Sub-20 5k or bust!

Got a 51 year old around here running in the 16's. Of course he holds a bunch of state records though.

SPRINTGEEZER IS BACK BABY.

dude, i remember posting with you like 10 years ago. Hope all is well.

You're probably a really slow sprinter too.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

So I looked at what I think is the marquee local 5k: overall winner 15:12; M50-54 won in 18:53, bronze in 21:32, 10th in 24:35.

Track meets are where it's happening. Couple of weeks ago in Zeist, the Netherlands, the first three M50 runners came in at 16:50, 17:02, 17:18. The winner had just ran an 800m in 2:08 at the same meet, a couple of hours earlier. Pretty respectable if you ask me.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Haven’t done any longer running forever.

Baseline 4 days ago: 28:30 (!)

Today: 26:00

I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy. All my times include warmup—I just start running. At the end I hopped on a treadmill and did a bunch of 1-min repeats at 12mph, to finish off.

Feels good! Will probably slow my sprinting, though. I think oxygenation is important, and I get it better during running than during rowing, swimming, or biking.

You may now pile on?

I'm a 62-year-old coming back off injury with the same goal. Got down to 5 x 1000m with 2:30 recovery at 19:50 pace, but a long ways off when I try and put it all together in a race!

Today. 23:24 in 5th workout.

Took lots of time off for travel and camping. Didn’t try to go harder this time, I just focused on pacing to a bit faster than 24:00. Also, didn’t really push it at the end.

Considering that and the layoff, I’m going for just-sub-23 next workout.

Once again, early gains. Things are more stable now, and I will do more frequent workouts at this distance. I feel ready to get faster.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Kyoto wrote:

How much does the Geezer weigh? Will Geezer be dropping any weight to break 20 minutes? How old is the Geezer? Does the Geezer still sprint? Will the Geezer resort to PEDs? Does the Geezer have a history of this, let us say a 17 minute best, for instance?

5’10” / 177lbs.

Not going to lose weight.

53-1/2 yrs old.

No competitive sprinting, 2 “real” sprint workouts over the last 2 years.

No PED’s, I like my organs the way they are: healthy.

Did 18:30 treadmill maybe 10 years ago, did 10:00 2-mile in HS with room to spare so maybe 16:00 3-mile shape 35 years ago, if that means anything.

Why no sprinting? A few years back you were running some times that looked impressive to me.

Track facility was under construction, and I have had major life events going on.

What little rec sprinting I do feels good, I will now rarely do some soccer field strides. I will get back into it, but not this season, I am still having big life events and will be wrapping some things up.

Sprinting needs to be approached properly or bad injury will surely result. I’m having too much fun to get injured, and I will not supplement to get through or heal injury.

I have been doing weights again more consistently, and stretching hard 3x per week. I have been doing 3 plates for bench for 4-6 reps, without a spotter! So the weights feel good. Staying away from super-heavy squats etc, my wife told me it’s stupid, and she’s probably right. My 5k form is with an outlook to sprinting—not efficient for 5k, but is getting the hips, joints, and hams ready.

Come the fall I will start a short-to-long program, starting with accelerations and some progressive plyos.

5k for now!

Lol just realized I got my age wrong by a year.

I have never cared, or really known, how old I am.

In my town, most of the guys in their early to mid 50's who are competitive run about 17:00 to 17:30 for 5k. And the interesting thing about these runners is that they were running the same times in their mid 40's. Kind of odd that they haven't slowed down. 10 years ago all the runners in their 50's slowed down considerably from their mid 40's. I guess training techniques have improved.

I have been a good but not great local mid-d guy. I ran 17:56 for 5K at age 49. From age 50 to 60 I was regularly running 5Ks in the low to mid 18s. I managed an 18:48 after turning 60. I really did not slow down that much from age 45 to age 60. After 60 it has been a different story. I have worked through a lot of injuries and got to 20:11 at age 69, but I think I can get back to the mid 19s if I continue to stay healthy. If you can handle classic mid-D interval training you should have no trouble getting under 20. Good luck with it.

For me, at this point it’s about feeling something.

A 23-min 5k is laughably slow, but when I do it, I feel good, and I feel like I’m not only getting something out of it, but puttimg something back into myself at the same time.

And the faster I go, the more I feel that way.

5k is a funny distance. I understand why you guys talk about middle distance training, because it feels like you are going decently fast so that you couldn’t keep it up for an hour or two...but of course not sprint fast.

I enjoy it but wouldn’t say that I am doing any serious distance training. I still aim to go sub-20, and it will be interesting to see what happens now with 2-3x weekly 5k runs.

I don’t know if it’s training techniques, because at almost 53 I feel pretty much as I did at 45, or maybe even at 40. Maybe it’s just nutrition, especially early childhood, and lifelong exercise without big interruptions.

Yeah I know it will change one day, but for now I feel good. Not sub-20 at 69 good...but good anyway?

Never elite. just useful club runner. 17:32 in 50-54 age group; 18:00 in 55-60.

Ran a 5k in 21:51 on 6/9 with just 30 mpw and 180 total miles (6 weeks), 3 10-milers and 1 11-miler, plus 3 speed workouts (5x1000 and 8x600). Was a 23-24 5ker on 3/9.

My main race is the full 'thon. My goal is 3:15-3:20 and my half PR is 1:39. I was an 18:50 runner in HS (not fast at all) but as I've gotten older I've realized my big strength is endurance, not speed.

I'm inspired by this thread! Keep it up!

Determined wrote:

Ran a 5k in 21:51 on 6/9 with just 30 mpw and 180 total miles (6 weeks), 3 10-milers and 1 11-miler, plus 3 speed workouts (5x1000 and 8x600). Was a 23-24 5ker on 3/9.

My main race is the full 'thon. My goal is 3:15-3:20 and my half PR is 1:39. I was an 18:50 runner in HS (not fast at all) but as I've gotten older I've realized my big strength is endurance, not speed.

I'm inspired by this thread! Keep it up!

Geez, I've been trying for 2+ years to get under 20 for the 5k (well, really for 20+ years) and can't get under 21:50 or so. I've run through a Daniels' program, I tried improving my 800/mile time (to no avail) and everything seems to be stalled. My best mile right now is 6:15.

Right now I'm just trying to grind out running through another Houston summer. My mileage really takes a big hit as I just am not a good heat runner at all. Even when I lived in the Pac NW, I still had a hard time during the hotter parts of summer (which is nothing in comparison as I now know).

I'm hoping to just hold my base at around 30 mpw until late Aug/early Sep then start to ramp weekly mileage, but beyond that I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Everything I read says just increase mileage and throw in a few 5k appropriate workouts and you'll crack 20 easily. My lifetime PR is 20:40 (41:20 for 10k and I'd love to get sub-40 as well) and at age 52 (53 this October) I see way too many my age that are running way faster than this, so I know it can be done. Hoping to follow here to glean some ideas.

Determined wrote:

Ran a 5k in 21:51 on 6/9 with just 30 mpw and 180 total miles (6 weeks), 3 10-milers and 1 11-miler, plus 3 speed workouts (5x1000 and 8x600). Was a 23-24 5ker on 3/9.

My main race is the full 'thon. My goal is 3:15-3:20 and my half PR is 1:39. I was an 18:50 runner in HS (not fast at all) but as I've gotten older I've realized my big strength is endurance, not speed.

I'm inspired by this thread! Keep it up!

“Just 30 mpw”??

I just realized that I am at a prodigious 3 mpw.

But I aim to double that?.

Will be fun to see where your 5k ends up with endurance focus, and where mine ends up with, what is becoming apparent to me, a pure speed focus. After my 5k’s I hop on a treadmill and do 1-min repeats at 12mph, just to get used to a different pace without sprinting.

It would be funny if my biggest strength was actually endurance, like you, and I was training to my weakness.

Because my stated goal is sub-20, I fully expect to plateau at 21:xx, just because god has a bizarre sense of humor.

Today 22:29 in 6th workout.

It’s starting to feel harder, like I need to change my stride, foot plant, body carriage, or all the above, to go faster.

Could have gone faster with faster kick at the finish.

Felt ok, though—no injuries (yet), no difficulty breathing, no real pains, not even a stitch. That’s the kind of luck I need to keep having.

I’m sticking with my beat-up old Adidas, too. I’m sure they’re “dead”, but my feet are ok.

Just managed pacing again today. Kicked ot up a little sooner, then put in brief increases throughout. Was a bit hard so I didn’t speed up at the finish as much or as early as usual.

Today I did stop at 3k for 15 seconds to guzzle some water, for which I stopped my watch. To make sure I could have run the time fine without the break, I ran for 15 seconds after the finish, which I figure is legit because I was going much faster at the finish than I was at 3k.

I think that next run I will aim to duplicate this run, before trying for 21:xx. I think I should even out and take stock, before I give myself a heart attack. This rate of improvement seems a bit fast, and I am after all a geezer. In fact, I’m going to start right now by doing some stationary bike for 20 mins. to warm down.

I like 5k. It’s both long enough and fast enough for me to feel like I got a good workout.