RE: I run 140miles a week but cant break 18.30 for 5kms,

Describe what your full routine looks like. Any workouts in there or just raw mileage?

Dean Karnazes, is that you?!

I bumped up my kms to 150/wk and am getting faster. what does your week look like?

some people just aren't meant to be fastgood runners. Accept that

In my opinion, most people cannot do 140 miles per week without breaking down or injury. I am sure you would do well in ultra marathons, or at least be way more competitive than you are in the 5k. Everyone has different talents. You should be proud that you can run 140 miles per week. I am envious of anyone that can run that many miles. Over the past 7 years, every time I have lingered around 70 miles or more per week, I have gotten injured.

As you likely know, Scott Jurek, one of the top ultra runners, only has a 2:38 marathon PR. I don't know what his 5k PR is, but likely it is not very impressive.

justsomeoldcoach wrote:Describe what your full routine looks like. Any workouts in there or just raw mileage?

This is what I'm wondering. What would happen if he dropped down to around 80 miles a week and put some serious hard quality in there, assuming he can handle it as well as he handles almost twice as much mileage all in easy runs. Could be a breakthrough waiting to happen.

Monday

10-12miles easy pm 8-10miles easy

Tuesday

6miles easy 3miles 80% 3miles easy. Pm 8miles easy

Wednesday

14miles easy pm 8miles easy

Thursday

6miles easy 3miles farklet 2miles easy. Pm 9miles easy

Friday

10miles easy pm 8miles easy

Saturdays

8miles easy 4mile at 80% 1mile easy

Midday easy 4miles

Pm 4miles easy

Sunday

16-18miles easy

Midday 3miles easy

3miles easy pm.

Average week.

Im in the same boat, op. I walk 350 miles a week. But still my 5K PR is only 27:30. Don't know what to do. Walk everyday from 8 AM to midnight at a pace of 19 minutes per mile. But I can't get faster for some reason.

hamburgerking wrote:

I bumped up my kms to 150/wk and am getting faster. what does your week look like?

some people just aren't meant to be fastgood runners. Accept that

Some people aren't meant to give advice. You certainly fall into that category. "Fastgood" relative to whom? Chris Solinsky? Yeah probably.

To the OP, there are a lot of variables. Are you doing two quality sessions a week? At least one long run? Are you recovering/sleeping enough? Are you at your proper racing weight? Do you have any lingering injuries/gait issues? Are you doing your easy runs truly easy?

So out of the entire week you're only running 10 miles at any sort of "quality." And your longest run is 18 miles. If you're tied down to running that amount of mileage and you want to see more improvements in the short term, add some more fartlek work in, and lengthen your long run.

Forgot to write that I saw a slight mprovement when I increased my mileage from 280 to 300 miles a couple years ago. So try doing that I suppose. It lowered my 100 meter time from 19.99 to 19.95.

Just scale the mileage down and go into lifting, cycling, any other sport.... that's unbelievably untalented.

Or maybe you can focus on marathons and ultras, because your body can handle that much mileage.

Watchsocks wrote:

So out of the entire week you're only running 10 miles at any sort of "quality." And your longest run is 18 miles. If you're tied down to running that amount of mileage and you want to see more improvements in the short term, add some more fartlek work in, and lengthen your long run.

Why the f*ck should he lengthen his long run? Really stupid advice. Cut down on mileage and add more quality sessions.

Why the f*ck should he lengthen his long run? Really stupid advice. Cut down on mileage and add more quality sessions.

What I meant was if he is tied down to running the certain volume, increase the long run, while cutting the other sessions down. If OP is running that much without a single run over 18 miles they're missing out on some benefits of running longer. I do agree that their current plan doesn't make much sense.

Jesus F*cking Christ dude!!! I think it's pretty clear that it's high time that you picked another hobby. Take up hiking or cooking or try juggling.

I am dead serious. You NEED to stop that horseshit immediately.

I don't buy it.

If you can't break 18:30, but have a PR close to that mark, I would reason you that your average weekly mile pace throughout the week would be 8 minutes per mile. At 140 miles per week that's almost 19 hours of running a week, or nearly three hours a day.

If you could actually survive that kind of volume as an 18:30 5k runner your body would make the necessary adaptations to run faster, even if all you did was easy runs.

You can't run that much and have such a low capacity for racing unless you are completely emaciated.

You should really give up.

You suck

Not everyone was meant to be a fat runner.

Although it sounds like you could be an ultra runner with that kind of mileage. You'll have to find a new forum to post on though cuz folks round here don't like no ultra runners.

Not Really wrote:

I don't buy it.

If you can't break 18:30, but have a PR close to that mark, I would reason you that your average weekly mile pace throughout the week would be 8 minutes per mile. At 140 miles per week that's almost 19 hours of running a week, or nearly three hours a day.

If you could actually survive that kind of volume as an 18:30 5k runner your body would make the necessary adaptations to run faster, even if all you did was easy runs.

You can't run that much and have such a low capacity for racing unless you are completely emaciated.

Really? You dont buy it?

Do you really not believe that there are runners on the very bottom of the genetic curve - they simply were not meant to run competitively?

I'm not sure why this is so hard to believe. For every 15 min 5k runner, there are likely 10 runners who are as untalented as OP.

john9090 wrote:

. Surely any 28year old male that can run at 130lbs can run faster then me. Am I just a joke?

Just like to get ur thoughts?

Btw im not a troll.

Im just a guy that is lost.

There's your problem right there. You are the size of a 9th grade girl so you run 9th grade girl times.

Drop the high mileage as it clearly is no (longer) working for you.

You could be in a constant state of overtraining and are too naive/stubborn to accept that. I know that sounds hard to believe, but it is entirely possible to keep slogging away tons of miles even when your body doesn't react to training anymore.

I suggest you do some soul searching into your training logs. See where the weakest link is. You might be missing neuromuscular training such as hill sprints. You might be missing anaerobic work such as mile reps. There are lots of things you might be doing wrong. But in order to find out, first you have to rule out overtraining.

Hope this helps. And be sure you are not the first one to be in that position.