15:30 5k Indicator Workouts/Training

Anybody?

20x400 in 75 seconds, starting every 2 minutes.

If you're a fast-twitcher, this might overestimate your ability. In that case, 5x1600 in 5 minutes with 3 minutes recovery.

Also, a solo 10-minute 2 mile that doesn't leave you gassed.

Mileage, whatever suits your style, level of commitment, and ability to do the miles (generally 40-70s/week is pretty good). Some can do it on less, some like to do much more.

Mix of track and tempos, progressive emphasis (get faster and faster over a number of months and weeks).

You know you might be in 15:30 shape when you can hold 20 min tempos in the sub 5:30/mile pace, down to 5:20 or so.

Interval sessions, roughly 3-4 miles of work at sub 5, with not too much rest between reps. Longer reps give more of that real feel. In general you want 2-5 minutes/rep.

Mile pace, 4:30+/- but that can depend.

Thanks

800 dude wrote:

20x400 in 75 seconds, starting every 2 minutes.

If you're a fast-twitcher, this might overestimate your ability. In that case, 5x1600 in 5 minutes with 3 minutes recovery.

I like the first program. 20 x 400 @ 75 is a very good workout to hit right around 15:30. The second one is too hard in my opinion. I wouldn't advise you to do more than MAX!!! 3 x 1600 @ 5 K pace with 600 or even 800 jogg.

Aditionally I think it's improtant to work on turnover (e.g. 10 x 300 or 400 @ 3 K pace) and even more important to do some 10 K or tempo stuff. Good would be here: 4 x 2000 @ 6:24' (10 K pace) or 3 x 3000 @ 10:00' (half marathon pace) or some 6 to 10 mile tempo runs right around marathon effort (that should be 5:35 to 5:40 pace).

Fill the days in between with very easy, but longer aerobic running (e.g. it's better to run 10 miles @ 7:30 than to run 5 miles @ 7:00).

Pikachu

I agree that the 5x1600 is tough. I've found that more experienced runners tend to be able to handle more volume of work at race pace. I think 4x1600 would be fine too, especially for a younger runner or someone with only a few years of serious training under his belt.

3x1600 on the other hand is a decent workout, but I can't see it being a great indicator of 5k fitness. I interpreted the poster as asking not how to get to 15:30 (which would certainly involve some weeks in which total VO2max volume would be just a few miles or even less), but rather what would indicate that he's ready.

I ran 15:27 in March. Here are some workouts & races I did in Jan, Feb, and March. I am more of a speed guy rather than endurance guy, so take all this with that grain of salt -

1/5 - 1 mile race in 4:24

1/9 - 2 x 2.5 miles at 5:37-5:38 pace with 10 min jog in between

1/15 - 5 mile fartlek alternating miles - 5:30, 6:25, 5:25, 6:25, 5:25

1/20 - 10 mile run at 6 flat pace

1/23 - 4x800 in 2:27, 2:25, 2:26, 2:28 with 2 min standing rest; 8 min jog; then 6x200 in 31 with 1 min standing rest

1/26 - 3k race in 8:47

1/30 - 16x400 - the first 10 in 71-72 with 1 min standing rest; then 63, 65, 64, 64, 62, 61 with with 2 min standing rest except 3 min before the last one

2/2 - 10 miles at 5:53 pace

2/17 - 1 mile race in 4:28

2/19 - 12x60 second hills at medium effort

2/21 - 12x30 second hills hard effort

2/23 - 10 miles at 5:59 pace

2/26 - 16x 1 min at 5 flat pace with 2 min jog recovery

3/1 - 2 x 3 miles at 5:29-5:30 pace with 10 min jog in between

3/3 - 5k road race in 15:27 - 5:00/5:02/4:56 pace for the final 1.1

3/10 - 1 hr, 40 min run at 6:45 pace

3/13 - 6x800 in 2:28, 2:31, 2:32, 2:30, 2:29 with 400 jog recovery - each rep was 5:20 pace through 600, then a final 200 in 29

3/16 - 3 miles at 5:40 pace; then 15 min break; then 8x300 in 47-48 with 300 jog recovery

3/20 - 4x4x400 alternating 73's and 65's; 1 min standing rest between reps, 400 jog between sets

3/23 - 5k fartlek in 16:34 alternating 200's in 35/45 with final 200 in 29

3/28 - 4 miles at 5:45 pace; 12 min rest; then 4x200 in 28

3/30 - 800 race in 1:55

I should add that there was a weekly long run of 90-100 minutes during this whole time, and there were a lot of days that involved strides that I haven't included. Stuff like a 40 min run where in the middle I do 8x20 second strides.

So that helped to work endurance on one end and keep up leg speed on the other end. There were other workouts too but they started to get complicated to explain so I've only written the easier ones.

First of all: I really didn't want to make your advice look bad :-) Of course you're right: Running 3 x 5:00'-mile with jogg rests isn't "worth" a 15:30. But it's a solid session. I just wanted to warn the OP to not leave the race on practise track, as that is, what I did way too often in the past. I ran 14:20 and in the 8:10s in the 3 K and to be honest, I think, I never ran faster, because I did to many hard workouts. Cranking out 1000s or miles like an animal never was the way to properly train for me. But everybody is different. Some people really need those ball-buster workouts. I just rarely do (and advise) them as I tend to burn out pretty fast. So the Op has to "feel", if it's enough to do 3, 4 or 5 x 1 mile on order to achieve his goal :-)

Pikachu

I wasnt doing anything ground breaking when I was running those times. My long run was probably 13 miles, I did 2 a days 2x week, morning 6 afternoon was another 6-8 or track work.

For me the workout that let me know that I was getting in shape was 12x400 @.67-70 with .60 rest.

I totally agree. t started racing a lot faster when I learned to start pulling the plug on workouts that were too tough. I would try to limit myself to 2 or maybe 3 really hard workouts in a season. None of these workouts should be race effort, and just because you can do them, doesn't mean you always should.

I defined workouts by how long it took to recover. I'd be feeling a typical workout in my legs the next morning, but I should be really feeling good two days out. The few really hard workouts might take an extra day to get over. Even those were easier than races, though. A really hard 5k might leave me flat for 10 days, though I'm pretty sure most of that muscle damage was done by the kick.

4 x mile @ 4:55 w 2 min jog recovery

Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone. Really I was just trying to get a gauge for what kind of shape I'm in for a race I have next week and was hoping to be somewhere around that.

Background:

October-January--20 mpw all relaxed runs

February--50-55 mpw 5 track workouts (first 5 in over 12 months)

Beginning of March ran a 5k in 15:54

March--50-60 mpw all relaxed/cruise-type runs, no workouts

April--60-65 mpw began doing workouts again, end of April decided I wanted to do another race

Since April I've been running 64-68mpw

Starting April 27th these are the workouts I've done: (Note the last time I had done anything of effort was the race at the beginning of March which I only trained 5 weeks for, and then had not done anything of effort since June of 2012)

10 mile cutdown starting at 6:45 dropping to 5:30

12 x 400s w/ 60 sec rest @ 70-71

15 x 120m hill sprints

13 miles @ 6:02 pace

6 x 600s w/ 90 sec rest @ 1:42-45

4 x 400s @ 68, 4 x 200s @ 31, 4 x 300s @ 49 active recovery equal to distance run, 10 min rest, 1 x 3 mi tempo @ 5:40 pace

5 x 1000 w/ 2:00 semi-active rest @ 3:03-07 (20-25 mph winds)

There's a couple fartleks, flying 150s, semi quick runs scattered in in there between April 27th and today too. I'm a strength runner and not a speed guy by any means and felt the need to improve it for this race which is why there's so much focus on the shorter intervals. I haven't ran a 31 sec 200 in at least 5 years.

Based on the workouts I'm seeing it looks like I'm going to end up a little short but I'll post and see what happens. Appreciate all of the input

Don't give up too quickly. 5X1000 with 2-2:15 and 12X400 with 60 sec are both common 3K pace workouts. The 5X1000 would really project to 16:00-16:15, but you had that wind, and the 400 workout would say you were about there. You would be more secure with 4Xmile with 90 sec, but it may just come down to whether you can hold your last mile together. Taper carefully and you might pull it off by the skin of your teeth.

If you're a strength runner I think you have a decent chance. Lacking speed and being able to run the times you hit for the 400, 200, 300 workout is pretty good. The 1000 times throw off the goal a bit but if the wind was as strong as you said I could understand why it would be skewed. Don't give up on it, you're right there.

Here is the build up leading to my 5k PR of 15:26 to give you an idea.

Pre-week 1 I was cross training about an hour a day and rehabbing a knee injury.

Week 1: 28 miles + 5 hours of cross training, no workouts

Week 2: 40 miles, 11x200m in 35, 6x300m hills untimed

Week 3: 64 miles, 4.5 mile tempo @ 5:36, 7x 400m @76, 5k race 15:48

Week 4: 77 miles, 40 min tempo @ 5:42, track 1x mile, 4x 1k, 300, 200 all done faster than 5k pace with long rests.

Week 5: 83 miles, 40 min tempo @ 5:41, 5k race @ 15:37

Week 6: 85 miles, 4 x 1200 @ 5:00 pace, 10 race @ 32:30 (sleet during race)

Week 7: 86 miles, 4 mile temp @ 5:32, track 4x200, 6x400, 1k, 4x200 all fast, 3 x 1 mile @ 5:00 (2 min rest).

Week 8: 73 miles, 10 x 250m hills untimed, 5k race in 15:56

Week 9: 66 miles, 2 x 1 mile @ 5:00, 8 x 200m @ 32/33, 6 x 1/1 fartlek alternating @ 4:40/6:40.

Week 10: 69 miles, 4 x 200 @ 31/32, 5k race in 15:26

1. Solo 3000 in 9:12-9:30, assuming you have good speed endurance, meaning that you felt like you could do that for another 5 laps, so try testing your speed endurance with a 10k tempo at a fast pace (you decide), where you negative split or keep a steady pace.

2. This one is if you don't have very good speed endurance. 4-6x 1600 in sub 4:55. I would recommend doing all 6, but if you go over 5:00, then you are probably in a 15:40+ pace, if you can do them all under 4:55, 15:20 for sure.

3.5-4 mile tempo @ about 5:30 pace

5 min rec

2k @ about 5:15 pace

5 min rec

1200 2 3:39-3:42.

If you can run this workout and be comfortable on the last 1200, you should be ready to go. If the last 1200 is a struggle/ball buster, you probably aren't ready to race at that pace yet.

Ruppfannumber14567 wrote:

2. This one is if you don't have very good speed endurance. 4-6x 1600 in sub 4:55. I would recommend doing all 6, but if you go over 5:00, then you are probably in a 15:40+ pace, if you can do them all under 4:55, 15:20 for sure.

I've run high 14s several times and would struggle, even doubt, that I could do that.