5k workouts for beginners

In response to your above post - not every workout should be a test.

You shouldn't be going all-out in workouts. If you can't hit a desired pace in a workout, that's fine.

Training is about working the correct energy systems and accumulating fitness over months and years of purposeful running.

Leave your all-out efforts for races. You'll find that this is a far more sustainable approach that reduces the chances of burnout, injury, disinterest and form slumps.

Hi Bill - Just discovered your posts, congratulations on your terrific improvements and all that you've accomplished already. You remind me of a guy who started running next to me on a rural road in Colorado - we were running 6:xx mile pace - and we became friends and ran together. One day he stunned me by telling me he'd weighed 100 lbs more when he started, and had trouble even walking around the block once at first. What dedication! Obviously started out more out of shape than you did, but your loss of 50 lbs and the improvements you've made already in running are fantastic.

At first, this rapid improvement and testing yourself are very exciting and motivating but I think 5k Coach's response is very good. It is easy to increase training stress so fast that one gets injured/sick/fatigued/stale/burned out, etc... A few tips in my way of expressing them, very related to 5k Coach's post:

- Think of training as a stimulus you are doing to produce a goal response. The toughest stimulus (intensity, duration, etc...) is not necessarily always the way to produce the best response.

- Think long-term: gradual increases in training stimuli, and giving yourself plenty of time to adapt is fine. Best long-term progress might happen by minimizing setbacks.

- Body fat does make a difference and, at first, after losing 50 lbs, it is too easy to gain weight back. One trick is to stabilize at the new weight for quite a while, so your body becomes used to it, your eating habits sustain it, etc.. At that point, you can gradually lose more body fat if you need to. (the rule of thumb that each extra pound of body fat translates to 2 seconds more per mile works fairly well for me...)

- Although it may be less obvious immediately, training volume makes a lot of difference. If you can *very gradually* build up to higher mileage - perhaps 70 miles per week - over the course of the next few years, this will help a lot in the long term. But most of that mileage (80-90% according to polarized training studies) should be at very easy pace that does not wear you out/break you down. Even the remaining hard training does not have to be as hard as some of what you've done (such as frequent all-out 5k time trials), which is likely more training stress than you need for optimum adaptation and improvement.

- Like most activities, at first one can make fast and stunning improvements but after a while, the rate of progress slows - don't let that discourage you! Just assume that improving your pace by 15 seconds per mile when you've broken 20:00 for 5k might be at least as difficult as improving your pace by 1:00 when you started - it's as good an accomplishment, and you can do it if you stick with it for the long haul and give yourself sufficient recovery, including some planned easy days/off days, and even some planned easy weeks.

Wishing you great continued (and especially long-term!) success with this!

I have been thinking about the replies on here lately and decided to slow down a bit for the next few weeks. I felt good after that hard workout last Friday, but the next day I was trying to deadlift in the gym and realized my legs were shot and shaking at weights that the week before were quite smooth and comfortable. I will be taking a week long trip 13-20th of August so until I get back from that at least I plan to ease off my workouts and just run for fun. I have some fun easy workouts in mind based around threshold pace but overall I think I'll benefit from just relaxing and cruising for the most part.

Also occursed to me today that trying to increase my easy pace was the biggest mistake of all, and a pointless excercise to try to run my easy pace based on what JD or another calc says.

7/30 off

7/31: 5mi @ 9:18

8/1: 6mi @ 8:24 (no point in running easy runs at this pace unless it's accidental)

8/2: 6.2mi @ 9:06 (natural actually easy pace)

8/3: 3.2mi @ 9:07 // easy intervals

0.5mi wu 800x5 + 1k with 400m slow jogging recovery, 1mi?cd

intervals were 600m at 7:30 pace last 200m at ~6:12 pace, last interval did 800m at the 7:30 pace to round out the 5km.

8/4: 4mi @ 8:47

8/5: 3.5mi @ 9:21 // tempo run

0.5mi wu, 4mi @ 7:08, 0.5mi cd

both workouts this week felt comfortable. one today was faster than planned but I did not feel like I was pushing to run this

to have a good result, you need high dedication in training and a mad desire to achieve your goal!

When I ran in 2019, I did 3 LRs at 20, 1 at 21. The fastest 20 was in 2:36 and the 21 was in 2:51. No stopping either. Peak mileage at the time was 61.

Did 20 yesterday at 9:13 pace, 17, but the last 3 were slow and more of a walk-run cooldown. The key was mileage and staying healthy. Did 4 today for recovery but feel good and hit 54 for this week, 10 weeks out from the marathon. Until I get the cast off I'm mainly doing tons of mileage until 8/18. I'll still do tons of mileage after, but no 3-week taper. I'm going to not taper until 12-10 days out.

That first marathon was the strongest-paced of the two I did (1:40/1:44). The second one I went out too fast (1:33/1:46) and I'm trying to get to that point where I can run an even-split marathon.

I love this thread because even if the times aren't as fast as others, the detail, observations, and tips on getting better are legit, non-trolly and everyone is serious and MATURE in it. Not everyone can run 14:50/29/1:09/2:33

This is correct, similar to Pete Magill's "Solving The 5k Puzzle" workouts below. RW actually has good advice from pros sometimes:

runnersworld.com

Solving the 5K Puzzle

An effort-based route to success

Open link

I have found that with EZ pace I just run by feel and not look at the watch at all until the end, then that average pace (by feel) is EZ. I am realizing my EZ pace is more like 9:15 and not 8:50! But with that in mind my legs are able to do tons of LSD with no DOMS the next day.

Yeah 9:15 is feeling really nice to me lately, very easy but not quite mind-numbingly slow. When I run by feel I tend to run too fast , especially outdoors.

8/6: 5mi @ 8:47

8/7: 3mi @ 9:04

8/8: 1mi @ 9:40 / 4mi @ 7:18 / 1mi @ 9:38 tempo run // 2.1mi @ 9:27

8/9 1.5mi @ 9:19 // 5mi @ 8:40

8/10: 1mi 9:55, 2mi @ 6:47, 2mi @9:15

back from my vacation. had some nice time relaxing. ran a fast 10k day before I left which felt great. Took a down week on vacation and came back yesterday and did two great workouts today. Ready to get back to work tomorrow.

8/11: 1.2mi @ 9:20 // 5mi @ 8:52

8/12: 10km @ 7:12, first time running one in <45 and felt more like a tempo than a race

8/13: 4.2mi @ 8:44

8/14: 7mi @ 9:20, social funrun, run probably took close to 2 hours cause we kept stopping for pictures and stuff. Idk the actual distance or time but it was longish and slow.

8/15: off

8/16: farklek kinda run. Again didnt really keep time but it was around 1mi @ 9:30, 4.5mi @ 7:30 and 2mi @8:00. It was more like 5 minute pickups at 6:50 and then some steady running around 8:30.

8/17: 5mi @ 9:09

8/18: 3.2mi @ 8:40

8/19: off

8/20: 7mi @ 8:40

8/21: 1mi wu, 4mi @ 7:05, 1mi cd first workout coming back probably a little too quick cause the first mile came in at 7:15 then started racing at the end. Most of it felt comfortable though only the last half mile I had that feeling of pushing myself.

Earlier in the day I also had a great weights session. First time going for 225lb smith machine press and I got 3 reps of it quite easily. Makes me feel confident about hitting it for 1rm on the real bench, which I would be very happy about at <150lb

Plan is to clock some easy miles tomorrow and tuesday and maybe hit an interval session later in the week. I think the tempo runs have been paying off and seems easier than intervals, but I don't want to lose touch with my sub-20 goal pace

I'm not quite ready for big workouts but I'm happy just getting strong on my feet at 50-55 mpw for a block, then getting some speed before I taper for the marathon. Not looking to PR, just to finish. I was hit by a car 7/21 and am just grateful to be running again.

I love following your progress!

If I had to guess my fitness right now I'd say I'm a 3:50 marathoner.

Dang glad you are alright after that

Been a little while since the last post, will try to remember specifics on the workouts:

8/22: 3mi @ 9:16

8/23: 5mi @ 8:45

8/24: 5mi @ 8:09

8/25: 1mi wu, 10x400m @ 6:11with 400m jogging rests , can't remember details but thinking it was not too bad

8/26: 6mi @ 8:52

8/27: 3.5mi @ 9:09

8/28 tempo run 4.5mi @ 7:08

8/29: 6mi @ 9:26

8/30: 5mi @ 8:41

8/31: 1mi wu, 800, 800, 800, 400, 400, 400, 400, 400, 400 @ 6:19, remember this feeling a bit harder than the other two, mainly from the 800s I guess the last part wasn't so bad.

9/1: 5mi @ 9:06

9/2: 5mi @ 9:51 // 5mi @ 8:14

9/3: 4mi @ 8:48

9/4: tempo

4mi @ 6:52 cruising tempo , probably first time continuous running >5k at sub 7 pace

9/5 7mi @ 8:40

9/6: 5mi @ 8:53

9/7: 6mi @ 9:00

9/8: intervals workout

800, 800, 800, 800, 800, 400, 400 @ 6:25 with 400m jogging recovery

9/9: 5mi @ 8:57

9/10: 5.2 mi @ 8:31

9/11 tempo

4.25mi @ 6:53 another cruiser, same pace as last week but tacked on another lap and felt similar or easier to last week somehow

starting to come together now. I feel like sub 20 is right around the corner compared to the beginning of this year when I started the topic

9/12: 6mi @ 8:41

9/13: 2.5mi@ 8:55

9/14: 600-200-400 workout

(1.5 laps @ 6:40 pace, 0.5 laps @ 6:10 pace, 1.0 laps @ 12:00 pace) x 6

I wanted to do 800-200-600 but after the first 600 I decided against it. for some reason the workout started out feeling harder than expected. I would expect a workout like this to start out pretty easy on rep 1 and become harder by reps 5-6. This started out moderate on the very first rep but did not feel like it got much harder as the reps went on for some reason.

9/15: 5mi @ 8:47

9/16: 7mi @ 8:25

9/17: 1.5mi wu, 2mi hard, 1.5mi cd

ran the 2mi at 6:26 pace which is right around the pace needed for 20min flat Did not feel easy but not a full on race effort either. I think I could of run sub 20 today if my life depended on it, but in reality would not have the heart to do it based on how I was feeling at 2mi. I think ~20:30 would be really doable at this point however and sub 20 possible with a few more weeks of good training and a slower easy run the day before

9/18: 6mi @ 8:48

9/19: 4mi @ 8:38

9/20: Intervals:

1mi wu

800, 800, 800, 800, 800, 800, 400, 400 @ 6:18 w/ 400m recovery

2mi cd

another one where the beginning of the workout felt iffy but as it went on it felt smoother and smoother. Around reps 2-3 I was questioning if I should cut back on the workout, gave myself an extra 10-15 seconds rest by slowing down the recovery lap and all of a sudden it felt like rep#1 again. After the last 800(which felt quite smooth to begin with) I did a really slow recovery lap that was mostly walking and then tried a couple 400s which felt very easy. It felt like I could have done 800s or kept going with the 400s all day but didn't want to deviate too far from the plan.

At this point I am fairly confident I could run under 20 on the treadmill with a couple days of actually cutting back the pace to 9:30+ , good night sleep, cutting out the leg days in the gym(I deadlifted up to 315 yesterday! with many reps 275+ and still ran today's workout with no issues) plus warming up fully for 20-30 minutes with strides and just giving it my all.

Of course that doesn't mean I can really run sub 20 even with all those things done. All my running has been on the treadmill at 0.5 incline for the past several months. During workouts I compensate slightly in different ways either shaving a couple seconds off the stated times in my log, or extending all my reps slightly. For example on today's workout each "800" was .53-.55mi, the "400s" were .28mi and the "400m jog" were .20-.22 mi

Realistically this is probably not enough to compensate at these paces for the treadmill incline only being 0.5%, but it's close enough imo to compare to perfect conditions on a track(I am quite short with less air resistance, treadmill surfaec is mushy/easy on joints but doesn't return as much energy as a good track, often overstep the treadmill slightly at faster paces which is inefficient and a result of wanting to adjust speed more naturally and being forced to run at a single pace etc etc

As it begins to cool off will probably start running trails and track again occasionally, but plan to primarily stick to treadmill running until the winter when I will transition back to primarily real outside running

Some key runs I want to do before going for a sub 20 attempt:

400m repeats 8-12 at just slower than 6 mins pace

Some longer intervals with 800-1400 at an easy tempo pace(7:30ish) then 200-400m hard

Day of taking it out at 20:30 pace, see how feels after a mile and either keep going for a small 5k PR or stop and turn it into a workout (mentally easier than saying I am going to run 2030 or attempt 1959 or whatever. I think at this point a lot of its mental for me and being relaxed during the run, not stiffening up or raising my hr arteficially worrying about the run or thinking about the next 18 minutes or anything like that)

10km run around 7-7:10 pace and have this feel less than all out

Return to 6x800 workout and have it feel good as today running closer to 6:10 than 6:20

,

9/21: 4mi @ 9:09

9/22: off - camping

9/23 off

9/24 6mi @ 8:40

9/25: 0.81mi wu

4.5mi @ 6:57

0.86mi cd

9/26: 3.5mi @ 8:58 // 4.5mi @ 8:28

9/27: 5mi @ 8:48

9/28: 6mi @ 8:33

9/29: (800, 400, 400) x 3

800m ~ 7:20, 400m ~ 6:10, 400m~ 11:00

9/30: 4mi @ 8:26

10/1: 7.5mi @ 8:13

10/2: 5.5mi @ 8:39

10/3: 4.5mi @ 9:12 // 1mi @ 9:54, 2.5mi @ 6:34

been a while since I updated this. Today was a funny one. I wanted to crack 20:30 this week in a time trial, and had planned to go for it later in the week. Today i was going to do long slow mileage as doubles, planning to hit around 10mi total today. However my plans for later in the week changed so went for the time trial as my 2nd session, since I hadn't run many workouts lately and felt doable. Felt tough but fine going through the first half.

What I forgot was that I had just eaten a box of ravioli (about 800 calories of food) araound an hour before this and somewhere near the 4k mark I got this urge to hurl. So I wimped out and just stopped the clock. I am sure next week I can get the 20:30 though so I'm not too worried about it and will treat it as a workout, which I haven't done too many tough ones lately just been kind of cruising. Maybe slipping into 'junk miles' mode which I need to be careful of, looking back some of those training runs were faster than they probably should have been (10/1 for example)

10/4: 4mi @ 8:54

10/5: 3mi @ 8:44

10/6: 1mi wu // 5mi @ 6:58

10/7: 4.5mi @ 8:50

10/8 : 6mi @ 8:52

10/9: 4mi @ 8:35 // 3mi @ 8:50

10/10: 1mi wu , 10x400m @ 6:07, 400m jogging recovery 1mi cd

10/11: 2mi @ 9:23

10/12: 6mi @ 8:41

will catch the rest up later

I've gotten really far behind on here. Will try to remember as best as possible:

10/13: 4mi @ 8:45// 4mi @ 8:30

10/14: 1mi wu , 10km in 44:30 (7:09/mi pace) 0.5mi cd

I remember feeling bad about this as a TT. Coming through the 5k in like 21:50 and feeling like I would hold that pace, just to crash towards the end.

10/15: 3mi @ 9:10

10/16: 3mi @ 8:45

10/17: 4mi @ 9:00/ 4mi @ 8:38

10/18: 5mi @ 8:44

10/19: I think this was 1km repeats split in two sessions:

First part was 1000x3 and then later in the day another 1000x3 and another 500m for good measure. The recoveries were jogging the rest of the mile. Pace was 6:18/mi

10/20: 4mi @ 8:36

10/21: 4mi @ 8:52

10/22: 5mi @ 8:29// 5mi @ 8:18

10/23: 7mi @ 8:43

10/24: 4mi @ 8:32

10/25: intervals

800, 800, 800, 800, 400, 400, 800 with 400m jogging recovery. Pace was 6:15/mi

10/26: 7mi @ 8:28

10/27: off

10/28: 5.5mi @ 8:22 // 5.5mi @ 7:50

10/29: 5mi @ 8:48

10/30: 3.5mi @ 8:44

10/31: 5mi @ 8:36 // 4mi @ 8:35

11/1: 5mi @ 8:26

11/2: Intervals

1mi @ 6:12 , 0.5mi x 4 @ 6:18

recoveries were 3 minutes, 0:30 seconds walking, 2:30 jogging

I've been doing less and less workouts lately but still getting good mileage and just having fun running. Workout today felt good so I don't think I've lost anything running my easy miles faster and dropping workouts. Was getting burnt out of running 9 minute miles all the time and doing hard workouts so often. Am thinking of entering or TT a half at some point to mix things up. I've never even run the distance in practice yet so anything would be a PR which makes it exciting