Give me a good 5k sharpening workout

agip wrote:

sharpening is a myth.

if you are in good shape keep doing what you are doing.

If you are not in good shape there is nothing you can do to improve fitness in 12 days.

you can improve your mental outlook tho - I'd choose a workout you know you can do well.

And keep up your mileage.

I think he just wants a good hard 5K workout. In 12 days you won't make huge performance leaps but it's enough time to recover from something hard like 7-8 x 1000m at 5k pace, 400m jog recovery between each.

2 Good ones that work for my team every year:

16x400 @5k, leave every 3min, preferably on grass, throw in a hammer at 58-60 on #10

10 x 300 @ two mile pace, jog 100m back to start and go again continuously (Russian), Focus on staying relax and letting legs flow and get feel at a pace faster than 5k

2x90 seconds, 4x60 seconds, 4x45 seconds, 4x30 seconds and 4x15 seconds with equal recovery at steady state pace.

S.O.H.T. wrote:

kmaclam wrote:

Yeah, "there is nothing you can do to help your fitness in 12 days"???...BUT, "keep up your mileage". Non-Sequitur. 12 days out from a 5K, I'm hammering it. Slightly less volume but fast. So instead of my 5 X 1200 @ 5K pace, I'm doing 4 X 1000 @ 3K for example.

No one cares what you do, hobbyjogger

Come again?

agip wrote:

sharpening is a myth.

if you are in good shape keep doing what you are doing.

If you are not in good shape there is nothing you can do to improve fitness in 12 days.

you can improve your mental outlook tho - I'd choose a workout you know you can do well.

And keep up your mileage.

This is why you shouldn't ask for advice on letsrun. agip, I hope you're just trolling.

12 days out: 6-8 x 1000 from 5k to 3k pace with 90-120 seconds rest

10 days out: controlled tempo (maybe 8-10 miles at 45 seconds slower than race pace), strides before and after

7 days out: 15 x 200 at 1500 pace with 200 jog rest, smooth and crisp

5 days out: 4 miles at tempo 25 seconds slower than race pace, strides before and after

2-3 days out: 6-8 x 300 at 5k pace with 200 jogs

Easy runs in between. Reduce mileage some, but don't overdo the reduction. Some people don't feel as good and lose endurance with too much of a taper.

2-4 weeks out: you can have the last buffering workout (ie 10 x 400 at 1500 pace w/ 60 seconds rest), but don't neglect tempo runs.

Here is the perfect sharpening workout.

Jump on a treadmill and start at 3 minutes slower than race pace. Every minute, go .1 mph faster. At 2.5 miles, increase the .1 mph every 30 seconds. Run until you think you may fall off the treadmill (all out)

This workout gives you plenty of time to warmup and a race simulation effort at the end, but the time you are running hard is minimal (around 1 mile) so it is easy to recover from.

If you want to lengthen the workout specific to 10k, increase at 1 minute the whole workout. If you want to make it more mile specific, start increasing at 15 second intervals after 3-3.5 miles.

Coacherman wrote:

12 days out: 6-8 x 1000 from 5k to 3k pace with 90-120 seconds rest

LOL ok. So we're now at 8x1k @ 3k pace with 90s.

Any higher bids?

Three point one wrote:

12 days out. Need a good, hard interval workout. What should I run?

Do a Kenyan styled fartlek session of 17 x 2 min on with 1 minute off.

haha, you know OP is a self-proclaimed hobby jogger right?

Three point one wrote:

12 days out. Need a good, hard interval workout. What should I run?

Since you are so close to the race, do 5-6 X (400, 400 Jog) at 800M Race Pace 11+ days out. I used to do this and usually got results I was looking for. I even did this before a Marathon and followed that up by running my Lifetime PR (2:23) in NY which is a relatively slow course. Try and get one of these workouts in 11+ days out, then do a hard last mile or two on a moderate distance run a week out.

Don't forget to get a light distance workout in as well with the 400's. I used to do a 2 mile warm up, the 400 workout then 2 Mile warm down.

Good Luck!

Coacherman wrote:

12 days out: 6-8 x 1000 from 5k to 3k pace with 90-120 seconds rest

10 days out: controlled tempo (maybe 8-10 miles at 45 seconds slower than race pace), strides before and after

7 days out: 15 x 200 at 1500 pace with 200 jog rest, smooth and crisp

5 days out: 4 miles at tempo 25 seconds slower than race pace, strides before and after

2-3 days out: 6-8 x 300 at 5k pace with 200 jogs

Easy runs in between. Reduce mileage some, but don't overdo the reduction. Some people don't feel as good and lose endurance with too much of a taper.

2-4 weeks out: you can have the last buffering workout (ie 10 x 400 at 1500 pace w/ 60 seconds rest), but don't neglect tempo runs.

Are you kidding....this is horrible advice. All that work in 7 days..... you would get to the race and completely die

One thing too many coaches overlook is ... what was just done? Most seem to only be looking ahead, forgetting the last hard session. 12 days out, apart from OP's last race 1 month ago, should also consider what was done prior to day 12. If high school XC, then the runners probably just finished a hard race on day 14 out, therefore, to do a 'hard' interval session with only 1 day recovery is risky. If cautious, give the kids 2 recovery days and a modest workout on day 11, recovering another day or 2 then puts the 'hard' interval session at day 9 or 8. How BIG then do you really want, or 'need', this workout to be? There were some good suggestions for 'hard' interval workouts, but maybe those are better suited for the weeks prior to what should be the taper phase. I've seen too many coaches over-train their kids or not hold them back when they should be reducing intensity workload. A race IS an intense workout, factor that into the training plans. Cut the volume and intensity of some of the workouts day

sdsd wrote:

10 x 400 at mile pace with 60 seconds rest. Lactic buffering workout

or

4x400 all-out with 8 minutes rest. Lactic capacity workout

If all the aerobic work has been done you want to prepare yourself for the acidosis at the end of the race by either increasing your ability to buffer lactic (H+ ions) or increasing how much you can produce..

Coach is that you? I don't know anyone else that says H+ ions (which are really just protons)

This is the workout I did before running a PR in the 5k (14 flat for reference):

Warm-up, drills, strides:

8-10 x 1000 meters on 4:15 "goes" (that means a running clock, for example, if you run a rep in 3 minutes, you only have 1 minute 15 seconds recovery before next repetition).

You should progress in your pace though it. My reps started around 2:54, went sub 2:50 by the 3rd, and finished in 2:39. Average was about 2:47.

It is a tough workout, so don't force it if you find yourself stuck at a certain number, but it's great volume and helps get you used to the grind required for running a hard 5k.

If you are running significantly slower than the 5k time I ran, just up the rest by about 15 seconds for each 30 seconds slower (for example, if your a 14:30, use 4:30 goes, a 15-minute guy, use 4:45 goes, etc...)

Hope that helps!

Sorry, I forgot to add that the paces should be adjusted as well. You should "average" your goal time pace per kilometer, so if your a 15 minute 5k guy, you should average 3 minutes per k.

2k@5k pace(r4), 2x1k@5k-3k pace(r2:30), 2x600@3k pace(j200m), 3-4x300@mile pace(j100m)

lol coach wrote:

Coacherman wrote:

12 days out: 6-8 x 1000 from 5k to 3k pace with 90-120 seconds rest

LOL ok. So we're now at 8x1k @ 3k pace with 90s.

Any higher bids?

Lol!

qw9-8sdfojnqwer wrote:

alabamar has it right, nothing new.

Since you are picking your own workout, my guess is you are not running XC.

To run a good peak race, you need to have some rust busting races beforehand. You should have run a race about 5 or 6 weeks out.

If you haven't run a 5k race 3 weeks out, you should run one at 2 weeks out. If you haven't run a race at 14 days, try to run something like a 5k time trial at 12 days. Aim for about 45 seconds slower (15 sec per mile) than you hope to run in the big race.

A run 45 seconds slower, shouldn't qualify as new. Either you ran an earlier race or two or you have done some longer repeats OR shorter tempos that should match a run 45 seconds slower.

What if it is a HS runner with a meet every week?