OK, I'll be manic all day and airborne tomorrow so had better get my thoughts down on track workouts. Bear in mind that there are hundreds of ways to do it and I won't be at all offended if you prefer different patterns.
I agree with getting some 200/400 work in earlier but I would not leave all the 5k-specific work until the last 6 weeks.
A classic 5k session is 6x1000 with 200m jog (90sec). If you're getting mean before a race you'll hammer them. But if you want to build up aerobic capacity, as Jack D suggests, you want to back off maybe 3sec/lap from your best, take longer rest (a full lap jog), and run at the pace he predicts and no faster. This really works - you don't feel exhausted or wear your legs out, and you can often do another rep or two. Pete Magill also seems to be mostly of this school, insisting on going off-track and running by time (see his Running Times article).
For years I have done well off Frank Horwill's 5-pace system (used by the Coes). He also has a 4-second 'rule of thumb' for pace prediction for elites, or 5sec for club athletes, so a wild stab at training paces (once you have a few speed sessions under your belt) might be this....and strangely enough that's about where I was two summers back...
5000 pace: 82/lap = 17:05
3000 pace: 77/lap = 9:37
1500 pace: 72/lap = 4:30
800 pace: 67/lap = 2:14
400 pace: 62/lap = 62
I would suggest going twice through a three-week cycle where we mix in a tempo session, and one session at each of these paces or effort levels. During the first six weeks we'll try quite hard to keep some of these 'stopwatch free', running for time (e.g. 5x4min is 5k pace) or up a hill (10x1min is a 1500 session, and you can do any pace on a hill). The nice thing about these is that if a mile race pops up somewhere, you'll be ready; and if not, the sessions give you some idea of what shape you are in for those events and where the strength and weaknesses lie.
Here are some examples of sessions at each pace...
3000 pace: 12x400 (100 jog), 8 x 600 (200 jog), 6x800 (400jog),
1500 pace: generally 1:1 recovery e.g. 70sec for 70/400
- build up the number of 200s off 40sec rest e.g.
16x200, then 20, then 24, with a quick 100m jog, in sets of 8.
- 2 x (5x300)
- 2-3 x (4 x 400)
- the classic 10 x 400
- the infamous '1500m predictor) (Google it, save that for your 3rd cycle!)
800 pace: longer rests
- 8 x 200 (long rest)
- 6 x 300, (2-3min)
- 3 x (3x300) (90sec between reps; 5min between sets)
- 4 x 400 (5min)
- 600, 400, 300, 200 (loonnggg rests..)
400 pace: essentially pure speed/speed-endurance. could be
8 x 150 ( 3 min rests)
6 x 200 (3 min rests)
300, 300, 200 with 10min rests
Just to reiterate, in the first 6 weeks we should try to be 'off-road' or at least not worrying much about the watch some of the time, and you should finish every session feeling you have a couple more reps in you. In the next 6 we can start to pick one session each week where you run pretty hard.
The other slight wrinkle I would add in is that we have to keep the aerobic base topped up. With the 400, 800 and perhaps 1500 sessions, you aren't doing all that much aerobic work, and with months of this you can go off the boil a little. One modern way round this is to stick in 1.5 to 2 miles of tempo at the end of a speed session, a bit slower than a normal one as your legs will be tired. This encourages you to hold back a little bit, knowing there is some more work to come, and means you continue to build the aerobic engine up.
I'm guessing that the tempo and 5k stuff might fit best on a Tuesday, as it's less time consuming to do in the morning and needs slightly less of a warmup, and that Saturday will be better for long warmups and hard anaerobic stuff. So we might be looking at:
Week 1: Tue tempo, Thu drills+strides, Sat 1500
Week 2: Tue 5k pace, Thu drills+strides, Sat 800 (+ 1m tempo)
Week 3: Tue 3k pace, Thu drills+strides, Sat 400 (+ 2m tempo)
In the second six weeks we get more specific and introduce 'race practice' elements like changing pace, Pete Magill's 3 x mile with faster bits in between and so on.
How does this look as an overall pattern?