Struggling to break 17 minutes in the 5k

It's hard to tell too much about your training overall. Daily mileage shouldn't really matter, weekly mileage is more indicative (meaning some days should be 5 miles, some 10 miles). Also do you go through a phase of however many weeks of base training to handle high mileage before going to long intervals and then short intervals after that? These 3 phases are what I tend to follow. Your times look pretty good, my 1600 and 3200 are similar. I'd make sure you're training all the different running systems in your training. I run tempos near the same pace, 1000 pace looks fine. I'd say results will come if you build a solid base then add more quality as the season goes.

How far do you run at 6:00 for a tempo?

How long is your rest between 3:26 1000s? Do you jog, walk or stand?

Do you just keep pounding out this week of workouts and run 5ks every once in a while or do you have seasons where you just train for a while and then run 3 races in 4 weeks>

With your mile and two mile times, a quicker 5K should be easily possible for you. Try getting your 1000 repeats down closer to 3:20...maybe just do 4 or 5 of them as you adjust to the quicker pace. Maybe slow down your daily runs to get more quality on your quicker days.

oldermilen wrote:

With your mile and two mile times, a quicker 5K should be easily possible for you. Try getting your 1000 repeats down closer to 3:20...maybe just do 4 or 5 of them as you adjust to the quicker pace. Maybe slow down your daily runs to get more quality on your quicker days.

Or do more of them. Say 8-10x1k instead of 6k. Or cut the rest (60s instead of 2 mins). In general I always got better results by not going faster but by doing more or making it more race like. YMMV.

Shorter rest for the longer intervals might be the key. Seems like you definitely need to work on the longer intervals. You should be able to get the 1000/1200s down to 80 instead of 82 per 400m. No longer than 3 minutes rest. Volume could be higher too, maybe 7x 1000 or 5x1200.

I also think if you are doing something like tempo miles, you should be 5:50-55 with about a minute rest between. 5 or 6 of those is a good workout.

Please provide mile splits for your most recent 5Ks

My guess is you have not raced the distance enough or gotten in the right race on the right course? Going out too hard? Limit rest on your 1000s and see if you can complete 3 x 1 mile @ or under 17 (5:40 per mile) with 90 seconds rest. If you can do that, you will crack 17 no doubt.

Possibilities as to whats missing: the 5k courses you are running on are hard. if its on a track this isnt it. But if you have really hilly courses that itself is going to be harder to hit.

You want your 1k repeats and tempos to be on terrain similar to what you race on. So dont do 1000 repeats on a track when you are racing on grass. Plot it out on grass and then do 6-8 of them at 17:00 pace with 60-90 seconds rest and halfway through take 2-3 minutes if you need it. As the season progresses start taking away rest and adding more and more reps.

for your tempos try and do it on rolling hills if possible. This may help witht he harder xc courses.

If these are things you are already doing you may need to work on your racing tactics. Do you go out close to 5;00 and then die the last mile? I advise you run the first mile a tad faster than your goal pace and you should feel SMOOTH. The second mile is where you need to push. Make the effort go up a lot and try and pass people at a consistent race. Just accelerate and make your legs work. The last mile is just for you to tough it out. It will suck. But you should still be able to run strong.

if you already have a good racing tactic then I dont know what to tell you. Maybe you arent in a fast enough race and dont have anyone to push yourself against. Maybe you can try adding in other types of workouts like fartleks, hill repeats, strength training, progression runs. If none of these help then upping your mileage is the next solution.

you are definitley fast enough to break 17. I broke 17 in the 5k and had a similar 2 mile pr and slightly faster mile pr.

OP, what is your second fastest 5k time?

OP, this is an interesting one to me.

You have a mile time about 5 seconds faster than me, so I'll assume your speed is better. Meanwhile, you run more mileage than me, so I would assume you'd beats my times by more and more going up in distance. But somehow you have a slower 5k than me (I've been just over/under 17 for a few years).

So I would have some questions about your workouts, since you are far from transferring that mile speed to your 5k.

How long are these 6:00/mi tempos you do? I do tempos at about the same speed as you (5:55-6:00 pace), in workouts like 4-5 miles straight. But many weeks I will broken tempos with quite short breaks (e.g. 3x2, 6x1). For the broken tempos I would go quicker, more like 5:45-5:50 or around 10k pace for me.

As well, your overall plan seems like it could easily lead to a plateau if you don't mix things up. Rather than just doing 6x1k on race pace week after week (with what recovery, by the way?), try 6x800 or 4x1000 at 3k pace (2:00-3:00 rest). I found that running more intervals faster than 5k pace (at 3:15-3:20/k rather than 3:25/k for me) made a difference for all of my events. Like the guy above said, start thinking of 80s/lap as your baseline zone - you are fast enough!

I hope that you post back about how it all goes.