Possible to go from couch to peak 5k shape in 4 months as a young guy? (Calling Renato and other knowledgeable ppl)

I give you a 1 in 4 chance of reaching your goal. The effort needed to be successful is quite high and is more likely to lead to injury than success. You can increase your chances to about 1 in 2 if you find a good coach (tell us where you are and we might have suggestions) and pay them enough ($1000 would be a good planning figure) so that you will listen to what they say.

@Its the sketch, thanks a lot. Yeah I definitely agree that with such a short time frame, dilly dallying around in some random base training 6 weeks out of race time is useless. Will keep your advice in mind.

@*%*&IU9872, I realize it's not that likely. That said, I do have access to excellent coaching/coaches. Just reaching out here because the coaches I know have their own teams currently to worry about. Also, I have gotten in shape very quickly in the past, but I have never ever taken 12 months (or anywhere near it) off and so I'm not really sure what's going to happen. I am going for it though.

Pay them NOW to worry about you for a few hours a week. You need a monetary commitment to do what they say AND ONLY WHAT THEY SAY.

The difference in odds with and without a coach is not about them knowing what workout to do but to tell you when you have done enough work to just meet your goal. Any work you do slightly greater than the amount needed to meet your goal hurts your chances more than doing less than enough.

OP, I'm in the same boat. Going from couch to marathon in 6 months. After a few weeks of running 5-6 days a week, I'm going to make sure I get some speed in every week. I started last week with simple 8*200s. I'm trying to not focus as much on the mileage targets and instead make sure I remind my body how to run fast. The aerobic fitness and mileage targets can come in a month or so.

How many miles do you plan on getting up to? And how many (if any) days do you plan on doing double runs? I'll put up some sample weeks throughout the course of the 4 months to give you some help. I'm no expert at training, but ive done this (With 2 months instead of 4) twice already with success, so maybe the same would work for you.

Also what I found to be the biggest problem was motivation. Find people to run with if you don't already have some. Workouts are incredibly hard when you're just by yourself.

injured runner wrote:

How many miles do you plan on getting up to? And how many (if any) days do you plan on doing double runs? I'll put up some sample weeks throughout the course of the 4 months to give you some help. I'm no expert at training, but ive done this (With 2 months instead of 4) twice already with success, so maybe the same would work for you.

As far as mileage is concerned, I'm sort of unsure. I have generally (i.e. past 4-5 big training cycles/seasons I've done) held 70 and sometimes 80/week for a long duration. I can handle more and will do it if I think it will be beneficial.

I'll double as much as possible I think. I have experienced good results from doubling in the past.

It would be awesome if you did post some sample weeks. It's tough to find anything like that because people generally don't have such a short time frame to get into shape.

Also, I should have people to run with almost always, though I think for workouts the guys I'll run with will be either faster or slower than me and nobody right around me.

classic sense of entitlement. Some schmuck actually posts a request asking for arguably the world's finest marathon coach to give him free tips?

Hey, why don't you call Russell Crowe & ask for free acting tips? Why not post something asking Buffet to give you stock market tips?

Michael L. Robinson wrote:

classic sense of entitlement. Some schmuck actually posts a request asking for arguably the world's finest marathon coach to give him free tips?

Hey, why don't you call Russell Crowe & ask for free acting tips? Why not post something asking Buffet to give you stock market tips?

I do not expect a response from Reanto, but if Renato took the time to post I would be absolutely thrilled and highly appreciative. I can see how my title could be interpreted as you did. My apologies for that.

I think working up to 75 to 80 miles would work just fine. And all I meant was having people to start the workouts with you and make sure you finish and stick with the rest times. I'll put up the training weeks when I get to a computer cause doing on my phone is a hassle. And have you done any running the past few weeks or are you starting from complete scratch?

Are you currently 100% healthy? You mention some lingering damage. Although, if it is just scar tissue, you are probably okay. It takes a long time to break up, and can cause some pain, but my main concern is that your actual tear or whatever is fully healed.

As for training, two things:

-In my personal experience, the tempo run has given me the greatest gains in the least amount of time. I mean a true, 20 minute run at threshold pace, with anything longer adjusted for intensity (but still not more than 40 minutes).

-Jack Daniels released a DVD a few years ago (no idea of the name) but in it he states, that the thirty minute run is the 'biggest bang for you buck' in terms of aerobic development. If you decide to pursue doubles, just keep that in mind.

state wrote:

-In my personal experience, the tempo run has given me the greatest gains in the least amount of time. I mean a true, 20 minute run at threshold pace, with anything longer adjusted for intensity (but still not more than 40 minutes).

-Jack Daniels released a DVD a few years ago (no idea of the name) but in it he states, that the thirty minute run is the 'biggest bang for you buck' in terms of aerobic development. If you decide to pursue doubles, just keep that in mind.

YES exactly what I had in mind. Tempos are amazing.

I have done some running recently yes, and can jump right into a 30-40 soon. And I absolutely agree with the workout thing... it's highly difficult to stick to a tough workout when you're all alone.

Also, I appreciate all your suggestions & advice here.

I can feel that the tendon is not the same as it used to be (both while running and when I physically feel it with my fingers) but I don't think that I can change anything now and I don't think it will present any issues. I have had 12 months of 95% off at this point and think it's as good as it will get.

Definitely agree with you on the tempo thing and will definitely incorporate tempos a lot when I'm trying to gain fitness before specific workouts. Though regular tempo runs are my favorite, a track favorite of mine is 10x1k @ tempo pace with 60s rest.

I'll look up the DVD.

Thanks for the advice.

Oh, you mention performance calculators. Go to this link and download 3.0 of Daniels' Running Tables:

http://www.electricblues.com/html/runpro.html

From there, you can get an accurate tempo time for your current ability, and you can get a sense of where you need to be for a PR. But do train at your current form, not your desired pace.

state wrote:

Oh, you mention performance calculators. Go to this link and download 3.0 of Daniels' Running Tables:

http://www.electricblues.com/html/runpro.html

From there, you can get an accurate tempo time for your current ability, and you can get a sense of where you need to be for a PR. But do train at your current form, not your desired pace.

Thanks! Never knew these were free to download.

One more thing to keep in mind since you are so out of shape (and I don't know how much natural talent you have)...how many weeks do you think it'll take for you to be able to break 5 in the mile again? How long till you can get a sub-10 2 mile? Sub-15 3 mile? Since those would be your splits for your goal TT, at some point ( early to mid-July maybe?) you're going to have to be doing things like 5 x 1600 with limited rest, at that pace, when you probably cant even do one of those intervals right now.

injured runner wrote:

One more thing to keep in mind since you are so out of shape (and I don't know how much natural talent you have)...how many weeks do you think it'll take for you to be able to break 5 in the mile again? How long till you can get a sub-10 2 mile? Sub-15 3 mile? Since those would be your splits for your goal TT, at some point ( early to mid-July maybe?) you're going to have to be doing things like 5 x 1600 with limited rest, at that pace, when you probably cant even do one of those intervals right now.

I could break 5 in a week probably, no joke. But the other distances, I'm not sure. Good thought though on how I'll have to bring that pace up each mile.

And yeah I was thinking 5x1600 and 2x3200 would be a couple good benchmark workouts later on.

Thursday 4/24 - 50 minute run

Legs/mechanics/muscles felt good

Form felt good

Previous injury felt good (didn't feel it)

Aerobics are OK but obviously need work

Will update log here as I go, 1-2 times a week

So the first few weeks should just be building up mileage and intensity, and then you can work in the tempos and workouts. If anyone else on here could critique or give any advice on this, that would be great, I'll be using the same training plan.

Weeks 3-4

M: 4/6 easy double

T: 6 mile tempo

W: 5 easy

Th: 4/4 double

F: 7 easy

Sa: Short Hill sprints...3-4 mi easy later on

Su: long run

M: 7 easy

T: 6x1000 @ 5k pace (go out at whatever pace seems right) w/2 min rest...4 mi easy

W: 6/4 double

Th: 6 mile tempo...3 easy

F: 4/6 double

Sa: 4 mi + 8x200 w/200 jog recovery (Running fast but relaxed, you shouldn't push it)

Su: Off

Total = 50-55/week

Weeks 7-8 (around the end of June)

M: 5/7 easy double (this is what I prefer, i suppose 4/8 or 6/6 is just fine?)

T: 2 mile, 800 jog, 1 mile, 800 jog, 1 mile (2 mile Warmup and 2 mile cool down) again at whatever pace seems right, don't take the 2 mile too fast, but definitely under 10:30.

W: 8 easy

Th: 5 mile tempo...4 mi easy later on

F: 3/5 easy

Sa: Hill sprints...5 mi easy

Su: long run

M: 5/7 easy

T: 2 sets of 1600-1200-800-400 (800 jog between each interval, 3 min standing between sets)

W: 4/4 easy

Th: 6-7 mile tempo...4 easy

F: 4/6 double

Sa: 2 mi warm up/2 mi cool down, 3 sets of 400-800-400 (1:30 between intervals, 800 jog between sets)...4 mi easy

Su: Off

Total = 60-65/week

Gotta study for midterms now, but I'll put up more weeks for july and august tomorrow if you would like me to. Any questions or problems with these? Again if anyone else could help add on to this it would be greatly appreciated