My ultimate goal at this moment is to break 17 on the track for 5k. I am probably legit 17:20 or under right now. I did a ladder workout, 400-600-800-1600-800-600-400 with 3 min jog recovery and 4 min recovery for mile and after. 74-1:56-2:37-5:28-1:55-69 we are at 4000 feet if that means anything. I want to know what you think about mile repeats and how much rest. Thanks and keep running. Future goals are to break 10 but now thats out of the question.
Are you male or female? The times are good figuring in the altitude. I like 6-8 X 800 in 2:30-5 with 3min rest/jog.
male or female do 1000m repeats at steady pace say 3:50 for you with little rest say 45 seconds standing/walking. do 3-4mile tempo runs at say 6:20/mile for you. make them steady that should build up your strength. run a longer run maybe 9-10 for you and run all your general runs a little long say instead of 4miles do 5miles if you increase your miles significnalty i do not recommend the workouts then.
Too much recovery after the 400, 600, and 800s. Also slow down your shorter stuff and/or speed up your mile. Within reason stuff should be run at nearly the same pace.
Tempo pace should be around 6:00 pace for a 17 5k. Start at 3-4 miles and work your way up to 5-6.
I disagree with shortening your rest and slowing your pace.
Each workout has a purpose. If the purpose of this workout was to run faster than race pace, then the goal was accomplished.
Today i did 6 by 800 with 2 min rest and 2 quarters at the end. Ill give the excuses first because im a jackass, the track was waterlogged and covered with mud and ice and there was a sick headwind at the first 100. I averaged 2:41 but it felt almost all out because of the conditions. My shirt is covered in mud and it was 27 degrees with snow. I ran the last quarters in 77 and 75. I hope the conditions effected my times and if not im far from sub 17 probably. And im a slow white guy.
I'm pretty close to you for 5K and would recommend running longer (at any pace) and not worrying so much about specific times to hit in workouts. I find 3-4 mile tempo runs at 6-6:20 to be very hard and not worth it - save your hard efforts for the races. If you can get your mileage up you only need one workout a week (with strides a couple of other days) to get under 17.
Where are you going to run this track 5k? Indoors?
If you are pointing for 5k track races in April and May, then you shouldn't be runnin gintervals in 27 deg, snowy weather. You need more long dist running anyway, until you get around 17:00-17:30. At your current level, you are wasting your time getting too scientific about workouts on the track.
Once you get 10 good weeks of base in, then the same workouts for any 5k runner are good ones: 5-6 x 1000m, 3-5 x 1600m, 5-8 x 800m, 3-6 x 1200m, 5-7-10 mile hard runs, 8-20 x 400m, etc.
Do the 800-1000-1200's at close to 4km race pace (VO2max), the the 1600's at 3-4 secs per lap slower, and the 400's at 3-4 secs per lap faster than VO2max.
For a 17:30 5k runner (80.4 per lap vVO2max):
400 = 76
800 = 2:40
1000 = 3:21
1200 = 4:02
1600 = 5:36
17:00 = 78.3 vVO2max (approx)
Also,
I forgot to add that these efforts should be followed by rests of slightly less than the rep, if you are doing a standing or walking rest.
Like:
60-70 secs for 400
2-2.5 min for 800
3 min for 1k/1200m
4 min for 1600
it won't seem hard until about the half-way point in the workout and that is what it is supposed to feel like.
Great explanation of this concept (by John Kellogg) at: