How can I break 18 minutes on a 5K in 3 months at Age 46?

Height/weight?

Do all your runs about 5 seconds per mile faster.

I am 6'1 and 154. I cross train a lot with push ups, pull ups, planks, curls, bench press, and compound body exercises on most days of the week. I am back into 5K racing now for about 4 years, from a long lay off (many years).

Patiently build your aerobic base over soft, hilly ground for 4-5 months.

Read triathlete Mark Allen's training.

Stop cross training and start spending more time running.

Why is 3 months important? Good way to set yourself up to fail.

Are you already running in the 18's?

Track or road?

Are you doing any intervals?

Work in some repeat 800s, kilometers, and 1600s.

Gradually increase speed and number of reps.

First time out it could be something like 3 @ 800 in 2:40, just telling your system that you intend to do some fast running.

Work up to 8 @ 800, or 4 - 5 @ one mile a bit faster than your desired race pace. One session like this per week.

I last broke 17 minutes just before I turned 40, I was doing stuff like 4 - 5 @ 1200 slightly faster than race pace on interval days.

Disclaimer: I'm no expert, but you knew that.

Interesting site. Thanks!

njlech wrote:

How can I break 18 minutes on a 5K in 3 months at Age 46? Right now I can run 18:13 as my current PR from 3 weeks ago. My mile PR as this age is 5:13. I run about 40-45 miles a week at 7:15-7:30 per run, usually 7-8 miles, 5 days a week. Long run on Saturdays is about 12-13 miles at 7:45-8:00 pace.

What do you suggest for more speed endurance and strength? Thanks!

Are you doing any quality training sessions? Basically, workouts other than your long runs & regular 7-8 mile training runs?

How often are you racing 5Ks or other races?

If you haven't included other workouts, and haven't raced that frequently to fill that gap, then you have a ton of potential just by starting to include some. You don't need to go overboard.

Ideas that might help you:

Intervals: somewhere between 3k-5k race pace. Do 5-8% of your weekly mileage, and break it up into 3-5 minute segments with somewhere between 0.5-1x recovery jogs between. For example, repeat 4 minutes fast with 3 minute recovery jog. Or 3 minutes fast with 2-3 minute recovery jogs. You can do these by time, or by distance (6x1000m, with 400m jogs for example).

Tempo Runs/Intervals: Continuous 15-20minute runs, OR broken into longer intervals (6-15 minutes with short recoveries) around the speed you could race for 1 hour. Do no more than 10% of your weekly mileage. Alternating a 20-minute continuous run one time with the long intervals, say 4 x 1 mile, the next workout works well for these.

Long Run - you are already doing this.

Repetitions - Short repeats from 30 seconds to 2 minutes around your 1-mile race pace/effort. Probably between 200m - 600m if you do them on the track. Take full recovery, such as up to 4x the time of the hard portion. These can be done, and work well, on a gradual uphill. (Don't do hills the week of an important race).

Take as many easy days as you need between each workout, and basically cycle between the 4 types above.

Or, if you want a proven plan with some subtle, but possibly important, differences, read this article and follow its suggestions as best you can. I would bet good money it will get you to a whole 'nother level. It is absolutely awesome advice, and it is almost written for your exact situation (masters runner, 5k race, need to introduce quality sessions but not too crazy much). Every person I know that has followed it have set signficant 5k PRs within the next 4 months.

3 months is not that important. I was just throwing a goal date out there. It is more like "as soon as I can while still staying healthy and injury free". Yes, I am already running in the 18's. I broke into the 18's just 3 weeks ago in a 5K race(18:13), which was the first time I have done that since high school. Previous PR before that was 19:08 last fall 2013. Last race before the 18:13 PR was February 2014, where I did 19:12 in bitter cold weather (15 below 0). I have not done a whole lot of speed work until now.

Road races only.

how much about running training do you know? Are you a beginner? If you don't know much about serious training - read up, either on this website or a book or, maybe best of all -

this training plan from Pete Magill is excellent - it will cover all the bases.

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/solving-5k-puzzle

it's not a secret -

as many miles as you can do while staying sharp and healthy

one speed type workout (for ex 6-8 x 800 at 5k pace)

one endurance workout like a 20 minute tempo

one long run