My goal of Sub 15:00 5k

Also, here is my last week of training. It was a down week because shin was hurting and we were heading into our last indoor meet of the season. Typically I have been around 50-60 mpw the last few months.

Monday: Swim workout because of aching shin.

Tuesday: Tempo. 5 miles @ 5:34 pace

Wednesday: 9 miles

Thursday: Easy 5

Friday: Easy 5

Saturday: Race day.

Went 8:50 for the 3k. We went out in about 4:28 for the first 1500 and had a massive negative split. Felt great during the race. Gives me hope that sub 15 is possible. 7 miles total.

Sunday: OFF

Today (Monday) I did a nice 14 miles at 6:40 average and had no shin pain. Was very exhausted from the long trip and race we had this weekend. Thankfully, I finally got a new pair of shoes and am hoping that will solve my shin pain problem. My old shoes had almost 1k miles on them. Time to get back in the groove and get back up to 60-mile weeks.

Here you have a guaranteed program to run sub 15 at 5 k !

Monday : 6-8 miles 6:40 min/ mile

Tuesday: 20 x 400m at 71 sec, rec= wait easy walking until back to 120 bpm.

Wednesday: 6 miles 6:40 min/ mile

Thursday: 6-8 miles 6:30-6:40 min/ mile + 3-4 x 100m strides ( 80% of max sprint speed)

Friday: LT-interval, 10-12 x 1200m at 3.53 min , rec= wait easy walking until back to 120 bpm.

Saturday: 10 miles at 6:40 min/ mile

Sunday: Restday and no training.

So simple , but magic results! - The Wizard -

Good luck! :)

The 8:50 with a good negative split, on quite low mileage, shows that you can certainly get under 15 minutes.

I suspect that you'll see great gains in 5K from simply adding more miles. Don't go nuts, be sure to run your easy days easy, and take a recovery week every 4-5 weeks, but perhaps try building up towards 75 MPW over the spring and summer. An easy way to do this is to add short shake-out runs a few days per week.

Do replace your shoes every 500 miles or so. Good luck!

Do you mean good luck not getting injured? Those are ridiculous workouts.

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

Tuesday: 20 x 400m at 71 sec, rec= wait easy walking until back to 120 bpm.

Friday: LT-interval, 10-12 x 1200m at 3.53 min , rec= wait easy walking until back to 120 bpm.

Good luck!

I've been trying to lower my 5k PR as well. Though I'm currently sitting at 24:10 as my best effort. It might not be of any use to you to get to sub 15:00, but I found a decent looking 5k training plan to try and get me under 20:00.

https://d178fu9mi2dmkb.cloudfront.net/resources/LDT_5k_TrainingPlan.pdf

On a separate note, they also seem to be a marketplace for all sorts of endurance events (

https://www.letsdothis.com/

). has anyone tried them before?

Do you do better with the ladies than jamin?

Er... wrote:

Do you mean good luck not getting injured? Those are ridiculous workouts.

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

Tuesday: 20 x 400m at 71 sec, rec= wait easy walking until back to 120 bpm.

Friday: LT-interval, 10-12 x 1200m at 3.53 min , rec= wait easy walking until back to 120 bpm.

Good luck!

It`s not! Individual exact calibrated workouts that should be no match for an indoor 8:50 runner at 3000m. I have coached over hundred runners of different level and no one of them injured because of this kind of perfect individual training.

How can you claim "perfect individual training" when all you're doing is putting up numbers in response to a list of PRs? You don't know anything about this kid. Not all indoor 8:50 runners are the same. And the reps are excessive. 12 x 1200m at 3:53 is NINE MILES at 5:10 pace. He'd be much better off running 6-8 x 1000m at 5:00 pace.

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

It`s not! Individual exact calibrated workouts that should be no match for an indoor 8:50 runner at 3000m. I have coached over hundred runners of different level and no one of them injured because of this kind of perfect individual training.

Er... wrote:

How can you claim "perfect individual training" when all you're doing is putting up numbers in response to a list of PRs? You don't know anything about this kid. Not all indoor 8:50 runners are the same. And the reps are excessive. 12 x 1200m at 3:53 is NINE MILES at 5:10 pace. He'd be much better off running 6-8 x 1000m at 5:00 pace.

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

It`s not! Individual exact calibrated workouts that should be no match for an indoor 8:50 runner at 3000m. I have coached over hundred runners of different level and no one of them injured because of this kind of perfect individual training.

Just think once more and ask yourself : " Have I coached 12 winners of international races in just 3½ years coaching?" I know exactly what I`m doing and why…. This is a very effective way of fast improvement on low total mileage and low injury risk. The reps 12 x 1200m are at LT-pace and not so very demanding and with perfect individual rest between. If I had proposed 12 x 1200m at 5 k pace it had of course been a ridiculous workout.

Er... wrote:

How can you claim "perfect individual training" when all you're doing is putting up numbers in response to a list of PRs? You don't know anything about this kid. Not all indoor 8:50 runners are the same. And the reps are excessive. 12 x 1200m at 3:53 is NINE MILES at 5:10 pace. He'd be much better off running 6-8 x 1000m at 5:00 pace.

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

It`s not! Individual exact calibrated workouts that should be no match for an indoor 8:50 runner at 3000m. I have coached over hundred runners of different level and no one of them injured because of this kind of perfect individual training.

I only have to know the runners present shape with fresh competition times to set up a perfect individual program. All indoor 8:50 runners are the same in one thing…...they run indoors 3000m at 8:50 ! :) That`s all I have to know .

-The Wizard-

WEEK SUMMARY:

2/11

12 miles @ 6:40 avg.

b]2/12:

7 miles @ 6:50 avg.

2/13

TEMPO

6 miles @ 5:46 avg.

10.5 miles total

2/14

10 miles @ 6:49 average

2/15

6 miles

4x200 @ 30 sec

2/16

OFF

2/17

12 miles

Last 5 miles of run: 6:12/6:03/5:58/5:56/5:41

TOTAL: 59 miles

This week was definitely lackluster. Big week this upcoming week. Also, thank you all for your comments so far, I will respond later today.

Thank you for the response Running Man,

I have never seen these training plans but they look great. Have you seen any results yet? I hope you get under 20:00, that sounds like a great goal. Let us know how training is going!

I'd suggest slowing down on your easy days and doing more volume. And start doing doubles. Good luck.

Yes, I agree with this post. Definitely taking easier days easier, and hopefully, I can sneak in some evening runs. Also, I cannot stress enough to anyone reading how important it is to replace shoes. I am currently dealing with some nagging plantar because of neglecting to replace my shoes. I had about 800-900 miles on my last pair before I finally bought new ones.

Thanks for the advice!

Week Summary

2/18

7 miles easy (7:20 pace)

2/19

5x mile repeats with 1-minute rest. Felt very relaxed

5:24

5:23

5:13

5:26

5:17

2/20

10 miles easy. 7-minute pace

2/21

Bike/run.

Developed a mild case of plantar fasciitis. It took every ounce of will power to stay off my feet more than usual. Just jogged 2 miles but still got an hour of aerobic exercise.

2/22

4x400 w/one minute recovery (67, 68, 67, 68)

3-minute rest

20-minute tempo. Averaged 5:20 pace

3-minute rest

2x400 w/one-minute recovery (68, 66)

This was the big workout of the week. 400s were tough, my speed is lacking. Tempo felt very relaxed. Was tempted to drop the pace down, but I decided it was best to just stay under control.

2/23

OFF

2/24

13 miles. Not sure my pace, the watch died. Nothing crazy though.

Total: 50 miles.

Some thoughts:

- Continue to take easy days EASY. 7 minutes seems to be the sweet spot.

- More miles.

- Keep heel and listen to the body so I can work on running more miles.

- Slightly discouraged that I only got 50 miles, but very confident about the ease of the workouts.

Also,

I will be in a race this upcoming weekend. There should be some decent competition and a pacer bringing us through two miles in about 9:50. Stay tuned!

Please feel free to share any thoughts, advice, or just general wisdom. I will mention that I am a collegiate runner and so I do not have complete control over my training, but I do have a pretty good coach. I am curious to hear about your goals and training as well, please share!

Bekele is the greatest. He has the fastest time we will ever see in our lives of 12:37. Use Bekele to inspire you with your goals. Good luck. I wish I had the talent to go sub 15. Maybe with 100 miles a week I will someday. Hard to imagine anytime soon.

Banana Bread wrote:

Bekele is the greatest. He has the fastest time we will ever see in our lives of 12:37. Use Bekele to inspire you with your goals. Good luck. I wish I had the talent to go sub 15. Maybe with 100 miles a week I will someday. Hard to imagine anytime soon.

So should I drop out of my next race?

4:28/4:22 is a massive negative split? Anyway, 8:50 is equivalent to about a 9:30 2-mile and I was probably in around 9:20 shape when I broke 15:00, so you're pretty close. The specific training won't make much difference, but 12 × 1200 at 6:00 + mile pace is ridiculous.