How to gain one minute for 5k?

May I ask why do you want to become faster over 5km?

You don't seem to be motivated by distance running. You don't seem to need it for your handball career neither.

You seem motivated by the desire to compete with your girlfriend in her own sport? Why? Don't you think that it's a remnant of toxic masculinity? There is no shame to be outrun by a good female runner and you shouldn't feel the need to dominate her over every sport.

You are probably taller, quicker and stronger with your sport. Do you really need to equal her on distance running to feel like the man in your relationship?

Do you really need to spend a lot of times in a complicated training plan on top of your other sport for something that you don't really need or want?

Don't you think you could "grow up" a little and accept the situation as perfectly fine and well?

literally just run like 5 miles everyother day

not too hard and suddenly it'll be easy

That's such a beta male post.

Maybe Lukas is an alpha or maybe he know his woman wants an alpha and wants someone in perfect shape.

EPO

A trip to Kenya might help ...

Or in the United States.

if you really want to gain a minute and don't want to put in the work and have to money to spare just buy some vaporflies. 20:00 = 1200, 4% of 1200 is 48 seconds. Get yourself in a good race and you can make this a minute

The Vaporfly is so 2019.

Now the ASICS and Adidas have by far surpassed the american shoes.

If you want to improve, you'll need to put in the work for it. It doesn't just happen because you want it to.

HM = Half marathon Pace aka Tempo pace, correct you can either run 20 min or 4x6min 1"

To run faster you must train.

1. Speed -> Hills / Short Reps

2. Speed Endurance -> Tempo / Long reps

3. Endurance -> Long & Easy running

Why no Hills or Speed for you:

Hills or short track repeats (like 200-400m ) are done to improve Speed.

Handball, Tennis, Basketball, Squash have a similar effect, so you dont need this speed work.

This is why you should do one Tempo workout or Tempo Intervall Workout

So 20 min Tempo or 4x6 1" HM Pace

And 1 Long Run per week as extra to your speed (handball)

It's easy to gain a min. Stop running and walk or rest for one min right before the finish line. When the minute is almost over start moving again. Test this out a few times before attempting so you can account for the time it takes to cross the finish line after resting. Problem solved.

Simple question:

Why not train with the girl if she is better than you? You would improve and share some good moments together.

If you want to get better, jog with her as many times as you can. You'll get a decent amount of speed training from handball. You just need to run more. If you jog for 30 - 50 min everyday after handball practice, you'll improve a ton. Ultimately though, its ok for her to always be way better than you. She is a runner, and if you don't love running, that is ok. Most good female runners are faster than average male athletes from other club sports, so don't let this get to your head.

Thank you for all the replies.

I started today the training and I did the 25 minutes tempo at the pace you advised me trying to hit the pace of 4 minutes 20 seconds per km. It felt very hard to keep up the pace with the wind in the face. I did 2km warm up and 2km to go back to home slowly after taking my breath.

My motivation is not to compete with her per se. I just want to look better, stronger in her eyes, to appear more well rounded athletically. I am weaker than I thought, she seemed to think I would do better over the 5k even though she did not criticize. I can sprint, jump, lift better than I can run endurance.

I target overall fitness, being more complete. I don't want to do half marathon or marathon like her. Maybe it would help to get a little less tired in a match too.

Next time she disrespect you, remind her who you are.

Grab gently her hair and give her a pat on the butt.

And then challenge her to a deadlift or a sprint to say that you expected her to do better.

Run more.

But don't increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% from one week to the next.

Also, your English is pretty darn good! Have you had it for many years in school? You play handball, so it is fair to guess you are in Europe. At least Europe has many nice trails and tow-paths where you can run. I always have great routes planned out when I am over there (especially SW Germany).

p.s. Ignore people who down-voted you. You are smart to add some cardio-training to all the other stuff you do. Keep it up!

Hi, it's me, I'm the 5k problem it's me...

A good resource:

runnersworld.com

Solving the 5K Puzzle

An effort-based route to success

Link:www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a2080685...

I think you can crush her time if you either follow this plan or just volume-load and do some of the workouts mentioned by other posters--some people thrive on just volume (80 mpw) and then race well. Others need intervals and hills.

I knew a female who ran 18:25 on 80 mpw in Cleveland--she was a well-known XC coach east of CLE and she told me she trained on just EZ volume and a few tempos.

I was about to mock you for linking Runner's world here, but surprisingly it was a good read.
I expected noob advices like 30/30 or irrelevant things like most of their sh*itty articles, but it was a nice description of why we do what we do. It will probably help him more to understand what he should do than just pushing a list of workout he won't understand and will try to do without any proper build.