5k workouts for beginners

colder and wiser wrote:

For beginners, I wouldn't have started with intervals, but you're basically doing it right by picking something doable, then increasing the challenge a bit the next time.

What I'd recommend, and what you can add on top of your current progression, is a tempo run. I made a lot of progress as a beginner by starting at 5 minutes at a manageably fast pace, then adding 2 minutes each week. Eventually I had to break it up into 2-3 segments with a short jog rest in between, then back to 2 segments, and then I managed a continuous 20-minute tempo run.

You'll see lots of different approaches to tempo runs, and they're all worth trying at some point. Figuring out how to get to 20 minutes at roughly your 5K pace + 25-30 seconds/mile will give you a great starting point for all the other variations.

Great post, good to see LRC being serious on some of the more recent threads. For beginners, this is solid! My fiancee is expressing interest in her first 5k (walking/jogging), and although she won't do interval work, some tips here can help me design a beginner plan for her. Plus I want to get her involved into a local run/walk club in Central Ohio.

I love the honest posters on here. And who knows, a lot of guys claiming to be sub-16 might not have the life experience or other things get in the way of running, etc.

My best is only 18:33 and that was 14 years ago at age 24, and I am in NO shape to hit that right now. I think I could go sub-21 MAYBE even with solid 3:15 marathon fitness. I hate the 5k and am more of a marathon runner.

I am loving the long run--it's a fast, steady way to get fit (force-multiplier on many levels).

coach wrote:

Good for you for recognizing that you went out too fast and for making corrections on the fly.

Your thinking is correct and now you need to put those thoughts into practice and start off more conservatively and be more patient. You've come too far to let your ego get in the way. Take a short break you've earned it.

Thanks, I appreciate the continued advice on this topic. I realize at this point this thread is not the most exciting, but I think it might be useful once I make it to decent shape to document the process

1/20: 4.14 mile run (9:33 pace) started this run within minutes after the post saying I wouldn't run that day lol

1/21: 2.92mi run (9:07 pace) am / 4.22mi run (10:07 pace) pm

1/22: 1.08mi warmup,

800m @ 7:03 pace, 400m jog

800m @ 7:03 pace, 400m jog

800m @ 7:03 pace, 400m jog

800m @ 7:03 pace, 200m walk

400m @ 6:58 pace, 400m jog

400m @ 6:58 pace, 400m jog

400m @ 6:58 pace, 400m jog

400m @ 6:58 pace

this workout felt perfect. The first 800m felt trivially easy . Got harder as it went on but never felt punishing. The 200m walk between the last 800m and the 400s was perfect reset

Difficulty felt like: 2, 4, 6, 7 for the 800s then 6, 4, 5, 7 for the 400s

1/23: 6.5mi beach run (9:40 min pace)

1/24: 1.33mi warmup

5km hard (7:20 pace)

1.61mi cooldown

Actually ran a PR yesterday as a workout. First time running sub 23 minutes for the 5k(22:47), taking about 45 seconds off my TT a month ago from 12/26 -> 1/24 .

The time itself wasn't earth shattering but I was amazed at how easy it felt. I wasn't even sure if I was up to a workout yesterday, and decided to just start with 1mi @ 7:30 and see how I felt after that. The first km actually felt pretty bad but I started feeling better towards the mile and just felt better and better as I went, picking up the pace slightly every km. It really felt easier than many of the workouts I've done recently and wonder if I could actually be in shape to break 22 within the next month.

I've been adding a beach run once a week to my workout which I think has been a great addition. I run in shoes, but right down on the sand at the edge of the water as the tide is going out.

I generally find it hard to run slower than around 9 minute pace unless I'm on the treadmill,. if I stop paying attention to my pace I will just resort to that pace naturally, which is a bit faster than I need to be running on recovery days. The beach helps slow me down without thinking about it because of the squishy sand. It seems to work the legs slightly differently than other surfaces but it's very low impact. It's also very peaceful almost meditative.

I want to try focusing on a few things next:

(1) getting in some short intervals 200s and 300s at faster than mile pace (630 and faster) What I noticed in my 5k run yesterday is that it was not taxing on my cardio stamina. I was not breathing heavy at the end and felt I could have run another hour at my cruising pace(9min) without any trouble aerobically. However I did feel like some "premonitions of pain" in my quads that never turned into any actual pain. Right after stopping it felt like my legs were about to spasm and cramp up, so that's part of why I went right into a brisk cooldown.

I think my speed is underdeveloped and thinking I will make an intermediate goal of breaking 6 in the mile before going for my sub 20 5km.

(2) adding some 4-6 mile steady runs around 8 minute pace. I think this pace range has been neglected by me since I am either jogging or doing intervals at sub 5k pace most of the time lately. I don't know what my 10k pace is, since I have never run a TT or 10km race. Best time on my watch is 53:02 from some progression run a few weeks ago but I feel I should be able to go sub 50 or close to that 8 minute pace at this point.

(3) more longer slow runs 6-8 mile runs close to 10 minute pace, as singles or doubles depending on my work schedule. This was already in my plans last week butwant to continue working it in

Exciting or not, it motivates you. We don't need to read it if it bores us.

Years ago when I was a bit out of shape I told my students about my plans to change my diet and exercise routine. I believe sharing it with them held me accountable and motivated me.

If this motivates you and helps with accountability great. Keep on sharing.

I just read through the entire thread.

Keep posting man. Like the guy above me said, if people don't care to read it they don't have to.

I'm impressed with your ability to keep at it. Do you have any training partners or is everything on your own?

Also, what has your weekly mileage been lately?

Thanks guys. Yea I do think it helps to type it out. Mileage is 40 per week. My weight has plateaued the past couple months but body composition is improving from the past couple months of consistent lifting. I'm just a hair under 160 at 5'7 so still very overweight by running. I standards. And just in general if you think about it.

If I think about Floyd Mayweather he was 5'8 and fighting at sub 130 in his early years. Am I stronger than Floyd Mayweather was in 2001? Of course not. Which means I'm probably still carrying 30+ of flab, even if I want to keep building upper body strength. I know there is a difference between strength and mass, and that Floyd actually looked very small back then probably smaller than I want to look like but that's kind of beside the point.

I also think about it like, if I lost 30 lb of fat (which I'm not going to do) that would be like 20% of my bodyweight. If that happened instantanously, would that mean I could also run 20% faster at the same effort?

That would mean my 5k effort at 7:20 pace (8.2 mph) would be equivalent to 8.2 x 1.2 = 9.84 mph or basically 19 flat if I magically lost 30lb of fat before running and kept 100% of my muscle mass. I'm not sure if it really works like that but it would kinda make sense and would explain why so many high school guys in that weight range can run around 18-20 in their first season or two whereas it will take me longer to reach that

1/25: 5.90 mi @ 9:18 min/mi

1/26: 3.8 mi @ 10:00 min/mi (am), 3.6mi @ 9:17 min/mi (pm)

1/27: Short distances workout

400m fast, 400m jog, 300m fast, 500m jog, 300m fast, 500m jog, 200m fast 200m jog

did three sets of this with 2-3 minutes walking in between sets

ran the 400s around 6:35 pace, 300s around 6:25 pace, 200 around 6:20 pace

pretty easy workout aerobically, felt like I could do another set of this easily but I was afraid of pulling a leg muscle so I just stopped after 3 sets. Nice change of pace and between all the jogging and warmup/cooldown it added up to over 7 miles on my feet and 3600m of quality work at or below my mile pace

yea that speed workout felt easy aerobically but it still left me really sore the next couple days. glad I didn't do any more volume

1/28: 4.55mi @ 9:54 pace

1/29: 6.3mi @ 9:45 pace

1/30: 1mi wu

1k @ 6:58 pace. 600m jog

1k @ 6:58 , 600m jog

500m @ 6:58 pace , 600m jog

500m @ 6:58 , 300m jog

3 minute walk

1k @ 6:58, 600m jog

500m @ 6:58, 600m jog

500m @ 6:58

this workout felt hard basically every step after the 2nd 1k felt hard. On paper it doesn't seem much harder than the 7:03s workout from last week but this felt way harder and harder than my 5k effort last week too. Not sure what it was but I'm glad I finished it strong and kept my form up throughout.

Thinking about my next workout trying something like: 1mi (7:30?), 1k (7:00?), 400m (6:30?) and trying to do two sets of that. Might be a stretch but we'll see.

Training has been derailed somewhat by lingering pain in my pelvic area. Have had some discomfort there during the first mile or so of runs for a couple weeks, usually the day after a workout. It normally went away during the recovery runs and then by the next workout was gone.

However now it has built up to mild pain which persists during the entire run and discomfort walking. Very discouraging because it seems this kind of thing can potentially lead to a very serious and long-lasting injury. I have begun seriously cutting back on mileage for now including my first total rest day since Labor Day. Today I tried jogging very slowly on the treadmill and the discomfort was still there completely. I will most likely be taking tomorrow off again and looking into stretches or other methods to prevent this from turning into a real injury.

I had even taken today and tomorrow off from work and planned to get a long 2hr run in tomorrow, that will definitely NOT be happening and I'm kind of considering just working instead because it's difficult for me to sit around and not run at this point it has become part of my regular schedule.

1/31: 7mi @ 9:23 pace

2/1: 4:65mi @ 9:47 pace (cut short by pain)

2/2: -

2/3: 2mi @ 10:31 pace (pain wasn't stopping even at this sluggish pace so figured it was better to quit)

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately you learned a hard lesson than pain is a sign and if you dont listen to your body it results in greater pain and injury.

Rest a bit, back off until you're fully healed and please listen to your body.

A large percentage of runners get injured but compared to other sports the injuries are not as debilitating.

That sucks about the pelvic pain. I've had the same and thought it was then end of my running. I took it easy and ran slow on trails for a couple of months, and it has never recurred. I'm enjoying reading your posts. I'm currently at 23 low on 5K but recovering from Covid, so that has thrown a wrench in the works...

Old and slow wrote:

That sucks about the pelvic pain. I've had the same and thought it was then end of my running. I took it easy and ran slow on trails for a couple of months, and it has never recurred. I'm enjoying reading your posts. I'm currently at 23 low on 5K but recovering from Covid, so that has thrown a wrench in the works...

Glad to hear you worked through something similar. How was COVID? Did you have a rough case, how are you feeling now and how did it impact your training?

Yesterday (2/4) I did another 3 mile jog around 10 min pace and it felt okay, but not normal. Today I was feeling about the same if not worse in the morning and getting frustrated.

But I realized a "cheat code" today that seemed to work really well. I noticed the real pain seems to start around 9 minute pace or faster, with discomfort ramping up steadily from 11 min - 9 min pace. Below 11/12 minute jogging there is really no pain and feels the same as walking.

So what I realized is that I can go on the treadmill, ramp up the incline and jog at 11-12 minute pace with no discomfort and still getting a decent workout. Put in around 4 miles today around 11:30 pace with the incline up to 6%. This didn't feel hard but definitely felt like good exercise and my heartrate was up in the 170s. Going to experiment with this in the next few days and see what pace/incline works best. Also planning on visiting a doctor next week and getting an expert opinion.

BILL SLOWSKY wrote:

Glad to hear you worked through something similar. How was COVID? Did you have a rough case, how are you feeling now and how did it impact your training?

.

I was double vaccinated (so were all the other people I know who got the damn thing), but it still knocked me down pretty hard. Fever and aches for a couple of weeks, coupled with wheezing cough and shortness of breath. Also just want to sleep ALL THE TIME. It's been 20 days since the onset now and I'm starting to run again. Fell more de-trained than anything. I've got a marathon scheduled for next weekend and I'm not feeling all that good about it. But, what the hell? Maybe the Covid taper is just what I needed...? I'm going to treat it as a hard training run and go up to Fort Collins, CO in May for a proper try.

I'll keep watching your progress and may try some of your workouts. You are right in my ballpark speedwise it appears.

I forgot to mention something. When I got the pelvic / groin pain, I started doing barbell squats again and I was shocked by how much hip strength I had lost from running and not lifting. I progressed these to a moderate level (205lbs for 5 reps, but I'm oldish). This coincided with my pain going away, but since I had also slowed the running pace a bit it is hard to say what caused what. Good luck.

Good luck! let me know how it goes next weekend. I also noticed some major loss in muscle mass and strength since I stopped liting then started running and shedding weight. Many of my lifts had gone down to less than 50% of what they use to be. However they are coming back extremely quickly after only a couple months, though not to what they had been yet.

It's been a week since this pelvic pain derailed my training. Two weeks ago I was at 43mpw and this week I'm at 19.2 if I don't do anything today (already lifted today). I've just been putting in 2-4 miles a day on a steep incline treadmill, jogging at whatever pace I can to avoid the pain. Yesterday that was 11 minute pace at 6% incline. It does feel like a good workout and tire me out, but it's not the same as real running and I don't think it is progressing towards my goals.

The stretching and rest seems to be helping, but only very slowly. I would say itonly feels about 10-20% better than it did a week ago, but I guess it's moving in the right direction.

Still basically injured. I have been sick for the past week and injured for 2.5 weeks at this point. I started feeling good the past couple of days, with no pain in my waist (probably from chugging cough syrup like a rapper) and put in a couple days of 5-6 miles per day around 9:30 pace then ran 5km at 8min pace yesterday just to see what it felt like. I think that was overdoing it unfortunately.and without the dayquil (which contains acetaminophen) my waist still hurts. When I take some it goes away, along with my congestion lol .

Guess I will take it easy another week of jogging 10-11min miles and see where that brings me

alright I'm finally back in action and ready to keep working towards my goals.

First real workout in 3 weeks and I did a 5km time trial in 22:39, beating my old 5km PR by 8 seconds. Started out at 7:30 pace for a half mile to see if I felt any pain, didn't, and slowly ramped up speed to around 7:08 pace by the 2mi mark. The last mile was really tough and I slowed down a little bit towards the end, chest cramped up in the last 400m but held on.

This was basically run on pure guts i had already lifted a few hours before and just eaten a chipotle steak and cheese sandwich about 90 minutes before the run LOL I normally don't eat for 4 hours before running. I wanted to give it my all though as long as there wasn't any waist pain and prove to myself I hadn't lost anything from the time off. It felt so good to see that time and I actually got a "runners' high" during my cooldown which was neat.

Will come back tomorrow and fill in the details of my training log lately, the past couple days I have been ramping up with steady runs and mileage

Bill, hopefully you learned an important lesson. Slow down, don't be too aggressive or else you'll get hurt again. Be conservative gaining back your fitness.