Predict my slow 5k, and my potential as a Hobby Jogger

Sorta hit my target! 22:26 official time, but talking to a couple others, our GPS distances were all about 0.1mi longer than 5k (I got 3.21mi, for example). Garmin/Strava think my 5k time was 21:42, close enough! 2+min improvement in ~2 months is encouraging.

Next target will be 21:00 in Nov. Looking at some pictures/video, I think I need some more glute usage and/or hip flexor flexibility. Will try to work on that, and mainly the plan for next couple months will be to ramp up from ~25mpw to ~40mpw.

And if it matters, they started the 5k

Mikey A wrote:

And if it matters, they started the 5k

Hm, post cut off. Anyway, they started the half and full marathon 5min before the 5k, same course for all three races for the first 1.6mi. We caught the slowest half and full runners after about a quarter mile and spent the next mile working through hundreds of half and full runners. Second half of our course was pretty much a ghost town for me, save for a couple people that passed as I tried to hold on for the last mile.

Congratulations, OP. You're making real progress, and you have some obvious ways to reap easy gains. You have a bright future as a hobby jogger.

Run 5-6 days per week

Slowly increase weekly mileage

And the biggest bank for your 5K buck: if you haven't already, introduce a weekly tempo run

You'll be under 20 in no time.

If your training wont go as planned just contact the great coach js. He develops runners of all levels . So far all his coached runners have improved. You find him at coachjs.se

Thank you! The plan I was using had a tempo run or two, but it wasn't consistent. I think I will start Daniels 5k plan in Phase II and use that to ramp up the mileage over those 6 weeks, since the quality days look like they won't be hard on me (easier than what I've been doing the last couple months). Phase III seems to get serious quickly, lots of tempo type stuff in there - I imagine if I don't burn out, it will be very effective in making me quicker.

Minor update: randomly decided to benchmark myself for 200m and 400m on an otherwise easy 7mi day. Ran 200m all-out, hand timed at 29s. I didn't have any more to give, and felt like I couldn't maintain pace the last 50m, but I think may have been able to go faster -- my cadence was outrageously high (for me, at leas, 220-230spm), it didn't feel good at all, like I didn't have enough time to open up my stride.

I then ran 400m a bit more restrained, focused on a longer, smoother stride with much lower cadence (190-195spm), felt much more comfortable. I was not dead at the end, and think I could have pushed a good bit more. Hand timed at 73s. I have not been doing any strides, sprints, or anything faster than maybe a 5:30/mi pace in any of my training, so my legs got pretty torn up from those two reps, ha (pretty strong DOMS in calves, hammies too, for several days).

Otherwise I've been just doing some "easy" running, although it seems to be a struggle for me to get my HR "low enough" and my perceived effort always feels a touch too hard. HR drifts from about 155 at mile 1 to 165ish after about 3 miles, and mostly levels out. For reference, my max at the recent 5k was 190 (40F ambient and overcast), and I was really struggling the last mile. Didn't quite get to the "everything is getting bright" brink of passing out, but not too far from that. I get to 195 or so during longer intervals when it's warmer out, and my lactate threshold is probably somewhere around 180bpm. I'm also at 6000' elevation, which doesn't help.

I've been doing 9:10-9:20 pace or so for these easy runs. I did one at about 10:00 pace the other day, and it really wasn't any different in terms of HR or perceived effort, but I feel better/more natural at the faster pace. I think for purposes of aerobic strength building, I will start mixing in some cycling (on a trainer), because it is much easier for me to maintain HR and effort. As for running, I think I will spend another week or two with only easy runs (45min to 1hr), maybe with some striders at the end. Any insights/thoughts appreciated.

Another minor update:

After fighting off a cold after my last post, I've been getting some consistent mileage for the last few weeks; I've been working my way through Daniels' 3rd ed. 5k-10k plan Phase 2.

Bumped up from 20-25mpw to about 43mpw, just about to finish my third week at this level. Sunday long run (~10mi), Tues and Fri track workouts, and easy days with some strides all other days, running every day.

Today was 4x200R + 3T + 4x200R, with T pace of 7:25/mi or 22:15 for the 3mi - finished in 22:08. Tough, but doable, and it's easy to imagine I could speed up a bit and hit a solid 5k PR (currently ~21:45) if I was more fresh/rested.

Daniels' plan replaced the long run a couple weeks ago with 1E + 9M (7:58/mi), and that was definitely a wake-up call - I had two 10 mile easy runs under my belt at that point, ever. Got it done at exactly the target pace, but cheated a little with a 30s rest break 2 miles before the end - that run, combined with the increased mileage, and the other long runs, seem to really be building some aerobic fitness. Easy run pace and HR have both been dropping pretty rapidly the last week or so - 10:00/mi pace a few weeks ago now has the same HR and subjective effort as about 9:00/mi this week.

I've managed to roll my ankle a few times this month (cannot feel it when I run, haven't taken any days off), and other than normal fatigue and tired legs from increased mileage, everything seems okay. I imagine in a couple more weeks I will be pretty well adjusted to the new mileage and will try to get a 5k race done to check in on progress before moving to Phase 3.

Okay, running a 5k on Saturday. Pretty flat course, mix of pavement and gravel, but plenty of turns (including one 180deg turn). Weather should be decent for the race.

Last week was the end of the Daniels 5-10k plan Phase II for me, and I know Phase III will be killer, so I'm going a little light this week and postponing the start of Phase III till next week. Did my last pre-race workout last night, took it from a McMillan plan - 3 x (3x400) with 400 jog b/n sets, and 100, 200, and 400 jog between reps on each set. The workout starts with goal 5k pace for the first set, then 2-3s per 400 faster on the next set, then another 2-3s faster for the last set.

Somewhat arbitrarily picked 21:00 for goal 5k pace (~1:41 per 400), so the targets for sets 2 and 3 were 1:38 and 1:35 respectively. Ran 1:42, 1:37, 1:32.5 for each set. Last set was tough for the last 100m, definitely well into anaerobic territory and certainly not a pace I can maintain for 5k! The first set felt pretty good (fairly aerobic), even with just 100m jog recovery - so I think there's a non-zero chance of hitting 21:00 at the race (compared to PR of 21:45 2 months ago). I'll try my best to go out at that pace and see what happens.

Doing easy 4mi today with a 5x1min fartlek in the middle, taking Thursday off, then 20min shakeout on Friday, race Saturday morning. PR would be great, but the main purpose is just to get an update on my fitness level to feed back into the JD plan, in the event that my VDOT has improved as a result of Phase II.

I hope for the best, nice to see someone doing about the same as me.

( I am twice your age, and am now at 35 miles / weeks, but I have used three years to get there, age I guess! ).

Please post your result.

If you do not feel too much progress, there is a lot of anecdotes that increased mileage kick in weeks, months and even years after your buildup.

Also: I predict 21:15

Yeah a lot of what I'm experiencing now are definitely beginner gains. I have roughly zero distance running background as a former ball sports guy (and not that serious at it either). I think the mileage has been leading to solid aerobic gains, but the anaerobic speed is progressing much more slowly. I imagine at the rate things are going now, a couple months from now I'll be all out beginner gains and having to settle into steady long term progress.

I'll be sure to post back with my time. Today's Fartlek was encouraging - a good bit lower altitude than I usually run (maybe 4500' vs 6000'+), and my heart rate dropped steadily during my cool down - it NEVER does that, at least not like it did today. HR profile was shaped like Mt Fuji instead of just a slowly increasing slope (I've been feeling fresher than I have in a long time today). Went a good bit faster than 21:00 5k pace and it felt good - so still hoping 21:00 will be possible. Tomorrow will be my first non-running day in 5+ weeks, and with just 20min easy on Friday, I think I'll be feeling great on race morning.

Official time was 20:15, but two caveats - it seems that they gave everyone a 30s bonus, because my hand timing (and a finish line video showing th clock) was at 20:45 and was accurate within one or two seconds. Second, the course was maybe 0.02-0.03mi short (they moved the start line a little closer than expected with an out-and-back style). So another 8-12s there. So I think it's fair to say that an actual 5k time would have been somewhere like 20:55-21:00. I'm pretty happy with a 45-50s PR in two months time, with 6 weeks of actual training!

One interesting thing was HR. I warmed up at a 9:00 pace and my HR hit about 170 after a little over a mile - I averaged 177 for the race and maxed at 184, when I regularly get to 190 with longer interval workouts. I was a little concerned with the warmup, but felt great during the race.

In terms of pacing/strategy, I started about 20 people back (10th overall finish) and the pack ahead of me went out WAY fast - sub 6:00-pace for sure. I let them goand went maybe 6:30-pace for the first 200m and settled in to 6:45 pace right after that. Passed a few people a quarter mile in, and felt really fresh a mile in and gradually passed a few more before mile marker 2. Didn't get any noticeable discomfort until mile two (at that point right at 6:46 pace), and started really feeling it with about 1k to go. Started accelerating the last quarter mile or so into anaerobic pace and finished pretty strong. Felt like I could have carried a bit faster pace throughout the race, but I would have been hurting a lot more afterwards and the rest if the weekend if I did so.

Anyway, mission accomplished, I will bump myself up from 45 to 47 VDOT for Phase III of the JD plan.

Oh, and for what it's worth, winner was at a much faster 16:00 or so, making it look super easy when we passed each other on an out and back section!

Nice job on the 5K. It sounds like you did it just right. I don't think you're even close to exhausting the beginner gains.

Thanks! I can imagine that after all the VO2max and threshold work in store for me the next 6 weeks, if I can survive I'll see a lot of further improvement.

One interesting thing I noticed this last week or so is that after going snowboarding ~10 days ago for the first time this season, I had a little bit of DOMS from new muscle work (I haven't done any resistance training in many months). Once it passed, my legs started feeling a lot fresher than they have in a while. The limiting factor at the race today seemed to be oxygen -- legs only really started feeling it the last 200m, heart rate was much lower than usual, but I was struggling to maintain 2-2 breathing at the end -- switched to 2-1 for the last couple minutes and got some relief.

Hopefully the I-pace work coming up helps with that, and if I'm not completely fatigued from it, I will try to start easy lifting once a week (squats, RDLs, cleans, lunges).

Good job!

I'm down at 600' (from my normal 6000') for a few days, mileage is down a good bit since my regular training schedule is hard to maintain this week due to some exhausting snowboarding early in the week and the travel schedule.

Decided to do a 3mi steady threshold tonight (by feel rather than VDOT due to elevation difference), felt great, tacked on an extra 0.11mi, ended up running a 20:45 5k... Oops! (GPS-timed, but the data looks legit). I think it was an honest threshold effort, wasn't terribly difficult, so I think I have a good bit more 5k speed left if I were to race at sea level.