Running a 5k without speed work

Dromano19 wrote:

Hey this year I decided to run my first marathon to try something new. I have been training for 6 weeks so far and the marathon is in April. Up until this point I have mostly raced 5k because I really enjoy them. I have a friend who wanted me to do a 5k with him in a couple of weeks but I have only been doing mileage for my training. I was wondering if I could still run a fast 5k time with all of this mileage and no speed work? My last 5k time was an 18:40. I just wanna know if I can still run a fast pace without speed work?

Who knows? Give it a try and see. Think of it as a hard workout. Most likely, it will feel too fast, but you\'ll think you could have kept going.

I've PRed without doing speedwork and only a few weeks of consistent running (female) went from 18:40 to 18:10.

Done it before wrote:

I've PRed without doing speedwork and only a few weeks of consistent running (female) went from 18:40 to 18:10.

I PRed in the 5k when I was training for an ultra and just doing a lot of hills (and sometimes strides). It turns out that I respond better to mileage than I do intensity. The next step is to try to combine mileage with intensity to see what happens (won't be easy at my age).

Depends on the person. I know some very fast people whose 5k PRs came in the middle of marathon training (one 2:16 marathon guy comes to mind). I also know others who are nearly 1 full minute slower in a 5k before adding speedwork.

If you're like me, that first 1-2 5k-paced workouts can have a huge improvement curve, so I personally would do ok, but would be able to do much better only 2 or so weeks later if I could get 1 or 2 workouts in.

If you want to feel a little more comfortable, and possibly avoid a silly injury, you can squeeze in a "Hadd" workout between now & the race to get some turnover work without building a bunch of lactate and sidetracking your marathon training. He suggested repeat 200m @ 5k effort with 200m jog.

If you are injury prone (I am), it's definitely a shock & risk to jump into a 5k and go all-out. I personally would either go 90-95%, or do something at 5k pace... either the Hadd workout above, or just some sets of strides at 5k pace between now & the race. If you are hardy, you might not have any problems just jumping in the race.

Good friend of mine is 48, former sub 30 10k college runner, runs for an hour a day (give or take but pretty close to that) at easy (8:00/high 7s) to medium pace (low 7s, maybe high 6s), absolutely no speedwork except his races, and has been a mid 16 5k masters' guy for as long as I can remember; 5 + years now. Works for him.

I ran a significant 10k PR (37:05 to 36:04) after 6 weeks of marathon base training which included M: mid-long easy, Tu: easy+strides, W: mid-long easy, Th- 60 min marathon pace run, F-easy, Sa- long run, Su-easy.

I primed myself the week leading into the 10k by dropping the mileage a bit, dropping the marathon paced run and instead adding one progression run that ended with a short portion of something that felt like 10k pace and then 2 days before the race I did 8x1 min at perceived 10k pace spaced out in an easy run. Felt very bouncy and fresh going into that race. Take the easy days very easy all week before the race. This race made me wonder if I'm just a quick responder to fast(er) workouts, I was significantly aerobically underdeveloped or is it relative rest that did it. Either way I was pleasantly surprised by the results.