Your challenge: Help me get in 5K shape in 8 weeks - Old fat slow guy

You'd probably do well by following traditional high school XC training, as many participants enter the season with no running experience. Start by running easy, and progress to workouts when you feel comfortable running. Getting in rhythm, and avoiding injuries from doing too much are your most important priorities. Don't fret too much about getting a fast time, as 8 weeks is too short to train any components of fitness.

Just start your taper now and be done with it. :)

I would say figure out how to run as much as you can without hurting yourself. Log some miles and hope for the best.

To be more specific, I would recommend running as much as you could handle- all of it easy of course. For example:

Week #

1-4: Easy

4-8: Easy, but with one/two workouts (tempos or speed-work)

Choose between tempo or speed-work by considering which one you like to do/more practical. With the short amount of time you have, what workouts you do aren't as important as the number you can get in. Remember to keep your easy days slow, and then blast your workouts.

Go to a track or closed loop on grass. Warmup a mile or so, stretch and then run 1/2 mile repeats. Don't worry too much about time at first , focus on stride length, and running form. Between each 1/2 mile do a set to failure of push-ups, sit ups, body squats, lunges, burpees or whatever body weight exercise you might think will work on a weakness. Aim for 10 1/2 mile repeats, cool down with an easy mile and stretching. Try to do this workout 2 times a week. If you get 15 of these workouts in before your big race , run easy distance the other days and drop some weight, you might surprise yourself.

oldslowguy wrote:

I suspect an all out 5K right now would be a very ugly thing, ending in a death crawl, injury and a time north of 25 minutes.

I've got some bad news: Given your age, weight, talent, and training background, we can safely say that the 25-minute corporate-5K runners will have already exchanged business cards and eaten all the granola bars by the time you cross the finish line.

But here's some good news: Some years ago, there was a guy on this site who was in his mid-fifties, weighed over sixty pounds above his old racing weight, and couldn't come anywhere close to breaking eight minutes for a single mile. With input from a number of people on this message board, and a training program consisting almost exclusively of slow runs up a nearby hill, he ran a 5K in under 18 minutes after just a few months of running and slow but steady weight loss.

But here's some more bad news: That overweight guy in his mid-fifties was Henry Rono.

But here's some more good news: You can learn from Henry's example. Stick to slow running on soft surfaces. Lose weight slowly but steadily. Ease into some uphill running if your achilles tendons can handle it, but don't even think about adding any other significant "quality" running -- that is, actual speed -- during the next eight weeks. Almost all of your improvement will come from a combination of weight loss and increased aerobic fitness, and almost all of your problems will come from getting too ambitious and picking up annoying injuries.

Neta wrote:

Go to a track or closed loop on grass. Warmup a mile or so, stretch and then run 1/2 mile repeats. Don't worry too much about time at first , focus on stride length, and running form. Between each 1/2 mile do a set to failure of push-ups, sit ups, body squats, lunges, burpees or whatever body weight exercise you might think will work on a weakness. Aim for 10 1/2 mile repeats, cool down with an easy mile and stretching. Try to do this workout 2 times a week. If you get 15 of these workouts in before your big race , run easy distance the other days and drop some weight, you might surprise yourself.

You're serious, aren't you?

I agree that if he gets in 15 of those workouts during the next eight weeks, with easy distance on all the other days, he may surprise himself. He would certainly surprise me.

By the way, what would be the purpose of focusing on stride length during those ten half-mile repeats? It's not like he's trying to get his steps down for an 800-meter intermediate hurdles race.

Thanks for all the input so far. No magic answer :-( but I didn't really expect one. To make things worse, I just took a look at the last "run" I did (Out of habit I always run with a watch but haven't been looking at the data as it's so terrible). The 3 mile run I did last week (my only run in July) was slow and I thought it was probably about 9 :30 pace, turns out it was 11:30! My god - I am in deep sh!t. The prediction above that the granola bars will be long gone is probably true. Seems like even getting to 25 mins from here is going to be a challenge in itself.

Diet and as much high intensity stuff as you can handle...

https://medium.com/the-morning-shakeout/going-long-an-interview-with-colin-mccourt-f4980cc89ad5

oldslowguy wrote:

Thanks for all the input so far. No magic answer :-( but I didn't really expect one. To make things worse, I just took a look at the last "run" I did (Out of habit I always run with a watch but haven't been looking at the data as it's so terrible). The 3 mile run I did last week (my only run in July) was slow and I thought it was probably about 9 :30 pace, turns out it was 11:30! My god - I am in deep sh!t. The prediction above that the granola bars will be long gone is probably true. Seems like even getting to 25 mins from here is going to be a challenge in itself.

I was speaking from painful experience. :)

OK, inspired by all of this I looked more closely at the GPS from my recent runs. If I take out stops for traffic & lazy-ass walking most running was 9 something pace, so not quite as bad as I thought. Further inspired by that I went for a run, and instead of running on roads where I have to stop all the time (which is a good thing given my fitness), I ran the 1/2 mile to the high school track and just ran for 5K. Started out at a reasonable pace and tried to just keep going. Ended up running it at just under 9 minute pace. So I think getting to 8 minute pace in 8 weeks in a race should be doable if I just get back to running regularly. Of course, I will probably wake up tomorrow injured.

oldslowguy wrote:

OK, inspired by all of this I looked more closely at the GPS from my recent runs. If I take out stops for traffic & lazy-ass walking most running was 9 something pace, so not quite as bad as I thought. Further inspired by that I went for a run, and instead of running on roads where I have to stop all the time (which is a good thing given my fitness), I ran the 1/2 mile to the high school track and just ran for 5K. Started out at a reasonable pace and tried to just keep going. Ended up running it at just under 9 minute pace. So I think getting to 8 minute pace in 8 weeks in a race should be doable if I just get back to running regularly. Of course, I will probably wake up tomorrow injured.

Just get yourself a walking boot and strap it on a day or two before the race.