Hi guys,
I'm 20 years old and currently run around 30-40 miles a week depending on how much school work I have. I don't really have a set training plan and just go out and run until I get tired. I have ran a 5K recently and did it in 19:32 and a 4 mile race in 25:44.
How long will it take for me to improve to 17:30 for a 5K? And what should I do to reach that level between now and whenever that may be?
The best indicator, assuming you don't vastly improve your training, is probably how long it took you to get to 19:30. Took you a few months? Maybe you'll reach 1730 in a year. Took you 2 years? 1730 could be 3 or more years away. Other factors are downtime from injury and of course how good your training is.
What you should do: look at all the other training threads and learn how to train.
How is your 4 mile time at a faster time than your 5k time?
notwhoyiouthink wrote:
How is your 4 mile time at a faster time than your 5k time?
It's not. The bigger numbers are slower and the smaller numbers are faster.
j/k
I think you are virtually assured of doing it if you put in the right work.
Of course I have no advice on how to do the work, other than to run consistent and often. I suspect to run the 19:30 you haven't even really done specific workouts, so adding any of those will help.
male or female?
20 years old, male. 5 ft 10 in. 140 lb.
Ran cross country in high school but was never really that good at it, but I enjoy running. It relieves a lot of stress from school, and I've begun to really take it more a bit more competitively as I get into better same.
It took me about 4 months of running to get to 19:32.
Since I live in New York, I had to do a lot of my running on the treadmill from January to March.
Since the beginning of April, I've been running a lot on the streets and in Central Park.
I've also run a half marathon this year in 1:32:14.
My long runs are usually around 12 miles of so. During the week, I usually run around 4-7 miles depending on time constraints.
Thanks for those who gave their 2 cents!
Best,
ambitious runner
I went from 18:56 to 17:06 in about a year on 20-30miles a week. Maybe 9 months for you.
i meant rate, douche
ambitious runner wrote:
Hi guys,
I'm 20 years old and currently run around 30-40 miles a week depending on how much school work I have. I don't really have a set training plan and just go out and run until I get tired. I have ran a 5K recently and did it in 19:32 and a 4 mile race in 25:44.
How long will it take for me to improve to 17:30 for a 5K? And what should I do to reach that level between now and whenever that may be?
It would take exactly two minutes less.
You need to get off the treadmill, that would be a start
unfortunately, given your current lack of training focus and structure you won't have the drive to run better than 19:30, and i expect a repeat performance next race
j/k, but it took me like 4 years to go from 19:30 to 17:30, but you can get there much faster if you train smarter than i did
OP, can you post a typical weekly training schedule so we can tweak it? Also, give as much additional bg as possible (mileage history, injury history etc) how long has it been for you since high school (I.e. How much time did you stop running completely for?)
Good luck training. I think you can get there eventually. But one step at a time. The journey to your standard of excellence is what makes it fun.
A typical week is something like what I listed below. However, because of a heavy workload at school, it varies drastically. All of the my runs in the past 2 months have been outside in the streets or in Central Park.
Monday
4 - 5 miles, 50% effort
Tuesday
6 - 7 miles, 65-75% effort
Wednesday
4 - 5 miles, 50% effort
Thursday
7-8 miles, 65-75% effort
Friday
4-5 miles, 65-75% effort
Saturday
11-12 miles, 75% effort
Sunday
3-4 miles, 75% effort
I didn't run much after senior year of high school and 1st semester of college as a freshman (6 month break). However, I started running again second semester 3 or 4 times a week. The only race I ran then was a 43:13 for 10K.
I stopped running again over the summer because of work and didn't run again until this January as a second semester sophomore (6 month break).
My high school PR was 20:15. I ran 2 years of cross country. I didn't run track during the spring because I played tennis.
Is there anything else I should include?
Thanks for all the comments!
Perhaps YOU can be the next Eddy Lee...?
Perhaps I can!