote:

1hbj wrote:

I am not bragging about myself

1hbj wrote:

I hunt down guys like you in the last mile.

1hbj wrote:

When we pass the 3 mile mark and we can see the finish in sight, the crowd sees me putting down two footsteps to your one

1hbj wrote:

I wake up to run and go to work shortly after you have (recently) been going to bed.

1hbj wrote:

You are more talented than I.

I don't know what part of the country you grew up in, but it seems we will have to agree to disagree. If you expect to not get called out on saying things like this then you are on the wrong website.

Fine, agree to disagree. Thanks for keeping the status quo of the millennial's version of LRC, Sheriff. Have you contributed a single thing to this discussion?

Fair enough ... you were clear earlier about not being anti-harsh, but about being anti-blowhard. You're still overreacting and going straw man, since the guy didn't describe his life and circumstances as anything other than typical. That was his point.But even if he is a blowhard, my point is: so? That's just the fee for free good advice. Calling him out on it accomplishes ... what exactly?Once I heard some guy (probably Noam Chomsky) being asked who some of his heroes are. He said he doesn't really do heroes, because everytime someone has a good idea and then people make him a hero, someone else finds something wrong with him, and then the idea gets discredited along with the guy, even though the idea didn't do anything wrong. So screw heroes, we just need good ideas. This might be a very well-known quote, but it was new to me, and I thought it was pretty great.tl;dr You were making an ad hominem attack, and those are unproductive and useless. Verbal vandalism.

thread lurker wrote:

How many times do I have to reiterate it's not about being coddled?

If you're some tool bragging about how you can close your 17:40 5k in a blazing 5:28 mile and whining about how untalented you are and how hard your life is, I'm going to call you out on it, and it's not because your message is "harsh", it's because you're a blowhard. Or do I need to coddle him?

Back to, you know, the topic at hand.

Won't be able to get on a track for a bit because of weather so just doing fartleks and tempos when I can get a clean road or a quality treadmill session. Not a lot of luck so far but mileage is good. Not going to sweat the fact that I'm running lower quality for a few weeks.

I'm doing intervals on treadmill, Today, 5x3min @3:14 min/km w/3 min jg rest. After 10x500m workout I got DOMS so my calfs were a bit stiff today.

Kid was sick today so I had to babysit all day. No time to run my 8-miler except late tonight but I have a 20-miler scheduled for 5am tomorrow. Run tonight and tomorrow or just bag it and run a little extra tomorrow or Sunday?

Journeying too wrote:

Kid was sick today so I had to babysit all day. No time to run my 8-miler except late tonight but I have a 20-miler scheduled for 5am tomorrow. Run tonight and tomorrow or just bag it and run a little extra tomorrow or Sunday?

Just run a little faster for the last half of your 20 tomorrow.

Journeying too wrote:

Kid was sick today so I had to babysit all day. No time to run my 8-miler except late tonight but I have a 20-miler scheduled for 5am tomorrow. Run tonight and tomorrow or just bag it and run a little extra tomorrow or Sunday?

It is not babysitting if it is your own kid. I think that's called being a dad. I don't care but your wife certainly will when she hears you say it. Just trying to help you, bro.

Good luck on the 20 miler. I would do 2 x 10 miles (AM / PM) before running a 20 mile long run if training was for a sub 16 min 5k

Are you training for a longer race simultaneously?

Started to ease back into workouts this week. Still geared towards the longer stuff for awhile.

Did an hour of 4 min hard/2 min easy averaging about 6 flat pace. Probably low 5:4x average on the hard portions.

what a delightful conversation. I too am trying to get back to low 16min 5k pace. a few years ago I was a 16:40 5k runner doing around 45 miles a week. How much more mileage per week do you think would be enough to pursue a low 16ish time?

If anyone wants to follow my training for sub 16 min 5K, I just registered on Strava

https://www.strava.com/athletes/19084140

I wish you all the best for the coming year!

To 2017 I'd like to say...

Dear 2017,

please don't be a b*tch

have some mercy.

Good luck and happy new year, Jasko!

Won't be making a run at sub 16 until after Boston, so these workouts will probably look out of place on this thread for the next 3.5 months.

Yesterday I did 3 mile warmup, 3 x 5k w/ 3:30 rest between, 1 mile cooldown.

Ran about 18:15, 18:00, 17:40.