Am currently training up for a fast 5km which is about 8 weeks away. Have a good base and now looking to get the most out of the next few weeks to bring down my 5km as much as possible. The two key weekly workouts I’ve started incorporating are 6 X 1km at slightly faster than goal 5km pace with 1min recovery and 12 X 400m with 1min recovery at estimated 1500m pace. What’s everyone’s thoughts on these two workouts in the lead up? Any suggestions or recommended changes would be great.
I think 1 min is not enough recovery for your 6 x 1km workout. 2 min would be better. That would still be a hard workout
Good call. 8 weeks of the OP's workouts, as others have said, would cook most runners. The point is to SLOWLY cook the duck by starting with longer rests--and fewer reps--and building to shorter rests. Full reps (5-6) and 1-minute rests would work best in the final 2-3 weeks. Dial one or both variables back prior to that, with 2:00 or 1:30 rests and 4-5 reps building towards the peak workout.
Basically 6 x 1K, slightly faster than goal pace, with 1 minute rests is THE goal workout and should be done no more than once, or twice, max, 10 days out from the race.