Training to go from peak HM to peak 5k in 8 weeks.

if you'd posted some times I could have been a lot more helpful but it's hard to know what to say when I have no idea how good you are.

not used to coming from the other direction.

it is not conceptually any different. start with some of that 3k-5k pace work you were doing, but reduce the recoveries a little.

after two or three sessions, shorten the repeats and tighten the time a little while keeping the recoveries where they are.

as part of your warm-up for each of these sessions, do a set of 4 - 6 x 80m relaxed sprints, around your best 400m speed, with a slow walk back recovery. focus on running relaxed rather than on pushing the speed. then jog a lap or two to recover before doing the main intervals. if you are going to be doing these on a track, leave the spikes at home to start with and after a couple of sessions change into spikes only after the fast work.

cheers.

Drop down to 50-60 MPW, and start ripping out the harder workouts.

Cottonshirt wrote:

if you'd posted some times I could have been a lot more helpful but it's hard to know what to say when I have no idea how good you are.

1:10-1:12 HM, shooting for sub 15 5k on the track. If I time trialed a 400 I'd expect 57 high and a hamstring injury.

That was my first instinct, but only because it would be the most fun.

I'm also thought of dropping the 15-17mi long run, and alternating 10 hard and 13-14 easy every other week (or similar).

Solid advice I think, thanks.

I'll probably keep it at 2 workouts plus LR, but I thought of dropping the 15-17mi long run, and alternating 10 hard and 13-14 easy every other week (or similar).

Manage the transition. That you did a little 3k-5k pace work already is good, but that you worry about health while hitting it hard means that you need to be careful before jumping into a full-scale VO2-focused segment.

Consider prepping for and easing into the hard, VO2-paced track work for by spending 3-4 weeks doing things like hill workouts at 3k-5k effort; multi-paced workouts where you touch on 3k-5k pace but mix some more familiar tempo work (like 2 x 800 @ 5k pace (2 mins recovery), 2-mile at tempo pace (2 mins recovery), 4 x 400 @ 3k pace (60s recovery)); and some shorter faster stuff like 6-10 x 100m at 400m pace (and faster) with full recovery (on its own dedicated easy/speed development day) and 4-6 x 150m-200m with full recovery at 800m pace (and faster) added onto the end of a strength day.

You're strong but not fast yet. That's a good place to be, but you've got to be patient. Done right strength can be converted into speed, but once you're 30 you have to be careful how you manage that transition lest you end up sidetracked by injury.

You can drop the mileage by 10%ish during this transition phase (definitely no need to go longer than 13-14 miles on your long run). Then you can drop it another 10%ish for the next month or so before your goal race as you start focusing on gut-busting workouts like 8 x 800m @ 5k cutting down to 3k pace w/ 2 mins recovery, 8 x 1000m @ 5k w/ 90s-2 mins recovery, and maybe even the occasional 10 x 400m @ mile effort w/ 60s recovery.

Good luck!

1:10-1:12 HM, shooting for sub 15 5k on the track.

in my experience 1:15 equates to a sub-16 5k so 1:12 is probably more like 15:00 - 15:30 rather than sub-15 but let's not quibble because there is wiggle room here. based on these times I would suggest something like this:

start with 3 x 1000m 3:15 (1:40 rec) or 3 x 1200m 3:50 (1:55 rec) and after a couple of rounds of that come down to 5 - 6 x 800m 2:30 (1:55 rec) or 8 - 10 x 400m 1:15 (1:00 rec) and with 3 weeks to go slip in something like 5 x 300m 55s (1:00 rec). with 10-days to go run the 300m's a bit crisper at 48s but take a nice relaxing 2:30 recovery.

I would also be doing some long tempos like 2 x 1 mile 5:20 with around 1:00 recoveries in the middle of a longer run once every 10 days or so while cutting the mileage elsewhere.

good luck.

Not An Expert wrote:

Done right strength can be converted into speed, but once you're 30 you have to be careful how you manage that transition lest you end up sidetracked by injury.

When I was 20 I would have put 10x400 on the schedule 2 days after my HM. Now 30 with a desk job and that sounds impossible.

Cottonshirt wrote:

in my experience 1:15 equates to a sub-16 5k so 1:12 is probably more like 15:00 - 15:30 rather than sub-15 but let's not quibble because there is wiggle room here.

That's fair, and sounds about right. I guess I shouldn't divulge my real goal of breaking a 14:52 pr from college! Ok, not realistic, but that is a soft pr and the carrot is always dangling out there. Realistically I think 15:10 is possible, and 14:59.9 isn't off the table based on past performance and recent workouts.

If you think you might get injured with speedwork then start with uphill sprints instead of the track