I'm running regularly with little to no improvement. Help?

You've only been running for 6 months, so I'd give it some time. It takes a while to build a base. Focus less on workouts and time trials for now and just work on aerobic and basic leg strength. I'd say give it 2 more months of solid/easy miles before you focus on speed again. Also, don't run on concrete.
Good luck.

What's your height? If you're 5'10", a lot of gains will come from losing excess weight, but it takes time and requires some changes in your diet.

Also, that's a pretty intense workout. You shouldn't be struggling in the middle of a workout, or even near the end of most workouts.

Also, don't do time trials yet.

Stick with easy mileage for a while. Then add a slightly longer day. If you want to add a fast day, work on a tempo run first. Eventually you can add just the 400s/200s. Wait to do 5 x 1km until you're closer to a race.

your workout is way too hard fro your level.

8k volume is too much and 1' rest is not enough for the 1ks .
There is no point doing this and mixing pace like that.

Work on base, easy mile + alactic sprints (<10") and easy tempo and you will improve. Be sure your easy miles are truly easy

1) Get down to 180 lbs
2) Replace the workout with a tempo run

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Slow Guy 35 wrote:
Hi guys

Age: 35
Weight: 192lb
Miles per week: 40

Until this year I've not ran at all since age 16. Was an average sprinter in my teens. Started running again at the start on the year. Until April all slow miles and got up to 50 miles per week. After April I started to incorporate workouts but I'm not really seeing any improvement in 5k time trials (Always around 24 mins).

Average speed of easy runs 9 - 9.30 mins/mile.

Recent workout. I've done this workout 3 weeks in a row now
5 x 1km @ 8 mins/mile
5 x 400m @ 7.45 mins/mile
5 x 200m @ 7.30 mins/miles
All 1 min standing rest between intervals.

In this workout I start to struggle in the 5th km. However, by the time I am doing the 200m intervals the rest feels like too long. I usually push the pace in the final 2 intervals and can reach a speed of 5.45 min/mile.

How do I get faster? Do I just have to run more?

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1. You’ve really only just started, so don’t worry. Improvement will come soon.
2. You’re running high mileage for starting from zero six months ago and that could be hurting your ability to run workouts faster.
3. Your weight is meaningless without knowing your height. If you’re 6’5”, then your weight is okay, but losing some weight by improving your diet could get you massive running improvement.
4. Your 400 and 200 intervals are very slow. If those represent that fastest paces that you ever run, then you won’t get much faster. Try doing the 5x1000m as a stand-alone workout, then on another day do 5x400 then 10x200, but you’ll be able to do the reps faster because you didn’t do 5x1000m right before. The workout you described seems too long for you right now but too slow to gain speed. Go for less volume but higher intensity.
5. How often do you do the 5k TT? You probably shouldn’t go for it more than once a month.

Don’t get wrapped up in thinking that more miles equates to more improvement. You have a lot of room for speed improvement that you can tap into with faster intervals but less miles overall. It would be interesting to know your capability at a 1 mile TT.

If you've been doing speed work since April you're probably just plateauing. April was 3 months ago; if you've only been running for 6 months and half of that has been with speed work there's a good chance you've just peaked for this cycle and need a bit of a break. My guess is if you pull back and recover, and then spend some time building base that you'll see improvement.

If an 8 min mile feels hard for 1K reps, your easy pace of 9-9:30 mins/mile is too fast.

Slow your easy pace down to 10 mins/mile (incl a long run), and do a tempo run. The workout is too long and fast at this stage.

If you can afford it (around 50-70 dollars a month) get you a world class coach instead of groping in empy nothing. :)

some beginners are so out of shape that when they run, theyre pretty close to an all out effort without intending to be; that's why they have to stop and walk every few seconds. im not saying youre that out of shape, but you are definitely a beginner.

im no expert, but i think that beginners need to start running fast before they concern themselves with easy miles. intensive workouts gets rid of fat more effectively than slow jogging does, which you should try to do since you are 190 (i assumer youre about average height). because you are a beginner, you should be able to recover more efficiently than a veteran runner because you are farther away from your lifetime limit. most veteran runners attempting this sort of training would fail and get slower because it is harder to run at your lifetime limit all the time (hope that makes sense).

you will acquire better 'running muscle memory' from fast running too. you will develop faster turnover (the rate at which your foot steps on the ground).

decrease the mile # of your easy days and exert more effort on easy days, but dont go to the well.

You are probably way too heavy.

Lasse Viren, the Finnish runner who won the 5K and 10K in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, was 5'11" and his weight ranged from 130 to 134 pounds.

I don't know your height or bone structure, but you are about 60 pounds over Lasse Viren's bodyweight. That's a hell of a lot of extra weight you are toting around. No wonder you get tired toward the end of a run.

If you really want to run faster, the simplest thing would be for you to lose weight. A LOT of weight.

After you do that, come back here and ask people how you should train. But your weight is the first and most glaring problem that is preventing you from running fast. Fix that first.

Way way too heavy to run fast. Scrap your workouts and just run easy as much as you feel you can handle, increase mileage and change your diet until you lose 20 pounds minimum. At this point you will see dramatic improvement.

That's too much volume for one work out for where you're at. Break your workout into longer, slower stuff (5x1k) and shorter faster stuff (400s/200s). You're also running the 400s/200s too slow, Shorter intervals are for speed but you're running them at a pace that doesn't develop speed. Do a mile time trial to see where you're at and run the 400s at slightly slower than mile pace and the 200s at slightly faster.

You don't give your height but 192 is awfully heavy for a runner. If you want to get serious about running it means you have to exercise restraint over your eating/drinking habits. Running does not give you license to eat/drink whatever you want and as much as you want. Eat healthy. Watch your alcohol consumption, especially beer.

If you're heavy because you lift a lot to look good without a shirt on, you're going to have to make a choice -- can't have it both ways.

I can almost guarantee you’re running too hard. There are plenty of resources online to teach you the proper pace, but I would say invest in a heart rate monitor (not wrist based) and GPS watch and follow any one of a dozen HR guidelines for easy running. They pretty much all say the same thing, and while HR training has its drawbacks, it will at least give you a metric to follow to slow down.

Don’t expect to outrun your diet. It has a much bigger impact than you think.

Ok guys. Thanks for the input. I'm 6'2 and in the process of losing weight but I definitely do need to lose some more haha.

I did a run today of 10 miles and average pace was 8.52 mins/mile. It felt easy and I could have gone longer.

So the consensus is: run more, run slower, but run faster on workout days?

Workout days are for running hard. The other days are for recovery and building aerobic strength. Pace doesn't matter on recovery days. Go slow or slower, but not fast. You don't mention doing any long runs. I think for 5k doing a regular long run is essential. 10 miles is a bit short. Try and gradually lengthen your long run to 12-15 miles. 5k is mostly aerobic so you need to work on that the most.

I have 2 children under 3 so only have time for 5 running days a week. My usual schedule looks like this

Tues: 8 miles (workout day)
Wed: 8 miles
Friday: 8 miles
Sat: 6 miles
Sun: 10 - 12 miles