Comeback journey to sub 20 min 5 k at age 66....

You finally figured out your easy pace wasn't easy at all. Good, you learned something from the NSM thread!!

Now you can get yourself to a parkrun, there is now no snow and you can test your 5k pace. Just see how the legs are so you understand where you truely are pace wise.

of course easy pace is a indicator of performance l, so 6:28 is around 24 min pace?

Alternative “Parkrun feel” without an official event
Around Vänersborg, many runners do this on their own:
Skräcklan – Vänersborgsviken
Flat, scenic 5 km route along the water
Perfect for a self-organised “Parkrun-style” run every Saturday
Canal & Lake Vänern routes
Quiet, safe, and easy to measure distances
Good for relaxed steady runs or longer training sessions
👉 Many local runners use these as their regular “Saturday 5K” alternative to Parkrun.

That's not the case. I just had a day felt little extra tired after the very good threshold on Thursday. Zone 3 easy stedy is the way to go if you want to fast magically improve. 🧙‍♂️

You wanna train like Sirpoc, ;-)

No, that was just a fast ' pop up' idea from I got to think about my countryman Nils van den Poel and his 5 days training in the week and days off Saturday - Sunday. When I'm ready with this comeback most people have forgot Sirpoc and want to jump on the Dancan train.🇸🇪🧙‍♂️🇸🇪🏃🏃‍♀️

..

Today a faster threshold interval and 30x 1 min @ 4:35 pace, rest back to 120bpm in 30-45 sec . Felt so,so smoth today. Shape is really accelerating now......it's really look to be magic ! 🧙‍♂️: ))

After my usual Sunday off from running I today had an easy steady run 10 km @ 6:07 pace . Felt very good and good pulse. 45 min after the run my restpulse was 55 ! Ready for a fast quality run tomorrow. 🇸🇪🧙‍♂️🇸🇪

Today it was time for something fast again. I ran a maxVO2 interval 16 x 1 min @ 4:15 pace and easy walkrest back to 120bpm in 60-90 sec . The fastest I have run in this comeback in intervals . Didn't breath hard. Nice great workout and I see I have climbed another step at the shape ladder. Now at the restaurant around the gym corner eating kebab and mashed potatoes. Will soon watch the Champions League semi final ( soccer) Paris S.G - Bayern Munich . Can be a very good match. 🧙‍♂️🖐

Today ran easy steady 60 min @6:22 min pace per km. Tomorrow a threshold interval again . 🧙‍♂️

Had a 8 × 3 min threshold interval yesterday and average pace 4:48 min/ km. A good day.

Today it will be warm and sunny weather so I will run something easy outside.Nice. 🤠🖐

You are going to make it.

This forum needs more people who announce their goals and work toward them. I hereby dub thee "Freddy Lee."

Do you think you can run a full mile at this pace right now, around 6:50 low?

Yes , infact my training results now point to a sub 6:30 mile. But mainly I go for the sub 20 min 5 k goal of course. Now in shape for around 22 min 5 k . Now at most four more months to train, May to August, to be ready for the goal in latest beginning of September .

Today an easy 60 min @ 6:18 min/ km in sunny warm weather , nice. 🧙‍♂️🖐

I remain very skeptical, both of the claim of current 22 minute fitness, and more so the expectation for sub-20 later this year. You're not giving us much to go on directly, and how you actually feel in your workouts makes a big difference (but is hard to get across clearly on here), but I'm still guess 23-low would be a reach if you entered a 5k fresh and ready today. Prove me wrong, I will be excited for you and happy to be shown my ignorance!

true. impossible to know without anything resembling a predictor workout or a time trial. Even JS hasn't run competitively for over 20 years, and probably doesn't know his body as well as he thinks he does. IE, how fast you can race based off of "easy" runs, "threshold" workouts, etc.

But he's putting in solid miles and good workouts. I love to see all of it and 100% am rooting for him.

As someone who does parkrun every week I never really understood why those we are training to run a fast 5k or 5000m don’t jump in and see their fitness especially with modern running shoes.

After you run parkrun you can carry on with your workout 5 min latest after scanning your barcode and parkrun ID, it’s not like 5km really takes much out of you as you say it’s only 22 mins, and you have a great indicator of where you are right now.

heck I you to run a 10 miles hilly route to get to a parkrun and run between 5-10km pace when I got there, granted I was 30 then but it’s an aerobic event apart from the last 400-800m so it’s not that much of a biggie.

Well, I haven't coached 10 winners of bigger international races without knowing quite exactly their race shape in every moment of the training process without they had to run test races .

This we can say is only the skill of very experienced and successful coaches.

No need to open the oven to check if the buns are ready until I know they are ready ... 😁😎🧙‍♂️

but how much did you have to adjust your time trial pace at the last second on your original time trial?

your brain is telling you one thing. but when the moment comes, your gut tells the truth. And I've been there myself.

Also, you are getting more information from the runners you coach than you're getting from yourself. They've all raced in the past several months or at least within a year. You're too far off from having done it yourself to know where you are.

And that's why 26:30 happened.

I think by the time you ACTUALLY run something like a 22:30, you'll have a much better handle on what 66 year old Jan do. Until then, it can barely even be considered an "educated" guess.

No hate. You know I'm with you on this. Just giving my personal perspective.