14 Weeks to get a Sub-17 5K...help me.

Your goal is to break 17:00...when you start getting closer to that goal you don't increase your quantity...you reduce quantity and focus on quality to efficiently maximize your effort. Every runner is different but I've never had to run over 50 miles a week training for a sub 17...maybe in the initial base building stage but rarely that much...after that your long run of 10-13 miles or 20% of your total mileage will sustain you well into your season. I think your at sub 17:00 right now...you just lack confidence and rest. I bet you money your start cutting over all mileage and start dropping those tempo runs to 20 minutes and under (10-15 secs off race pace), lower your speed work times (w/min rest) to under race pace and boom that sub 17 will come. Question..I have not heard anything about you doing weights? Its to late now if you have not but please tell me you have incorporating lower leg workouts at least twice a week right? Lastly towards the end of your season and closer to your peak performance goal your intervals and repetitions should start looking like your training for a 1500m. Good luck and keep your head up!

Worry about after Thanksgiving...wait for it...After Thanksgiving. Ha Ha.

I think your workouts should be medium hard or less. For the next 6 weeks your races should be all the painful work you need. Try some Fernando Mamede tempo running like some 300s in as close to 64 seconds as possible with 100 jogs in 30 seconds. 12 of these will do a lot for you; don't do more than 16 at a time under any circumstances.

BR,

I would think you could cut down on your weekly mileage some. Emphasize quality (steady) running on 1 or 2 days, tempo/workout 2 days, long run, and 2 easy days.

I think what you have been doing shows that you are capable, I would rest up a little more as some others have already mentioned.

Also I liked the idea of doing a 2mile 10:40ish.

Keep us posted.

^ doing a time trial 2 mile around 10:40-10:50 range is a great way to judge if your even there...as well being a great confidence booster and a decent workout! Good suggestion JBL

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Do more races, a mile of 3km race would be ideal otherwise keep going on those 5km's until you do it. There is no better training than races

So true - you need to actually race in order to meet your goal.

If no races, then go to the track at least every other week and do a full out time trail. I agree some 3000m races/tts will do you good.

Giving it another shot this weekend. We'll see what happens.

I went back into my running logs from a little over a year ago and tried to figure out what I did to jump from a 18:56 5K to a 18:11 over a span of a few months.

I realize that when you first start running, you are expected to make some huge gains initially before you start to plateau for a while...but I can't help but think I was doing something very specific to take that much time off such a short race.

What I found was a hard tempo of 30 minutes nearly every week, long runs of 14-16 miles, short hill repeats every other week, along with 1K repeats every other week as well. Mileage was around 60mpw.

Now, I didn't do much differently this year, except my long runs rarely went as high as 13 miles. Maybe I should start replicating this plan again.

Thanks for all of the contributions to this thread...I'll report back if I ever see 16:XX on the clock.

Sorry for one last bump. I told everyone I'd post a pdf of my training log...give me a day and I'll get it ready.

I'll just say that this yielded some very disappointing results, so hopefully we can figure out the problem and people can learn from the mistakes I've made.

Good luck! You still shaved off three seconds from your PR in your most recent race. I think it might take a couple more races to realize your potential but I think that this weekend's race may go a lot better. Keep us posted!

how bass-ackwards are you to push weights while denigrating mileage (under 50 mpw?! are you serious?!)

geez, some of the crap on here stinks to high heaven.

Really...read the post dude...I asked if he had been incorporating them throughout and stated it was two late to start now...but that I was just curious. Freaking flame and troll somewhere else.

Secondly, I am not criticizing high mileage and appropriately stated that every runner is different...with my athletes as long as they have a strong base which I encourage (also stated in the post for base building periods) to go over 50 mpw...when we transition to lower mileage/higher intensity/quality workouts throughout the competitive seasons...we have had great success in running sub 17 5ks.

Such a tantalizing thread that took me to climax and then just "poof". Wonder if he ever made it?

according to athlinks he did

read this whole thread ... wonder what happened