5k training tips to break 17:00

Logan92 wrote:

I'm looking for advice on mileage, workouts, and periodization to hit a sub 17:00 5k at some point in the next year. My closest PRs would be an 8:55 1.5 mile on the road, and an 18:12 3 mile on the road.

Try shooting for sub-18:30 first. Then 18:30. Then 17:30. Unless you are a brand-new runner that is still on the newbie improvement curve, 18:12 for 3 miles (essentially about an 18:50 5k) is a world away from 16:59.

Sorry for the typo - corrected answer below with typo corrected in bold.

try again wrote:

Try shooting for sub-18:30 first. Then 18:00. Then 17:30. Unless you are a brand-new runner that is still on the newbie improvement curve, 18:12 for 3 miles (essentially about an 18:50 5k) is a world away from 16:59.

Too much mileage

try again wrote:

Logan92 wrote:

I'm looking for advice on mileage, workouts, and periodization to hit a sub 17:00 5k at some point in the next year. My closest PRs would be an 8:55 1.5 mile on the road, and an 18:12 3 mile on the road.

Try shooting for sub-18:30 first. Then 18:30. Then 17:30. Unless you are a brand-new runner that is still on the newbie improvement curve, 18:12 for 3 miles (essentially about an 18:50 5k) is a world away from 16:59.

He should try shooting for an actual sub-19 in a 5K race (and actually try racing and training some - buy a book, please) before thinking of anything more. It's amazing how people think they are 'capbable' of sub17's. When they currently have nothing within 2 minutes of that time.

Right. I understand that I could divide the 2 minutes and 30 seconds I want to take off over a year (or more if that's what it takes) into five 30 second goals.

And I appreciate the goal setting advice. But I'm looking more for training advice. Like I said. I've spent a lot of time lurking here and I've read the countless threads on "What time for (insert race) is attainable by almost anyone assuming they'd put the work in?". I get that not everyone can break 17. If I quadruple my mileage for a year and run the exact same time, oh well.

That doesn't change that the long goal is sub 17:00. Obviously I'd like to run an 18:11 3 mile first on my way there. Then an 18:10 and so on.

I'm primarily concerned with how those who did it on that kind of mileage set up their training. I.E. how much time dedicated to base building, how much speedwork in a week, length of the long runs, etc. Books are good. I just am also interested in people's personal anecdotal stuff. Specifics.

As far as it being too much mileage; if 50 a week is too much is it because that's overemphasizing building an aerobic base and under emphasizing speed work?

Okay Logan, I read your last post. You want to know what got me (and anyone else) to sub-17. Here's how I got there:

April 2000 - Started running. Ran a 20:20 in my first 5k, about two months in (I was 30 years old). By late fall of the same year I was still on the newbie curve and got down to 18:53 (essentially where you are now) at a race in November. I got a bunch of books on running and began educating myself.

I spent the winter building mileage slowly. My "speedwork" over this period was doing a 5k time trial weekly on a known course. This wasn't recommended from reading books, but I was new and couldn't help myself. In retrospect it luckily didn't injure me and it taught me to deal with extended cardio discomfort while running. I was also still getting faster on the newbie curve, but this was beginning to dry up. I ran about 40 miles a week that winter, which also included a 12 mile long run done weekly.

By the spring I could run 18:50 in training. I entered a hilly HM and ran 1:27. I raced a lot the following summer, which taught me to dig deep, but I never got much faster. By the end of the summer, I was at 18:40-ish. I figured the reason was that I was racing too often and not building a base. If you don't have a strong base, all the speedwork in the world doesn't matter. I got a coach who put it to me this way: your race speed (and your interval/speedwork speed) is linked to your easy run pace. If you can only manage x speed in your easy run, you will only be able to run a certain speed for 5k (or intervals). Your easy run pace is a strong indicator of overall fitness, and it will drop as you build mileage. Correspondingly when it comes time to lower mileage and start doing speedwork, you will be able to run the speedwork faster, and then race faster.

So I spent about 6-7 months doing nothing but building from 40-45 miles a week to about 60. My easy run pace moved from 7:45 miles to 7:15-7:20. I then moved to about 6 weeks of speedwork (and lowered mileage) and my first race was 17:45. Success! I raced all summer on my improved fitness and got down to 17:30. I then repeated the process in the next winter, building up to about 65-70 miles a week. My easy run pace dropped to 7:10. The following summer, I was running 17:0x.

Repeated the winter process again. By the next summer, I was running 16:5x, with a PR of 16:43 on a slightly downhill course.

TL;DR - be patient and build mileage, increasing your aerobic engine over a couple years.

You've actually done pretty well for having never trained consistently at any kind of reasonable mileage and with a body composition that isn't optimal for distance running. That suggests you have some talent.

But you're getting ahead of yourself. The first and obvious thing to do is to build up mileage as planned. Getting up to 40-50 mpw sounds about right. You don't need any serious workouts for a while yet. Just run a bit longer 1 day a week, do a moderate tempo run (working up to 20 minutes at a fast but comfortable pace) once a week, and do some easy strides or hill sprints once a week. Run a 5K every 3-6 months to see how the progress is coming, but above all, just keep running consistently 5-6 days per week and don't get injured. I don't know if you can break 17:00 at your current weight, but you can definitely get a lot faster than you are now.

Thanks, the above 2 posts were exactly what I was looking for. Appreciate you guys taking the time.

Probably want to run 3.1 miles in 16:59 to break 17.

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