Only Easy Miles + Tempos + Strides = 5k PR? Need advice.

Forgot to mention, I could also be building up to 80 MPW as well. (it'd only be 1.5 miles extra per run)

70 MPW but no time for anything faster than tempo? Are you trying to gain fitness as inefficiently as possible or something? Can't even do a fartlek? Unless you have some sort of untapped potential you are not going to be setting PR's without putting in a bit of hard work. Do your VO2, race specific work, top-end speed, and quit making sh*tty excuses.

What could this possibly mean? You just take an easy run and replace it with a workout. It's the literal same amount of time.

Yeah I don't get this. Maybe in your head you can't spend time going to a track but 5-6 x 1k can easily be 5-6 x 3:00 hard/2:00 ez. Stuff like that on the roads is fine if the 5k is your goal.

Sounds steange you don't have time for maxVO2 intervals and faster thresholds to fast improve your 5 k time? You just need a running watch with GPS and take your intervals to the road.And you even can reduce your weekly mileage from 70 mpw down back to 50-60 mpw with even more effective training and better results and using less training time per week. Good luck!

- The Magic Wizard- 🇸🇪🧙🏼‍♂️🇸🇪

You can get into very good 5k shape off doing little hard interval/"v02 max" work and focusing on getting aerobically strong

You mean you don’t have time to get out to a track to do race pace or faster work? If that is the cause just do it on the road. Either measure or use a gps watch. Ive gone to this as well most the time do to kids, life etc.

Check out the thread titled something along the lines of “modifying the Norwegian Approach to low mileage.” It’s three thresholds a week. No strides in this system but you could probably add them in on one of the days. M/W/F 60 mins easy. T is 3 x 2 mile w/ 2:00 jog, Th is 6 x mile w/ 90s jog, Sa is 10 x 1k with 60s jog. Su is 90 mins easy. Easy runs below 70% max HR. Very easy. The threshold reps are done at varying paces to achieve a similar stimulus. K reps are closer to true threshold, but just a touch slower. Mike reps closer to half marathon race pace. 2 mile reps a bit slower, not quite marathon pace.

I ran 17:30 a few weeks ago, no speed work, no more than 35 mpw

On 70 mpw you should easily run 16:50

That's my guess too, "formal" speedwork means getting to a track and to tag onto what you're saying, there are loads of other ways to do speedwork. Using a GPS will let you be precise with distances and times, you can simulate rep's distances running for times e.g. 10 x 90 seconds alternating fast and recovery would be a lot like a session of 400s. But gee, Gunder Hagg got the 5,000 world record on nothing but fartlek sessions. I know that times have moved far beyond his bests but 13:59 would make a lot of people happy now.

For just 2 years running, and trying to just break 17, IMHO that is way too much mileage, and missing key developmental sessions.

I really don't think a 17-min 5Ker needs a 16 mile long run. As someone else said, also you are missing key speed development ... if you are capable of running a faster 400 - mile pace then it becomes a smoother effort at 5K.

Probably you might benefit more from something like this:

Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri easy run 6 mi

Wed alternate stuff like this: 8 mile progression run (6 mi steady, 2 mi faster) / 5 x 1000m @ cruise/LT w/ 200m jog / 20' tempo run.

Sat: Do literally ANY fast hard workout. 8 x 200m hills, faster than 800m effort. 8 x 400m at 1500/mile pace. Speed ladder 100-200-300-400-300-200-100. 12 x 300m hills at 1500/mile effort. 6 x 600m at faster than 3K / 2 mi effort.

Sun off/recover

3 months of that, then 3 months of 5K-specific Saturday sessions, such as 12 x 400m or 6 x 800m, at or faster than 5K pace. Throw in a few 5K races also, instead of that week's workout.

Then - the next cycle - increase the easy days to 8 miles. Progression run 10 miles (8-2). 6-8 x 1K repeats.

That will come out to 40-45 mpw and again imho you won't ever need more than that for your 5K.

I had some injuries in the past where I couldn't really do much running (~30 mi/wk) and I'd basically only do tempos/a couple of fartleks or some longer threshold reps before doing 1 race paceish workout about a week out from the race. I'd cross train 4-5 hours/week to make up the extra aerobic volume. Obviously, that's not what I wanted but it's unfortunately how things worked out at that time lol.

Since you've been consistently running 70/week for ~6 months with workouts, even if its just a tempo run and a long run every week, is still massively beneficial! I think you'll surprise yourself and get very close to that mark or even pass it, especially with just a little bit of speed work! A couple of fast fartleks and a 5K pace interval workout on the track, maybe with some fast 200s at the end, in the last 2-3 weeks before your race and you'll be good! Go crush it! :)

This looks like 10k/Half marathon training.

You’ll run just fine at 5k doing this, just like you’ll run just fine at 800m training for the 1500m/3000m. You will only reach about 90% of your 5k potential though, and that 10% is big.

That being said, you are making excuses, if you’ve got time for 10 miles per day you’ve got time for speed work.

Every other week, shorten your long run to 10-12 miles, and have a day where you go to the track, warm up for 2 miles at a nice and easy pace, like 8:30-9:00 pace, and then do some strides. Throw your racing or tempo shoes on and do 400m on/off, start with 8 on reps for now (16 laps total), aim for 1:20 starting off, working down to 1:13 by the end of the workout with 2:00-2:10 for your off 400s, add 2 reps each time you do this workout until you work your way up to 16 of them, no need to work on going faster it’ll just change from 2-3 reps at sub 5:00 per mile pace to 8-10 reps under 5:00 pace by the time you adapt to the training.

You are probably very aerobically fit right now, the missing piece to the puzzle is building your efficiency at faster than race pace and working at closer to maximum heart rate/oxygen uptake. If you can get to a place where you can do 16x400m like this averaging about 1:14-1:15 while maintaining your other training, I see no reason for you not to be able to get into 15:40-16:00 type shape in a matter of a couple months.

The substitute should be easy for OP.

The Wizard gets mocked here but he's right about dropping mileage from 70 to 50-60 and adding quality.

Thank you for this. After marathon block I am going back to 5k training. Makes sense you only need 40-45 mpw for 5k. I know the OP is 17:xx but this can be applied to slower runners too.

Will save these workouts/tips for the future.

9/10, everyone bought this one hook, line, and sinker

Agree that the 16-mile run does almost nothing to get you to 16:50 5K. If you love it, do it once every 4-6 weeks. Then use those two hours to add whatever workout fits your training calendar. Early season threshold, late season shorter/faster.

. . . also, you can't gauge your fitness based on how fast you run your tempo/threshold workouts. If anything, you base your workout paces on your race times. And if you are indeed in 17:15 5K race shape, you should probably slow those workouts down a bit. You don't do yourself any favors by hammering tempo runs.

This is basically the same as the off-season training that my college team does over the summer (to get ready for 8k races). I would suggest following this training plan for several months to build up your base. Then around 2 months before your target race, you can add in a 5k-specific workout each week (6x 1k at race pace with 2 minutes walk/jog rest is my favorite) and drop your mileage a bit, maybe from 70 to 50-60.

Alternatively, if this is the type of training you love to do and you just don't like doing track workouts, I would suggest you move up to the half marathon or even the full. Training like this will give you a huge aerobic base, which matters more in longer races.