Does going sub 20 in the 5k take any degree of talent for a female?

There was a post earlier about how someone suspected I may be a bit burned out. I may have to agree so I'm spending the rest of this week doing 30 min or less easy runs with no workouts. A recovery week if you will.

On monday I'm going to continue training. My month will look something like this. How does it look to you guys?

Week 1

Mon- 4 miles easy

Tues- 8x800 at 3:45 per 800

Wed- 4 miles easy

Thurs- Tempo run (3-4 miles at 7:45-8:05 pace) or 12 x 400 (1:45 pace)

Friday- 5 miles easy

Sat- Off

Sunday- Long run 8-10 miles

Week 2

Mon- 4 miles easy

Tues- 3 miles easy then 3 miles progression (starting at 9:00 pace - ending at 7:00 pace)

Wednesday- 3.5 miles easy

Thursday- 4 miles easy

Friday- 8x800 at 3:45 per 800

Sat-off

Sunday- Long run 8-10 miles

Week 3

Mon- 4 miles easy

Tues- 4 mile tempo

Wednesday- 4 miles easy

Thursday- 5 miles easy

Friday- 10x800 at 3:45 pace

Sat- off

Sunday long run 8-10 miles

Week 4

Monday- 4 miles easy

Tuesday- 6 mile fartlek

Wednesday- 5 miles easy

Thursday- 5x1 mile repeats at 7:25 pace

Friday- 4 miles easy

Sat- off

Sunday - Long run 8-10 miles

400-800 repeated when at 120bpm or less btw.

Did time trails recently so I know I'm in 6:35mile/23 min 5k shape right now. Will do another time trail after a month.

Over the next 2 months i will be turning my 30 mile weeks into 40 mile weeks by extending my easy runs and my long runs. Adjusting the length of my intervals in contrast. By the time I'm at 40MPW I aim to be doing 15-20x800 repeats.

Yezzy wrote:

Over the next 2 months i will be turning my 30 mile weeks into 40 mile weeks by extending my easy runs and my long runs. Adjusting the length of my intervals in contrast. By the time I'm at 40MPW I aim to be doing 15-20x800 repeats.

*400 sorry

I aim to be around 13x800 by the time I'm at 40MPW.

How long did it take you to break the equivalent 18min 5km this thread is about?

The 4 miles easy, 5 miles easy days are at odds with the idea of increasing weekly mileage ( which most who have replied think you need to do). I would increase the easy days to 1 hour to 75 mins, 6 to 7 miles, more eventually. If you run easy enough you should still feel fine on workout days. On workout days do a long easy warm up, 2 miles at first then some strides.

Darkwave I think said try reversing your 5k splits, ok but also learn what dead even running feels like. Someone said a 5k tempo of 23.30 to 45 - good idea, run even splits right from the first 200 and feel what it's like to gradually increase effort over the course of 5k to keep running even splits.

The other thing I would say is make the workouts shorter in volume. 4 x 800 instead of 8 x 800. The elite runners I know only do 8 x 400 with a 200 float etc. Build up volume by increasing easy days, warm ups and cool downs, not by increasing volume of "intensity".

Stop doing any kind of 400m or 800m workouts. For the next 3 months focus on doing more of these:

- Tempo runs: starting at 3miles and building up to 6 miles in a period of 4-6 weeks. Your tempo pace should be around 13-15secs slower (per mile) than your current 5k pace

- Threshold mile repeats: start with 3x1mile, and build up to 3x2miles, going though 1,1,1,1, 2,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1, 2,2,1. Your pace should be 8-10 secs slower (per mile) than your 5k pace

- Running long hills

Use your HR monitor to make sure the paces are about right.

Add back your 400m workouts 4 weeks before a race, otherwise don't bother to run faster than 5k pace for 3 months.

Yezzy, I will marry you even if you don't go sub 20.

Another giver of +1 wrote:

The 4 miles easy, 5 miles easy days are at odds with the idea of increasing weekly mileage ( which most who have replied think you need to do). I would increase the easy days to 1 hour to 75 mins, 6 to 7 miles, more eventually. If you run easy enough you should still feel fine on workout days. On workout days do a long easy warm up, 2 miles at first then some strides.

Darkwave I think said try reversing your 5k splits, ok but also learn what dead even running feels like. Someone said a 5k tempo of 23.30 to 45 - good idea, run even splits right from the first 200 and feel what it's like to gradually increase effort over the course of 5k to keep running even splits.

Noted. I'll keep the workouts where they're currently at then. My easy runs right now are about 35-45 mins. I'll focus on making them an hour lomg each over the next couple of months.

I was going to try her idea on my tempo runs. I normally go out faster in the first mile by default on the tempos but I'm going to focus on opening my tempos at 8:00 pace and closing at about 7:30- instead of it being the other way round.

JustAnotherRunner wrote:

Stop doing any kind of 400m or 800m workouts. For the next 3 months focus on doing more of these:

- Tempo runs: starting at 3miles and building up to 6 miles in a period of 4-6 weeks. Your tempo pace should be around 13-15secs slower (per mile) than your current 5k pace

- Threshold mile repeats: start with 3x1mile, and build up to 3x2miles, going though 1,1,1,1, 2,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1, 2,2,1. Your pace should be 8-10 secs slower (per mile) than your 5k pace

- Running long hills

Use your HR monitor to make sure the paces are about right.

Add back your 400m workouts 4 weeks before a race, otherwise don't bother to run faster than 5k pace for 3 months.

Also noted. I'll swap my 400/800 repeat workouts for more mile repeat workouts over the next month then build up to two the month after.

Part of my initial plan was to lengthen my tempos anyway. Within a month i hole to get them to 4.5 miles avg (they're currently at 2.75-3.5 miles). I'm going to go for a short run now and then make a new workout plan.

Yezzy wrote:

Yezzy wrote:

Over the next 2 months i will be turning my 30 mile weeks into 40 mile weeks by extending my easy runs and my long runs. Adjusting the length of my intervals in contrast. By the time I'm at 40MPW I aim to be doing 15-20x800 repeats.

*400 sorry

I aim to be around 13x800 by the time I'm at 40MPW.

Wow. I wouldn't dream of doing 13x800 on such small weekly mileage. If you have completed anything similar before without being completely drained, I suspect that you were doing them too slowly...to the point of the 800 repeats being ineffectual. Or perhaps you're taking too much rest between 800's.

6x800 or 4x1200 is what I'd recommend, building up to 3x1 mile, and ultimately 4x1 mile. Pacing should be somewhere between the pace of your current 5k shape and your current 4-mile shape. For rest, I would work down from 2 minutes to 1.5 minutes.

Just got back from a 90 min bike ride (decided to do that instead of min today).. Okay so my ten week plan to build from 30 to 40 MPW looks a little like this...

Week 1:

Mon- 5 miles easy

Tues- 1 mile warm up - 6x800 (3:40-3:45 splits) - 1 mile cool down

Wednesday- 4 miles easy

Thursday- 1.5 mile warm up - 4x1200 (5:30 per split)

Friday - 4 miles - 1.5 mile cool down

Sat- rest

Sun- long run 8 miles

Total weekly milage 28

Week 2:

Mon- 5 miles easy

Tues- tempo (3.5 miles 7:40-8.00 pace) - 1 mile warm up/1mile cool down

Wednesday- 4 miles easy

Thursday- 1.5 mile warm up - 4x1200 (5:30 splits) - 1.5 mile cool down

Friday - 5 miles easy

Sat- off

Sunday- long run 8 miles

Total weekly milage 34

Week 3:

Mon- 5 miles easy

Tues- progression run (mile 1: 9:30 pace / mile 2: 9:00 pace / mile 3: 8:30 pace / mile 4: 8:00 pace / mile 5: race pace)

Wed- 5 miles easy

Thurs- 4.5 miles easy

Fri- 4 mile tempo

Sat- off

Sun- long run 9 miles

Total weekly milage 32

Week 4:

Mon- 6 miles easy

Tues- 1.5 mile warm up - 5x1200 (5:30 splits) - 1.5 mile cool down

Wed- 5 miles easy

Thurs- 5 miles easy

Fri- 1 mile warm up - 3x1 mile repeats (7:30) - 1 mile cool down

Sat- off

Sun- long run 9 miles

Total weekly milage 35

Week 5:

Mon- 4 miles easy

Tues- off

Wed- 4 mile tempo run

Thurs- 6 miles easy

Fri- 1 mile warm up - 6x800 at 3:40 pace - 1 mile cool down

Sat- off

Sun- long run 9 miles

Total weekly milage 28

Week 6:

Mon- 6 miles easy

Tues- 1 mile warm up - 3x1 mile (7:30pace) - 1 mile cool down

Wed- 5 miles easy

Thurs- 6 miles easy

Friday- 1 mile warm up - 8x400 (1:40 splits) - 1 mile cool down

Sat- off

Sunday- long run 9 miles

Total weekly milage 36

Week 7:

Mon- 5.5 miles easy

Tues- 1.5 mile warm up - 5x1200 (5:30 pace) - 1.5 mile cool down

Wed- 3.5 miles easy

Thursday 7 miles easy

Fri- tempo run 4 miles

Sat- off

Sunday- long run 9.5 miles

Total weekly milage 35

Week 8:

Mon- 6 miles easy

Tues- 6 miles easy

Wed- 4.5 mile tempo

Thurs- 5.5 miles easy

Fri- 1 mile warm up - 4x1 mile repeats (7:30 pace) - 1 mile cool down

Sat- off

Sunday- 9 mile long run

Total weekly milage 37

Week 9:

Mon- 6 miles easy

Tues- 5 mile fartlek

Wed- off

Thurs- 4.5 miles easy

Fri- 4.5 miles tempo

Sat- off

Sun- 10 mile long run

Total weekly milage 30

Week 10:

Mon- 7 miles easy

Tues- 5 miles easy

Wed- 1 mile warm up - 6x800 (3:45 pace) - 1 mile cool down

Thurs- 6 miles easy

Friday- 1.5 mile warm up - 5x1000m (4:45 splits) 1.5 mile cool down

Sat- off

Sun- 10 mile long run

Total weekly milage 40

*instead of run

Fartleks are a great mental break from hammering out intervals on the track. Find a trail and do 3 min on 2 off x 6 to 8 . If you don't feel good keep the recovery a jog, if you feel ok, keep the recovery uptempo. I typically pick an undulating trail or grass and go by effort. 10k EFFORT on and HM effort off. If you run with a friend, you can catch back up during the recovery phase.

Do more tempo runs.

Your pace is much better than your 5k time so you need to practice holding it. I ran 21.15 this month, and best mile at this fitness is 6.27.

Your mile is quicker, and 5k slower.

How did you do that w/o getting hurt? I think I can do more speedwork but am building base.

I'm 5'2'' and 150 but am trying to get faster.

When you ran the 1/2 were you brute-forcing the entire half or picking it up at the end?