I'm tired of being a slow jogger and don't know how to fix

Every 3rd week?

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Every 3rd week?

Yeah, should it be more frequently? I don't do speedwork once a week anymore because i figured that it was burning me out and getting me overuse injuries.

What's your diet like? Joggers like fast food

Slow jogger wrote:

Been jogging for about 2 years now, 5k PR is only a 19:30, 10k 41:00. I run about 40 mpw i do a progression long run, i do one threshold run, i do plenty of slow easy miles during the week. I do some speed work every third week and do strides at least twice a week. I'm 28 years old and starting to think I'm just gonna be slow forever. I have got my mileage up to 60 mpw for a bit too before i ended up getting hurt. Suggestions?

Contact the magic wizard, coach js. If he cant help you, nobody can . You find him at Twitter or Facebook.

Take a drug you makes you faster and stronger without running more in Russia this is way yes

Alexei G wrote:

Take a drug you makes you faster and stronger without running more in Russia this is way yes

Just accept being slow is the answer ?

Generally, your approach is okay, but you should be doing three quality workouts per week: Your long progressive run, your threshold run, and an interval workout.

To keep it simple, do the following interval workouts and just repeat them . 5x1000 on week 1, 6x800 on week 2, 10x400 on week 3, 5x1000 again on week 4, and so on. Recovery is 80% of run time on the 1000 and 800.... 100% on the 400. If you can't do all the reps at the pace you chose, your pace is too fast. Generally, the 1000 should start at slower than 5k pace and the last one should be faster than current 5k pace. The 800 should be 5k pace or faster. The 400s should be 4 seconds faster than the 800s, ie, if your 800 is 90 sec/lap, then the 400 should be 86 sec/lap.

For injuries, figure out the cause. Then, fix it. If you don't figure out the cause, you are doomed to repeat it. If you can't figure out the cause, post details here.

Try the higher mileage again

Workouts!!! You sound like you are in shape to do way more of them. Do more workouts for a while till you get faster. Don't bump up mileage until after you peak from more workouts.

Sorry to be the one guy who is realistic.

Not every male who takes up running is guaranteed to run 16, 17, and ever 18 minutes 5ks just because they put in appropriate training. I know quite a few people that have been running for YEARS and have still yet to come even close to breaking 20, something you have already done.

Now, I'm not saying you can't get faster. I'm just saying that there is a very real possibility that you won't get much faster. You may work your butt off for another year to eventually barely break 19, and never progress further than that. You are already ahead of most people by the fact that you can already break 20 with some ease.

You'll never know unless you keep trying - which it appears you are doing. Good luck, and I hope you don't take my post the wrong way.

Slow jogger wrote:

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Every 3rd week?

Yeah, should it be more frequently? I don't do speedwork once a week anymore because i figured that it was burning me out and getting me overuse injuries.

What sorts of speed workouts were you doing?

Just run more. If you get hurt, ignore the pain and hobble through. Once the pain is gone, increase your mileage.

Anyone without disability can run at least 100mpw. It's tried and tested. It's all a matter of motivation and commitment.

Much older than you with similar training and I dropped almost 4 min from that point. Yes to the 3 workouts per week and adding mileage, but just doing workouts with better people accounted for a lot of it. Find a good training group.

No offense taken. I know there are plenty of people slower than me even. I just want to be more competitive in local races, I'm not extremely far away but it certainly feels like sub 18 5k might be on the wish list for my next life?

Alexei G wrote:

Take a drug you makes you faster and stronger without running more in Russia this is way yes

Russian cheater!!!!

hobbycoach wrote:

Slow jogger wrote:

Yeah, should it be more frequently? I don't do speedwork once a week anymore because i figured that it was burning me out and getting me overuse injuries.

What sorts of speed workouts were you doing?

The typical 5k stuff such as 12x400m 60 sec rest , 6x800m 90sec reat, 5x1000m 200m jog rest, 4x1200m 300m jog rests, 3x1600m 3 min rest. Maybe i do my reps too hard, and I'm doing my race in these reps. I follow the Daniels vDots close enough not a 100% though.

Like really bro wrote:

Workouts!!! You sound like you are in shape to do way more of them. Do more workouts for a while till you get faster. Don't bump up mileage until after you peak from more workouts.

Starting to think this is my biggest problem the more I'm talking about it now. I'm doing consistent training but not consistent hard interval stuff, mostly because once i start doing the hard core Vo2Max stuff i end up getting hurt like pulling my groin or a quad issue within a few weeks. Most of my faster running is threshold runs, strides, or the spontaneous race.

Think about periodization a bit. You can't do 5K-paced intervals every week indefinitely. At least, I can't. After a 5K build-up and a couple 5Ks, my legs are fried for a while and I have to back off. But I do find that with more time, I can build up longer before needing to back off.

Also, if you're racing 10Ks, you may want to add some 10K-specific work as well, and for me the two kinds of training are quite different. What worked well for me this spring was to alternate between 5K-pace work one week and longer 10K-pace intervals (like 3 x 2K on up) for the next week's interval workout.

How are you trying to progress your threshold/tempo run? You might want to think of ways to vary the stimulus of each of your weekly runs.

forget the above post wrote:

Try the higher mileage again

This. Just because you got hurt once at 60 mpw doesn't mean you always will. Work up to it gradually. Don't do any harder running until you're comfortable at 60. Take your time but get there.