How fast can I run a 5k?

This happened when I was a kid. I lived on a naval base, and the pool there was basically occupied by kids during the long, hot summer, with the adults hanging around at the pool’s edge. I was nuts about going underwater, so used to swim down at the bottom – something most people never did.

Anyway, I was swimming along the bottom when suddenly my heart stopped. I had come across the prone body of this kid called Gareth. I knew his brother, and, thinking he was doing some early 90s version of planking, sunk down and lay next to him on the pool floor. I totally expected him to hit me – but he didn’t. He just lay there. So I poked him. Still lay there. Shook him. Still lay there.

At this point I realized what was going on, and grabbed him and hauled him out of the water, yelling for help. The pool was full of people, but for some reason most of them hadn’t seen the kid. The lifeguard on duty had dived in, and grabbed him from me as I hauled him out.

So there I am, a 10-year-old, watching as a lifeguard takes this kid and puts him on the side of the pool, giving him full CPR. The kid splutters to life, off he goes to the hospital, and the whole pool is shocked.

So we’re all sitting there, and I’m sat next to this kid called Aaron. And I start telling him what happened, and he insists no, he was the one who got help. He saw the kid, got the lifeguard. And I’m thinking ‘this is crap’. Then the adults start lecturing us on how Aaron had been so brave and heroic.

What had happened, of course, is that we’d both acted. But Aaron got a bike as a reward and grateful thanks from parents. I got called a liar at school. It’s one of those weird memories where everything about it is miserable, but I’m still glad I did it.

These distances are way too short for a prediction. Obviously it is possible to run it much faster than 5 k race pace, so if you did about 3:05-3:10 I must assume you can hold something like 3:15-3:25 for a 5 k. This is 16:15 at best, but more likely something between 16:30 and 17:00.

I'm curious as to what prompted this workout? Are you on a team that did this workout? What was the goal of the session? It just seems kinda messy and hard for us to even tell what pace you're supposed to be doing for any of it.

Keep in mind, the rest is 30sec jog. Your heart rare barely slows down, so practically you get very minimal rest. The distances are short, but that is because the 2000 meter is broken up

big baller dairy hauler wrote:

I'm curious as to what prompted this workout? Are you on a team that did this workout? What was the goal of the session? It just seems kinda messy and hard for us to even tell what pace you're supposed to be doing for any of it.

The Idea of the workout was to do three times a broken 2000 on 5k pace. I didn't want to go too deep, so I decided to do 5x400 instead of the last set, getting some more rest, but getting a little bit of speed in the legs

It is a bit difficult to say. 30s jog rest is short, it's true. It depends a lot on what kind of runner you are, and what other training you do which would help you hold a pace without any break.

Very roughly, I would guess 16:xx shape, maybe 16:3x ish.

difficult to say wrote:

It is a bit difficult to say. 30s jog rest is short, it's true. It depends a lot on what kind of runner you are, and what other training you do which would help you hold a pace without any break.

Very roughly, I would guess 16:xx shape, maybe 16:3x ish.

Thanks for the prediction, I'm just wondering cause I find it hard myself to predict the 5k time.

Background info, I'm a cross country/10k type of guy

You're welcome. With a 10km background, if you are not used to it, holding the 5km pace which your training would indicate the whole time might be challenging, thus it's probably wise if running a race to be a little conservative. But on the other hand you are probably reasonably strong around the threshold, so with 70s 400m speed off one minute rest, you should be able to manage 16:3x pace I'd think, maybe a little quicker. I'd be surprised (on the basis of this workout) if you could break 16, though, you'd need more continuous volume, and you'd need to be able to run at a consistent pace through the session.