What am I doing wrong?

Your tempos need to be at like 6:20 and under and your not doing enough speed work like intervals on the track. Take your easy days easy and let the process begin.

So would this look like taking my Mondays to be a proper workout (with intervals?) Tempos will be faster- for now I'll focus on going sub-7. My Thursday consists of 3x 10 minutes at 6:30 with a 4 minute jog in between- what would you recommend changing?

Don't be concerned with how much other people are running, just focus on yourself. How much you run is a factor in how good you are, but it's only one factor in the equation. How many miles you've run over the course of your lifetime matters and you don't have that many under your belt. You just started and you've already seen a massive improvement from 24 to 19:30 in a matter of months. It Be patient -- it just takes time.

Things that I noticed about your schedule:

Too fast on easy days: Your easy runs are on the faster side for someone of your ability level. 8:15-8:30/mile (or slower if you're really tired) on most easy runs is fine for you.

What's up with the Tuesday and Sunday runs averaging 7:45? That's kind of no man's land. It's harder than an easy run effort but it doesn't provide much more benefit than a normal easy run. Just run slower on your easy days and don't worry about pushing the pace down for those to try to prove to yourself that you're getting faster.

No workout spacing: Why are all of your harder days right next to each other? You don't have a long run or a third quality day, so I don't know why you have Thursday/Saturday workouts. You'd be better off spacing them out.

No dynamics in mileage run: all of your runs are the same length, more or less. You can fit more of your miles on your harder days and really recover on your easy days.

[quote]thefasterslowkid wrote:

Your tempos need to be at like 6:20 and under and your not doing enough speed work like intervals on the track. Take your easy days easy and let the process begin.[/

The pace for a 19:30 5k PR is 6:17/mile or 6:15/1600m. Threshold pace for them would be 6:40-6:45. This response is absolute nonsense.

mishkakly: Tempo has different definitions depending on which coach you're working with. It can apply to a range of paces. You can run both fast tempos and slow tempos and there are reasons for doing both. The faster end for a tempo can be run slightly faster than threshold (5k pace +25-30 seconds/mile) and the slower end is around 5k pace + 1 minute/mile. You'll typically run shorter tempos for the faster end and longer tempos for the slower end (like the 8 mile tempo you've done at 7:15, which is spot on for that effort).

Just running more will not necessarily make you faster but you might get some nice injuries that way.

Have at least one rest day a week better two. After all you are a beginner runner and your body is still adjusting.

Run with others, they might know something you don't know.

Read a book or two about training.

And be patient. You will get faster if you take your time.

Thanks for all the advice!

Good advice so far. Be patient and the consistent effort will pay off.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is doing some more focused workouts. What you're doing right now is great for a base, but isn't very 5K specific. A 20 minute tempo is more specific for 5K, and at some point you'd want to add some 5K-pace intervals, something like 12x400 to 6x800 with equal time rest. (1000, 1200, and 1600 meter intervals are good too, but start with one thing at a time.)

Also, if you have races going on in your area, picking a goal race that you can build up to and taper for can make a big difference in improvement, too.

Talent plays a role in how fast you can run. Sorry but the quicker you accept that the quicker you will stop comparing yourself to others and focus on you. Look at your running career as a 7-10 year project. You will get your best results towards the end of that if you build up gradually and are super consistent. Opinions will vary but I say high mileage will uncover your potential aka talent but it must be added so slowly you barely even notice. Patience.