Can I drop 3 minutes off my 5K pb by the end of the summer?

I'm 48, been running for a year, my pbs :

400m 65 seconds (time trial track)

Mile 6:08 (time trial track)

5K 24:00 (Parkrun)

I ran my first 5K time trial in the park on my own in March and it was 32 mins. By the summer I had got it down to 25:45 and then in November I ran 24:45. In the Parkrun I did recently I think I could have gone faster but I had about 200 people in front of me at the start running slower than my pace and it took ages to squeeze past them. I ran the first km in 5:19 and the last km in 4:29.

Only run on average 20 miles a week, sometimes less. If I can hike up my mileage to 50 miles a week by the summer, could I be running a sub 21 5K by the Fall?

I know I should be running faster than 24:00 with 6 minute mile ability. My legs just seem to tire after around 3K. I am also quite heavy, muscle wise (5 ft 10 - 175lbs 29" waist).

Yes you can absolutely drop a few minutes in a few months. This is without a doubt an endurance issue and the more time you spend running, the better. You will get a lot of neurological benefit just by upping your mileage and spending time on your feet.

I guessted for the next 2 months you build up to running 45 minutes a day at 10-10:30 pace or whatever lace you can relax at and what feels easy, if you are into heart rate tracking and all that malarky your bpm should be around 120-150 bpm on these runs. Build up to having one run a week that is 60-70 minutes long. During this time you might want to do some 800m repeats at 7:40 mile pace (3:50) with 1-2 minutes rest.

Once you are used to spending this amount of time on your feet and running for a relatovely long time feels easy, then you can add in more aerobically intense work like 1200m repeats at goal 5k pace, tempo runs and mile repeats.

In my opinion it is always a good idea to do some speedwork year round so make sure youre getting some strides/easy repeats in at 400-mile pace so that you don’t lose your mile speed while building your stamina. I would usually do this after easy runs maybe 5-6 x 200m at mile pace or 5-6 x 100m at 4-800 pace. :)

Can I drop 3 minutes off my 5K pb by the end of the summer?

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