My 5K PR right now is 18:34, and my track season doesn't start until the end of March. My school is kind of weird so we aren't allowed to have communication with the coach during the off-season this year. What should I be doing over the off-season to break 18 as soon as possible?
Help me break 18 for the 5K please
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What grade are you in, and how long have you been running?
But more importantly, why are you so motivated to break 18? Which is more important track season or breaking 18? -
I'm a college freshman and I've been running for 6 years.
Neither is really more important than the other, I want to break 18 because that's the kind of time I need to be competitive in my area. I'm not going to do a bunch of time trials in the off-season, maybe 1 or 2, but I mostly just want to start doing whatever work I can to be closer to sub-18 when track does start. -
Sounds like a good time to build your aerobic base, between now and track season. Maybe something like this:
Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri - easy run, building up to 45' plus 3-4 x 50-100m strides @ 1500-3K pace
Wed - Alternate: 20' tempo run OR 3 x mile hills @ 8K effort with jogback recovery
Sat - Long run, building up to 90'
Sun - off
If that's too easy for you, maybe add in a morning run, starting with just 20 minutes and build up from there. You could also add in more strides or longer strides (just make sure it doesn't turn into a full-on workout), and extend the easy runs to an hour.
When building mileage, remember to take a down week every 4th week or so.
Hope this helps. Good luck! -
I’ve broke 18 once and I was right around your age.
I did it off a ton of easy miles and almost no workouts. This was after running track / xc in high school for three years.
If you can get your volume high enough, sub 18 is in the bag. But that worked specifically for me. YMMV. -
I've recently gone from 18:26 to 17:51. There wasn't much difference to the training, just consistency.
My scheme was:
- Mostly easy, aerobic running (Zone 2 or under if you use HR)
- One/two workouts per week (Intervals such as 5x1K @ slightly faster than target pace with 3' jogging rest, Repetition such as 3 x (200,200,400 m) and/or tempo such as 20' threshold effort )
- Weekly Long run
My mileage was about 37 mpw, give or take.
You'll do it. Doing it on a track is easier. -
You stated you are a college athlete. An 18:34 5K male is not competing in college. Keep doing what you are doing. Your current sub-18:40 5K is very impressive. Good job! Can you race sub-5 1500m? A lot of sub-18 5K females are also sub-5 1500m athletes.
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Run 4xmile at 5:30 on 3 minutes rest and you will easily break 18.
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RunningNoob420 wrote:
YMMV.
Haha good one :)
Is there a specific mileage range that you think was really helpful? Or was it just increasing mileage in general that helped? -
Congrats on the pr!
Someone else mentioned doing longer tempos too, I'll try that because I haven't really done long tempos (like I do 3x10' but I don't think that's as helpful). Thanks! -
Yeah I'm female, sorry I probably should have put that in the original post if I was going to ask about times lol
My 1500m pr is 5:03 :( -
So you are capable of doing the workout that I provided then. Just do it and you are there.
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Here's our schedule for right now. This would be a not bad build up for your track season also. This is for my high school kids, so take it for what you will.
M: Long run, up to 90 minutes. As fitness improves, make the run faster / progression or add strides in toward the end
T: Recovery - Easy shake out to regular run
W: Speed Development day. Extensive drills, short run, short sprints (this is an opportunity for higher mileage kids to double
Th: Tempo OR Fartlek + Reps at 800-1600 race pace (full recovery) (we don't have an 1 mile uphills around here like sub 8 referenced)
F: Recovery Day - Easy shake out or regular run
S: Volume day either as a medium long run or as a double
Sun: Recovery - Off or easy shake out.
For my 40-50 mpw kids who are looking to go sub 18 it looks like this.
M: 10 miles @ 7:30 ish pace
T: 4 miles @ 8:00 pace
W: AM 3 miles easy, PM: Drills, Strides, 4 miles easy + 2 x 150 @ 400-800 RP
Th: Warm Up, Drills, 20 minutes tempo (likely at 6:40 pace) + 4 x 300 @ 1600 RP, Cool down
F: Off or 3-4 easy. @ 7:50 - 8:00
S: 8-9 miles in 1 or 2 runs @ 7:30 - 7:45
S: Off or 3-4 easy @ 7:50 - 8:00
My kids had a fun time with the drills and 150s yesterday. It was nice to mix up the steady slog of miles -
I really wish I had my running logs from back then. I can’t say for sure but I think I was around 50 mpw. I remember working up to a 90 minute long run. Living in a hilly area at the time definitely helped. Doing a lot of easy miles in general is really good for me personally to get into 5k and above racing shape.
For reference, I was a 4:50 / 10:32 runner for 1600 and 3200 as a senior in high school. I needed to do speed work to accomplish those times. The sub 18 5k happened about a year after that. I did exactly one workout a week before the race. Something like 5 by mile with one minute rest.
I really think I ran something like 17:20-17:30 that day as a lot of people say the course was long. I’m a slow boy, before other posters rip me apart. Lol. -
RunningNoob420 wrote:
I really wish I had my running logs from back then. I can’t say for sure but I think I was around 50 mpw. I remember working up to a 90 minute long run. Living in a hilly area at the time definitely helped. Doing a lot of easy miles in general is really good for me personally to get into 5k and above racing shape.
For reference, I was a 4:50 / 10:32 runner for 1600 and 3200 as a senior in high school. I needed to do speed work to accomplish those times. The sub 18 5k happened about a year after that. I did exactly one workout a week before the race. Something like 5 by mile with one minute rest.
I really think I ran something like 17:20-17:30 that day as a lot of people say the course was long. I’m a slow boy, before other posters rip me apart. Lol.
With a 4:50 / 10:32, I'd expect that you ran at least 17:30.... I went 17:09 as a junior but didn't break 5 for the 1600 until my senior year (I was sick and hurt for most of my Junior track season after running 5:06 before the first day of practice that year) -
That's interesting. I always thought my 5k was a little weak. I only ran like 18:20 in XC. Low / mid 18s in the summer road races were common for me.
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I think providing your weekly mileage will help give give us some good info. If you're only running 45 miles per week you have a ton of room for improvement just by building a good base with lots of easy miles and a weekly tempo run and weekly long run. But if you're already running 80 miles per week, then you already have a pretty good aerobic base. Goal should be to increase weekly mileage by 5 miles per week every 6 months.
As for your 1500m time, my 1500m PR is 4:48 and 5k is 16:48. I think you have plenty of speed to run sub 18, and building a good aerobic base if you haven't before will improve your 1500m time as well. -
Wow that's really helpful, thank you!
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I do long runs (15-18 miles) on Saturdays, workouts Tuesday and Thursday (usually tempo/intervals, I don't do repeats for distance much because there's no track I can use and I'm not sure how much I trust my watch GPS), easier runs (7:30-7:50/mile pace) on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and then on Sunday I either bike or just take the day off.
My mileage is usually 50-60mpw. I was at 52mpw a month ago, but I had to take time off because I got hurt (not a running-related injury but I messed up a knee). It doesn't really hurt anymore so I'm *supposed* to be able to start running again next week (probably starting closer to 30mpw than 50 though).
