Sub 20min 5km strategy

larkimm wrote:

Race strategy will never buy you the time if you are 45s out (that's a 3.75% gap you're looking to close). Maybe if you're hitting 20:12 each time then better pacing could sort you out.

It's all in the training. Intervals and tempos to improve your speed endurance. And losing weight will not do any harm (to a point).

Funny that I wrote that^^ on this thread and then today I wrote that it was all about volume.

When I wrote about intervals and tempos I thought that was the only route to more speed in 5k. I then spent the next 4 months running over 500 miles at a slow pace (I think just one interval session in the whole period) and ended up bringing me down to 18:59.

So I'm either contradicting or supplementing myself. Either way, both are honestly held views posted at the time!

larkimm wrote:

larkimm wrote:

Race strategy will never buy you the time if you are 45s out (that's a 3.75% gap you're looking to close). Maybe if you're hitting 20:12 each time then better pacing could sort you out.

It's all in the training. Intervals and tempos to improve your speed endurance. And losing weight will not do any harm (to a point).

Funny that I wrote that^^ on this thread and then today I wrote that it was all about volume.

When I wrote about intervals and tempos I thought that was the only route to more speed in 5k. I then spent the next 4 months running over 500 miles at a slow pace (I think just one interval session in the whole period) and ended up bringing me down to 18:59.

So I'm either contradicting or supplementing myself. Either way, both are honestly held views posted at the time!

haha that's funny :)

I guess you can theoretically achieve your goal with both approaches, average volume high intensity vs high volume low intensity. I wasn't going anywhere running 35 - 40kms a week mostly moderate - high intensity hence the reason there's been a 6 month hiatus since I originally wrote that post. To be honest I think I wasn't anywhere near going sub 20 when I wrote that. Running 4min/km felt very hard. Now they still feel hard, but manageable. 3.45 is the new 4min. I've now doubled my run volume, but 70 - 80% is easy, some weeks all I've done is easy. It's the off-season for triathlon so I can afford a bit of flexibility with my training. Anyway this week was the first time I really tested myself with the 3km TT and it went heaps better than expected. Unfortunately I went for the 20min/5km today and it went a bit pear-shaped. I'm having a bit of a nightmare finding a route that is relatively flat,thought I found somewhere, got to 2km and hit a really strong headwind, so stopped, had a rest then tried a different route, which was better, was holding 3.52 pace, but got to 2.5km and felt like sh!t so stopped. Not sure if it was the previous 2km or what, but yeah a bit of a failboat. Frustrating because 3.50 pace feels OKish..

Anyway I've been tinkering with mapmyrun and think I have found a good run, last 1500m is hilly, bad hilly, but if I can keep 3.50 pace to 3.5km I should be able to hang on.Will give it another shot tomorrow.

I was a 20+ min jogger in my 30's.

Changed my technigue from jogger/heelstrike to athlete/midfoot strike. This was not easy, and caused issues by lack of knowledge. Nowadays it's better documented how to transition.

Also, I dropped some weight.

Before, even when skinny I could not sprint really. Midfoot strike and the whole associated different use of muscles and timing, got me down to 18.00 over 5km in just 3 month. In retrospect it could have been done in one month.

If you heel strike, THAT's you're biggest bottleneck. Don't try to just change that from one stride to the other. Study it. Be gradual, up the midfoot strike share per run gradually.

Cloxxki wrote:

I was a 20+ min jogger in my 30's.

Changed my technigue from jogger/heelstrike to athlete/midfoot strike. This was not easy, and caused issues by lack of knowledge. Nowadays it's better documented how to transition.

Also, I dropped some weight.

Before, even when skinny I could not sprint really. Midfoot strike and the whole associated different use of muscles and timing, got me down to 18.00 over 5km in just 3 month. In retrospect it could have been done in one month.

If you heel strike, THAT's you're biggest bottleneck. Don't try to just change that from one stride to the other. Study it. Be gradual, up the midfoot strike share per run gradually.

Yeah I'm a mid/forefoot striker.

Did Park run today, but only managed 20.24. splits were:

3.56

3.56

4.10

4.17

4.00

So close but so far. Probably poor pacing. I feel I'm fit enough, but slacked off kms 2.5 - 4. A really slow 1500m. It's a tough section. I'm not going to be able to run 3.55 - 4min pace through it so need to push the pace the first few kms. Or run a blisteringly quick last km... quite disappointing. I feel like I can hold 3.50 pace and mind 19s are possible, but any wind or hill just sees 10/15s drop off my pace and then it all goes to shit. I can't keep on blaming the route though..