Training too hard? Desperate Runner

Well there isn't really an easy answer to your question. It honestly depends on what you're trying to accomplish. An example of running faster might be on a day where you're working on building speed. You might be running faster than race pace but running shorter reps than you normally would at race pace. On another day you might be running a tempo run where you're running slower than race pace but it's still a hard effort.

The key to getting faster is progression. By increasing speed, volume, or lowering rest you can make things "harder" allowing you to improve. If you never progress you'll plateau and not maximize your potential. However, it isn't as easy as it sounds because you need to be careful not to overtrain. If you have a coach, talk to him or her about progressing because I'm sure he or she would have a log of what you've done in the past and you can work from there.

Good luck!

Thanks

You don't need to train that hard to improve.

I'm in desperation because for the last year I've been training constantly and my half marathon times are improving a lot around 10 minutes this year but my 5K times doesn't move at all.

It seems that I'm building endurance but not getting any faster I can run 1km under 3 minutes but I can't run a 5k under 17 :(

To get better at running 5k, you want running 5k in 19 minutes to get easier not to get a fast 1k time.

artud2000 wrote:

I'm in desperation because for the last year I've been training constantly and my half marathon times are improving a lot around 10 minutes this year but my 5K times doesn't move at all.

It seems that I'm building endurance but not getting any faster I can run 1km under 3 minutes but I can't run a 5k under 17 :(

Race a 5k on a cool day. You'll go much faster.

Thanks for the tips. I think that what I will do and I've been feeling could work fine on my body is to have a day where I train really hard almost to puke then other days of good quality easy miles and a long run at a moderate-hard effort.

With one day of cross training to heal my shins I usually struggle a lot with my shins they cause me a lot of pain always. I think I could be a better runner if I were able to control those pains.

Appreciate all the recommendations I'll be running my first XC race tomorrow hope it goes well.

Do your intervals at 5k pace. Date, not goal.