Sub-18 5K Tips

More mileage, jog more, some fartlek runs,hill reps and strides.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2006/09/wejo-speaks-why-i-sucked-in-college/

I went sub 18 on the back of 50-60 MPW marathon training. Daniela style. That was down from 19....

Bumping once for a little more insight on workouts, namely is there a key workout I should consider at my current level of fitness? (Aside from more mileage. I already know to work on that, but I notice it is a trend of some people to just beat new runners over the head with that. My current need is for just a pointer or two on running workout specifics, not just general ideas or "run more.")

Run more is the right answer. Running is just like everything else, if you do it more often, you’ll probably get better.

Getting better doesn't come quick and dirty, it takes a butt load of work.

That being said, mooooorrreeee miles. As I counted your doing 24 miles a week which will not allow you to improve at this point, beyond where your at (I didn't include a warm up/cool down but they are important and get you extra miles make sure you do them) As an inexperienced runner, 18:40 is actually pretty impressive, it took me until I was a junior in high school, after 3.5 years of XC and track to achieve that. So I'm guessing genetics probably favor you but PR's get tougher the lower you get.

Do less 3 mile "easy days" your basically taking off 4 days a week from running, even if you are lifting. Those should be at least 5,6,7 miles and the long run should increase then as well to probably 8-9 (do this over a month or two gradually, don't injure yourself).

Wrinkle in new types of speedwork. Fartleks and shorter repeats like 400s and 800s will help you a lot. Your 5 mile tempo pace (assuming honesty) puts you at roughly a 32:15 8k, which is usually the starting point for low level D3 college runners who ran mid 18's in HS. So your basically running race pace in your tempo run, which means you need more speed and leg turnover, to get your 5k time time

One of the athletes I coach ran sub 19 minutes in a 5K off no more than 15 miles training per week. She's 13. It's quality of miles not quantity that matters.

Dcrobertson68 wrote:

One of the athletes I coach ran sub 19 minutes in a 5K off no more than 15 miles training per week. She's 13. It's genetics not training that matters.

Fixed it.

7 miles is not a long run if you're serious about going under 18. Up the mileage to at least 40mpw with 10-12 mile long run.

I would increase the 1200m intervals and also the long run slowly. Also, I would experiment with increasing the recovery runs and seeing how your body handles.

What the OP is doing isn't actually that bad. Just keeping at it would get you there I'd say. Race a few more 5ks, and you'll whittle your time down.

Add more miles ect as people have suggested above only when youv done half a dozen 5ks and are not or stopped improving.