How to run 5 km under 18 minutes.

ferrazanderson wrote:

Hello everyone. Next year I would like to hit my record in the 5km race. My best time in the 5 km is 18:05. I would like to improve this. What is the best type of training? Now I'm training to do the marathon around 3:15, it will be my first time in it. But I would like to stay faster next year to break my 5km record.

My informations:

age = 36

Best time in 5km: 18:05

Best time in the 10 km: 38:00

Best time in the 21 km: 1:23:37

Time that I run with regularity: 3 years.

I never run 1,5 km or 3 km in a competition.

best regards and sorry for bad english.

Ask to train with any high school team. My old high school team took 12 unathletic kids, and now about 15-16 of them are running from 15:40-17:30. Otherwise, train with purpose, and get in the mileage that high schoolers run, so like 55-70mpw. train to peak your anaerobic base as well.

ferrazanderson wrote:

Hello everyone. Next year I would like to hit my record in the 5km race. My best time in the 5 km is 18:05. I would like to improve this. What is the best type of training? Now I'm training to do the marathon around 3:15, it will be my first time in it. But I would like to stay faster next year to break my 5km record.

My informations:

age = 36

Best time in 5km: 18:05

Best time in the 10 km: 38:00

Best time in the 21 km: 1:23:37

Time that I run with regularity: 3 years.

I never run 1,5 km or 3 km in a competition.

best regards and sorry for bad english.

You have almost exactly the same PB at 10k and half-marathon as me and I ran just under 3 hours in the marathon (my 4th).

3:15 is a good goal for a first one though, very sensible. The key is to run enough miles, for me, that was 60-65 miles per week (approx 100 kms per week).

How much do you run currently? You definitely have the speed. With regards to the 5k...you're 5 seconds away man! Do what you've been doing, perhaps adding some miles will help your base if you don't run a lot. If you do run a lot, then more intervals may help. It's about doing a bit more of what you haven't done much of, and a bit less of what you've overdone / are a bit too comfortable with!

Best of luck to you!

Hello. I run around 80 km a week. I am training according to the benji durden training program to try to do my best in the marathon. But next year, in the first half, I would like to be faster in the 5 km.

Ps: My marathon will be on November 18th. The temperature will be hot and the course will be difficult with many hills. I'm not pretendo to do under 3 hours. 3:15 it will be good for me.

ferrazanderson wrote:

Hello. I run around 80 km a week. I am training according to the benji durden training program to try to do my best in the marathon. But next year, in the first half, I would like to be faster in the 5 km.

Ps: My marathon will be on November 18th. The temperature will be hot and the course will be difficult with many hills. I'm not pretendo to do under 3 hours. 3:15 it will be good for me.

Sounds very reasonable. Best of luck! If you're running 80 km/wk now, and your marathon is in a month, it's too little time to change much. Next time, perhaps try to run up to 90-100 km per week, and you have a very realistic shot at sub 3.

Then next year, as you suggest, try and get faster in the 5k perhaps by running fewer miles but adding back some intervals, such as 1000m, 800m, 400m repeats at 3:35-3:36 min per km (5k pace) or a bit faster!

thank you very much! i will report about this marathon. as i said, it will be my first marathon!

best regards from brazil!

Turning 12 kids in to 15-16 kids is very impressive, and about as realistic as having 16 kids under 17:30. It is very unlikely that your high school was able to do this.

Simple. Build you mileage up for a year, including variety such as fartlek, tempo, long intervals, hills, and speed/sprint. Then with 10 weeks before your big race start decreasing the volume a bit but start adding a bit more interval training. With 4 weeks to go decrease volume a bit more.

The main thing with the 5K is training mileage. The long run is key and 4 X Mile repeats are essential. If you are a rookie your long run should increase by a mile every 2 weeks until it reaches around 12-16 miles.

Read books and articles about training. Learn race strategy...do not go out like a bat out of hell.