30min 5k to a Sub-21 5k in 6 Months possible?

30 min 5k?!?

You definitely need to work on your diet. That's what I think....

I'm recently at 16%bf,my cardiovascular system is shit, I've never really ran. Thanks for the useless advice. And I know people at 15% that run sub 19 5ks lol

My advice isn't useless. You know and I know that we both need to lose weight. (My name is Fast Ass for a reason and my first 5k was 21:02 EXACTLY.)

If you want to get to my level (21 min 5k) you best listen up, son!

One simple tip that worked for me is drinking black coffee and coke zero and running in the morning on an empty stomach.

If you linger on this site long enough, you'll get threads about teen girls asking how much weight they should lose to run faster.

Of course when people reply to teen runners they say: "Don't worry about losing weight!" or "You're too young to focus on your timing. Work on developing your body!"

Cut the crap!

We're men here. And if you make LetsRun your homepage, then you'll come across one of our powers:

Running on PURE HATRED.

No one can give you that skill. You either have it or you don't. But once you unlock it, you can lower your 5k time drastically. (Think minutes, not seconds).

So to sum it up:

Drink dark coffee and run on pure hatred.

I'm a middle-distance guy but I have ran a marathon in only 3 months of actual training. I got an ITBand injury from doing 80 mile weeks when I first started running. Ahahahah

Tuna21 wrote:

I'm here wondering if that much improvement is possible and what it takes to get there. I've just recently dabbled into the running community.What I've came to is that people think high mileage runs every week are good with plenty of rest to stave off injury. And then variations of tempo runs, 800m/400m sprints, and then just jogging.I'd appreciate and SERIOUS advice and anyone who thinks they are a running champion is encouraged and welcome to help me see this topic more clearly.thanks for any replies

Right now, you should get out and run every day.

Tuna21 wrote:

I'm recently at 16%bf,my cardiovascular system is shit, I've never really ran. Thanks for the useless advice. And I know people at 15% that run sub 19 5ks lol

I know a number of people who struggle to run a 30 min 5K and they are not fat--they just have lousy cardiovascular systems, apparently like you. I really don't know how to advise a 30 min 5K runner but there may be people on this board who do. Listen to them and tune out the "useless advice".

No. It is not possible to go sub 21 in 6 months, being that you run the 5k in 30 mins

21 mins requires serious speed and endurance,because you're talking about 7 min

Mile pace. Sub 8mins is when good basic speed is needed, which takes some quality training to achieve.

First and foremost, what is your weekly mileage? That information is required before moving forward.

unsub from runner's world...

I started running again in Sept 2015 and did a race on Thanksgiving 2015, 10K in 1:00:xx and 5K on Jan 1, 2016 in 28:00. On Thanksgiving 2016 I did 22:09, and have run a under 22 and a 10 miler under 75 this year. I lost about 50 pounds in the first 12 months, so 6 months to 21:xx would have been too soon for me.

My approach was really mileage oriented. Within a few months I built up to point where I was running right around an hour most days, at first really slowly. I started doing a tempo once a week and a long run of 90 min to 2 hours on the weekend. I used the McMillan calculator to figure out tempo pace and ran a lot of those on the treadmill (for better or worse). I really didn't do bona fide speed workouts rather than tempo until the summer of 2016 but wish I had started strides earlier on and built up that side.

Fast Ass wrote:

My advice isn't useless. My name is Fast Ass for a reason

If you want to get to my level (21 min 5k) you best listen up, son! oh I'm so fast look at meee

Drink dark coffee and run on pure hatred.

1.) I feel like you should actually give him training advice and not tell him what to drink (which makes no sense, it make work for you not him)

2.) Nice try, you tried to find a thread where you could brag about a 21 minute 5k without getting roasted, but alas, your brag did not escape my eyes and therefore I am calling you out

Cavs in 5 over the Thunder next year

Scorpion_runner wrote:

No. It is not possible to go sub 21 in 6 months, being that you run the 5k in 30 mins

21 mins requires serious speed and endurance,because you're talking about 7 min

Mile pace. Sub 8mins is when good basic speed is needed, which takes some quality training to achieve.

First and foremost, what is your weekly mileage? That information is required before moving forward.

This.

Tuna21 wrote:

I'm recently at 16%bf,my cardiovascular system is shit, I've never really ran. Thanks for the useless advice. And I know people at 15% that run sub 19 5ks lol

If you haven't run much and just got off the couch and ran a 30 minute 5k then it may be possible to improve to 21 minutes or faster. But, I wouldn't put a six month time line on it.

To improve your cardiovascular system just get out every day and run. Build up the distance of runs very gradually. Even if you start at 15 minutes a day. I'd even suggest run/walking Galloway style as a safe way to build up the time - 5 mins run, 1 mins walk etc.

Run sessions of 100 meter strides a couple of times a week. Stride the straights of your local track and slowly walk the bends for recovery.

Just getting up to a consistent volume of weekly running will improve your 5k time a lot.

For example, I came off a long injury lay-off a few years back and after a few weeks of jogging about 10 miles a week ran 31:30. A couple of weeks later 27:43. After 5 months of building up mileage ran in the 22s. I had only been a 21 high runner prior to the injury but 30 years ago ran low 18s.

Just go through the process of gradually building up steady running until you are ready to actually train.

body fat isn't everything

i am a tried and tested all-time low of 6.8% in season and run consistent upper 16's. I know people at 10% who run 14's and are triathletes. for someone who wants to break 21, do this:

Mon - 4 miles easy

Tues - 1.5 mile warm up and cool down, 5-6x800 @3:20

Weds - 4 miles easy

Thurs - 4 miles easy

Fri- 7 mile long run

Definitely possible. In fact I did it in under 3 months.

Here's my advice. First month just get out and run. Every other day or so. Don't worry about pace and mileage just get out the door. Mix with swimming and cycling for non impact cardio improvement.

Once you're in the habit of running 5k or so every couple of days make one of them a tempo run. Should feel a struggle but not be completely out of breath, for 3-4 miles.

After a few weeks of this I'd add a second hard session of intervals, either fartlek (which I like to do a bit longer than a normal session, so 7-9k), or intervals (e.g. 6x800m in about 3:15, full rest was where I was to run 21). Work your way to a schedule looking like hard day, easy day, rest day and repeat, and you can slowly increase the mileage on easy days (but run them slow).

I'm sure you can get similar improvement through high mileage but for me initial gains are through getting out consistently, tempo runs and 'speed work'. I didn't have a week above 25km when I ran 21 minutes.

Great advice.

I'm training for a 1/2, and while that's a different race, I ran that in HS and have some experience with it.

I ran a 5k time trial on 6/5/17 in 28xx. Slow. But I have done nothing but base training since (and 2 days off/week). By June 21 I ran 3 miles in 27:36 in bad conditions. I have also been running slow distance (6 miles) in 52xx, although that took until June 25. The 5k split was 26xx. So in 3-4 weeks of consistent running you'll see your times drop if you take it easy and don't overdo it.