Is 1 hour at marathon pace a good 5k workout?

Yeah, sure, I don’t know

Naw

No

Depends. I found it worked very well for me but I constantly got hurt doing faster intervals. Once a week 8-10 miles at marathon pace (was ~5:45-5:50) and no additional workouts and I ran 15:30 over 5k.

I would never really suggest this to a high school athlete.

Marathon pace probably isn’t an awful effort level for your 10ish mile long run. You’d get more race specific by getting a few miles in at half marathon pace, or even 2x2 miles and then just doing the rest easy.

Idk. Yesterday I ran my fastest 5K ever (16:25) versus 17:00 last year when I ran 100 MPW and primarily did a 4x2 miles at LT and marathon pace work.

This year I went all-in for the 800m. Running only like 40mpw during the summer and doing stuff like 9x300 at sub 45 seconds and a 1200m time trial every 2 weeks.

In September / October I built up to 60mpw and have been mostly doing 3K stuff like 6x800 at 2:28. No runs longer than 1 hour, all easy except 3K intervals and 5 miles of LT and a weekly max sprint workout.

I think it depends on the context of the rest of your training. It's a bit aggressive and unspecific for me, you'd be better off doing 2 days of HM pacing (2 days of 1 threshold) since they'd be higher quality sessions, more frequent, more rest between.

But would it be bad, no, there are just better ways to skin the cat.

Daniels has 10 miles at MP as part of his 5/10k plan, but it replaces the long run every third or fourth week. It probably has quite a large aerobic benefit and the 5k is still largely an aerobic event.

Yes. 40-60 minutes at around 5k pace + 45-60 seconds (I err on the side of caution and stay around 5k + 60 seconds) is a great workout. You don’t have to do it every week. Start with 30-40 minutes and build-up gradually over time.

Ya know what really helps 5K times? Running in 5Ks.

The old school guys didn’t have to obsess about speedwork the way people nowadays do, because they raced a lot and that was their speedwork.

No.

Too fast for an easy run.

Too slow for a workout.

No bennies.

Don't see a need to tempo that long if your running for 3.1 miles at your vo2 max pace. That's not specfic for any race that requires a blend of speed and endurance. You'll see most 1500/5k types do these workouts during base training and most 10k runners doing this during pre comp phase. A good workout for 5k training would be 15-20 minutes slightly faster than this pace+ intervals at your goal pace. In that way you're stimulating your anaerobic threshold to get in lactate and also run at race pace.

People are getting hung up on the term "marathon pace", but a one hour tempo used to be a normal workout for 5K runners (and runners of just about every distance).

That type of workout is a lot less common now, with runners preferring to run LT intervals instead (whether singles or doubles).

Is it still a good workout? IDK. I probably wouldn't do it more than once or twice if I were building a 5k plan.

If your doing 70 mpw, yes.

Is it a good 5k workout? No.

If it is your only option besides easy runs, sure. Something is better than nothing.

I mean it will generally make you fitter? So in that way it’s good. But as a specific 5k workout, there are definitely better ones.

The reason you got so much faster is that you had built a strong aerobic capacity, then added speed. The aerobic base lasts a while, but not indefinitely. If you continue this low mileage, high speed training you will soon find yourself struggling to hit that 5k time again.

Approximately 1hr marathon / moderate / high aerobic pace is absolutely critical during base building. It is not something you need to do near championship / goal races.

I think it’d be far too hard, let alone for something weekly. Pros can handle much more volume than normal runners but if Kiplimo couldn’t do it in a normal week, there’s no way you should