Is 23:30 for 5km untrained a decent time?

First off, are you a guy or a girl? I don’t think it’s a bad time untrained, but you could certainly somewhat easily lop five minutes off that with some training. Seeing the times improve as you get better is a ton of fun.

I don't know, sounds trollish with the whole fast food/healthy thing. But whatever.

What's your age, height, and weight?

And yes, you can improve. Anyone can improve with training.

I'm 20 years old, 5 ft 10, and 135 pounds. As for my diet, I tend to eat healthy but have a "cheat day" every now and then.

A 5k between 20-25 minutes indicates good fitness, sure .. but you aren’t fast until you’re breaking 12:45 in the 5k.

With your age and size I would think faster could be possible off the couch. But then again, I'm not expert on what a "sedentary" person is capable of.

Start running multiple times a week and you could see that time plummet pretty quickly. I would guess sub 20 without too much effort. Sub 18 with some specific training for 5k's. After that? Possibly quite a bit faster if you really want to put some time into it.

ki1020 wrote:

Hi everyone. First time poster here.

I ran a 23:30 5k time trial yesterday morning, without any training whatsoever. I don't exercise and would describe myself as a sedentary individual. I eat fast food every now and then, but usually cook up a healthy meal at home.

Would you say that is a good time based on my lifestyle? Could I improve significantly if I trained consistently?

Yep, it's AMAZING time. I guarantee you that in less than six months on just little more running you can easily shave off another 10 minutes!!! Keep it up!!! ... smh

Who pissed in your coffee?

No you suck, give up now.

Eat more fast food to get faster

When I was 39, I ran 17 flat 5k. Had a work injury and didn't run for 2.5 years. I did do a lot of stairmaster. I jumped in a couple 5k untrained and ran 21:30. I was pretty fit from the stairmaster. Running 7:35 pace untrained shows potential to get much faster off good training.

I doubt people without endurance training backgrounds use the words "time trial". 2/10

That is a decent time for an untrained 5K time Trial IMHO. Would have been fast enough to take 1st and 2nd in the M20-24 age group at a couple of local 5K races. I am sure with some serious training you could get it down to 17:xx range if not lower.

Pretty good for completely untrained. Do a combination of speed workouts, long runs, and easy days and you can get down to low 18s by this time next year if you train consistently. Just build up a base for a month or two and then follow an online 5k training schedule, modified accordingly. When you get to good for that, make your own.

For comparison.... wrote:

When I was 39, I ran 17 flat 5k. Had a work injury and didn't run for 2.5 years. I did do a lot of stairmaster. I jumped in a couple 5k untrained and ran 21:30. I was pretty fit from the stairmaster. Running 7:35 pace untrained shows potential to get much faster off good training.

Curious, what kind of training did you do on the stairmaster? ie, time, level & frequency? I’ve been doing the stairs lately and about 20 mi/week of walking @ work—hence too tired to run lately.

Even with just 2-3 easy runs/week he could go to sub20.

He needs to build an aerobic base first.

Out of Shape wrote:

For comparison.... wrote:

When I was 39, I ran 17 flat 5k. Had a work injury and didn't run for 2.5 years. I did do a lot of stairmaster. I jumped in a couple 5k untrained and ran 21:30. I was pretty fit from the stairmaster. Running 7:35 pace untrained shows potential to get much faster off good training.

Curious, what kind of training did you do on the stairmaster? ie, time, level & frequency? I’ve been doing the stairs lately and about 20 mi/week of walking @ work—hence too tired to run lately.

I did the regular stairmaster, not the steps. I was doing 1.5 to 2 hours a day. I eventually built up and did a 28 hour week. I maxed out the speed of the stairmaster but it was still an easy effort (120 heartrate). After that I took time off to see if it would help my injury so I wasn't doing near that much when I ran a couple races.

A massage therapist found a pinched nerve in my neck the following year and I was back running after that though I had a problem with a disk that took another 4 years to completely heal.

Hey there. Are you on facebook or instagram? I'd like to show you my base training plan, and get your opinion on it. I'd greatly appreciate it.

At age 35 I ran 22:30 5k in just my third run, and I weighed 218 pounds. I did get below 19 with additional training and weight loss.

ki1020 wrote:

Hi everyone. First time poster here.

I ran a 23:30 5k time trial yesterday morning, without any training whatsoever. I don't exercise and would describe myself as a sedentary individual. I eat fast food every now and then, but usually cook up a healthy meal at home.

Would you say that is a good time based on my lifestyle?

It's a terrible time. I'm not going to rate what it is for someone on "no training" because for one, "no training" varies greatly on the individual, and for another, I don't believe you get extra points for running a time on "no training," and I don't assume you have the willpower to begin proper training until you do it.

ki1020 wrote:

Could I improve significantly if I trained consistently?

This is a tremendously stupid question.