Sub 15 min 5k training

Your mileage seems fine. Important for me were tempoish intervals (e.g. 3 x 2 miles at +/- 5:10 pace, 4 x 2k at 5:05 pace, etc... w/ 3-5' minutes jog rest... if standing or shuffling you could make that shorter). And then getting in some stuff at or slightly faster than race pace (5 x 1k sub 3', 10 x 400 at 68, etc.)... Sprinkle in some 8 - 13 milers at 6' or 5:45 pace and you have a realistic shot.

What are your workouts now? Mileage looks good. Other PBs?

Thanks guys. 32.20 10k and 1.12 for half marathon. 4 miles easy most mornings and 8 miles easy every second day ish. 12 miles long run once a week. Threshold/hard workout 3 times a week, for instance 10x1000m threshold in 3.20 ish or fartlek run (1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 with equal jog rest). Also do a hill workout during winter (2x10x200m) but haven't done that workout in a while. Did 5x800m in 2.22 with 2 min rest a couple of weeks a go. 30 min tempo runs 5:50 pace often in the weekly schedule.

citius5000 wrote:

What are your workouts now? Mileage looks good. Other PBs?

We have to be honest in this.

No chance to run sub 15 in one month time....but....you can reach sub 15 with the right training in a couple of months.

Thanks for the reply. Any suggestions for training in the next couple of months? :)

Go to the track. Slap on some spikes and do 5 X 1000m repeats at goal pace (3 mins) w/2 min rests. Do this once every two weeks. Cool down with 6x50m striders at 80-90% effort. Get used to moving your legs fast.

Coach of 5K wrote:

Go to the track. Slap on some spikes and do 5 X 1000m repeats at goal pace (3 mins) w/2 min rests. Do this once every two weeks. Cool down with 6x50m striders at 80-90% effort. Get used to moving your legs fast.

Appreciate the help. Any reason why just once every two weeks? Surely I should add another specific workout in between?

Nobody does fartlegs anymore. Greta Waitz swore by them. Salazar used to do these back in the day when he was doing sub 13:30 5ks. Fartlegs test the limits of your endurance if you do them this way. So add this to your routine:

In your afternoon or evening run of 8-10 miles, throw in 3 telephone poll lengths of hard surges. At the end of each surge DO NOT go slower than your previous steady state pace. In other words, if your steady state pace is 6 or 6:30 miles, your recovery pace cannot be slower than that. This will hurt.

I never did these every week because it took a lot out of me. Every two weeks is the goal. This is a great test of fitness & guts. Do it tonight and report back. Alternate this with the 1000m repeats. One week is 1k repeats, week 2 fartlegs, etc. your overall mileage is fine. Now stop reading and get to work...

yupyup wrote:

Thanks guys. 32.20 10k and 1.12 for half marathon. 4 miles easy most mornings and 8 miles easy every second day ish. 12 miles long run once a week. Threshold/hard workout 3 times a week, for instance 10x1000m threshold in 3.20 ish or fartlek run (1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 with equal jog rest). Also do a hill workout during winter (2x10x200m) but haven't done that workout in a while. Did 5x800m in 2.22 with 2 min rest a couple of weeks a go. 30 min tempo runs 5:50 pace often in the weekly schedule.

citius5000 wrote:

What are your workouts now? Mileage looks good. Other PBs?

You need to be doing a bit more 3k pace work -- roughly 5k pace * .95. 6 x 800, 400 jog, 2000m time trials at 3k pace.

To clarify, the surge is the distance between 3 telephone polls. Doing this for 8 miles will hurt a lot. It will be your hardest workout of the week.

Coach of 5K wrote:

To clarify, the surge is the distance between 3 telephone polls. Doing this for 8 miles will hurt a lot. It will be your hardest workout of the week.

Interesting. Have been doing a similar workout (if I understand you correctly) earlier. 5-6 miles of 15 seconds hard run with 15 seconds jog rest. The pace for the 6 miles was like a tempo run, about 5:40. Very hard.

3 telephone polls will probably mean a bit longer intervalls though.

I have to agree with JS here. Your not in sub 15:00 shape. What I find odd is that you have trouble with pace faster than threshold pace but you hammer at threshold pace 3 days per week.

Spend a few weeks working at mile pace, the. Spend 4-6 weeks working at 3k to 5k pace (varying from 1000s to 1600s), then take a few weeks to taper. That might get you to low 15:30s or high 15:20s. Repeat thT cycle a couple of times with rest and base periods mixed in after each cycle.

Don't know if that general approach will get you to sub 15:00, but I think it is the conventional way of giving you the best shot.

Xarus wrote:

yupyup wrote:

Thanks guys. 32.20 10k and 1.12 for half marathon. 4 miles easy most mornings and 8 miles easy every second day ish. 12 miles long run once a week. Threshold/hard workout 3 times a week, for instance 10x1000m threshold in 3.20 ish or fartlek run (1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 with equal jog rest). Also do a hill workout during winter (2x10x200m) but haven't done that workout in a while. Did 5x800m in 2.22 with 2 min rest a couple of weeks a go. 30 min tempo runs 5:50 pace often in the weekly schedule.

You need to be doing a bit more 3k pace work -- roughly 5k pace * .95. 6 x 800, 400 jog, 2000m time trials at 3k pace.

6x800m will be added to my training plan, thanks for replying

Simply put... It sounds like this guy either is running his easy days too hard... or he just has no footspeed.

Can't teach speed

Smoove wrote:

I have to agree with JS here. Your not in sub 15:00 shape. What I find odd is that you have trouble with pace faster than threshold pace but you hammer at threshold pace 3 days per week.

Spend a few weeks working at mile pace, the. Spend 4-6 weeks working at 3k to 5k pace (varying from 1000s to 1600s), then take a few weeks to taper. That might get you to low 15:30s or high 15:20s. Repeat thT cycle a couple of times with rest and base periods mixed in after each cycle.

Don't know if that general approach will get you to sub 15:00, but I think it is the conventional way of giving you the best shot.

Thanks! Will definitely work on my pace for shorter distances. Big room for improvement there. The big amount of threshold training is maybe due to the fact that I'm not very good at faster paces;) ..and of course that I've never been focusing on short races.

Nice to get some advices from people how knows how to get the legs moving fast.

yupyup wrote:

Coach of 5K wrote:

To clarify, the surge is the distance between 3 telephone polls. Doing this for 8 miles will hurt a lot. It will be your hardest workout of the week.

Interesting. Have been doing a similar workout (if I understand you correctly) earlier. 5-6 miles of 15 seconds hard run with 15 seconds jog rest. The pace for the 6 miles was like a tempo run, about 5:40. Very hard.

3 telephone polls will probably mean a bit longer intervalls though.

But the key difference is that the recovery pace is your regular pace. That is what makes this a gut wrenching workout. There is no slow recovery jog in between the fartleg. Your are teaching your body to "recover at pace". Then after you feel ready to surge, you go again.

What you have to do is to take your 5k time down in sections....15.30...15.15 and at last sub 15.00.

You don`t have to run 80 miles per week....so cut your mileage!

You need to run shorter maxVO2-intervals once per week.

And you need to run intervals at your threshold zon.

Try this:

monday: 6 miles , 7.00 mile pace (your distance "goal pace")

tuesday: 12-20 x 400m at 74 sec , recovery= wait easy walking until 120 beats per min ( 20 beats in 10 sec)

wednesday: 5 miles, 7.00 mile pace (or slower as you feel).

thursday: 8 miles , 7.00 mile pace (or slower as you feel )

friday: threshold intervals 4-8 x mile at 5.24 , rec= 120 bpm.

saturday: 10-12 miles 7.00 mile pace ( or slower what feels comfortable)

sunday: Restday

mostly weekly mileage of 44 miles!

Most of my runners express that they feel positive difference compared to how they trained before the very first week....Good luck!

Skip the morning runs!......just "junkmileage" that takes energy from the main single runs.