Need 5k help. Underperforming relative to longer races (hobbyjogger paces)

Do some workouts. Run some 400s and 800s. If you don't like structured workouts on the track do them on the road. During a run on the roads add in hard, 2 - 4 minute intervals with 45 - 60 seconds of rest or so. Add strides after your runs 2 or 3 times a week. Implement some hill repeats in your training. You say you have hills in your runs, be sure to run the hills hard and then rest.

Try this for about 4 - 6 weeks and then run a 5K. It doesn't take long to see improvements.

if you want it to be really simple, 2x a week during your normal "run" try and finish the last 15 mins at a 6:00 to 6:30 pace, or one time per week try and run 30 mins at a 6:30 pace or better.

the other thing you can do is try and run more. going from 45 to say 75 miles a week will improve that half marathon time. will also make doing something that resembles a tempo run easier for you. you can build 30 miles into your weekly run in a couple of months.

You're not that far off as a 1:26 half is around 18:40 5k. You got to get your turnover up and get some faster running in. Start off with a half dozen sets of 200s or add some strides to the end of your runs before you get into longer interval stuff. I'm a big fan of mile repeats but that's because I have no speed.

I agree with the previous posts. Racing without doing any specific workouts is rather pointless ... unless you're happy performing at the same level regularly.

Dan

oh please wrote:

Generally speaking I never get below 6:40 pace for any thing longer than 5k in training.

You need some intervals at faster pace. Search online for Jack Daniels spreadsheet and you'll find an excel spreadsheet you can download that will give you the paces you need to run for 400, 800, 1,000. A 19:40 5k pace is 6:20, so you need to be doing these workouts faster than 6:20/mile. One possible workout might be 6 x 1,000m @3:45 (an 18:45 5k pace or 6:03/mile)starting with 3-4 minutes recovery and decreasing the recovery down to 2 minutes over a few weeks. The Daniels Tables spreadsheet shows 3:51 for this workout at 19:40 fitness, but you should be able to handle 3:45. If not, go up to 3:51.

4 mile tempo of 6:40 6:30 6:30 6:30