Breaking 19:30 5k

post a typical week for you

gender makes a difference too

Unless you need help getting under 16:00 (as a male), the answer for you and anyone else in your ballpark time is just consistent running. The time will drop when you run everyday. Follow the 10% rule and if you aren't running everyday, start, only taking days off when you are feeling under the weather. Long run on Sundays and a tempo or fartlek once a week with an additional shorter rest workout during the week. You mentioned you're in high school, does your coach not give you good workouts?

your endurance is not good. you say you have a distance background, but for a 5:15 mile, a 1:54 half and 4:09 full are turtle slow. I wouldn't run anymore of these longer distance races. working on getting your miles up, and get in some 5k to tempo paced stuff.

and the stuff the last poster asked for...give us some details for more specific help.

Male

Usually get 1 long run, 1-2 tempo runs, 1-2 hard workouts (1 km reps or something of that sort)

mon: continuous run (5-7mi, around 8 min pace)

tue: hard workout (broken 5k, 1 km reps, something of that sort)

wed: continuous (same as mon)

thurs: ez day

fri: xc meet

sat: rest

sun: long run (10mi usually)

Order of the workouts are not consistent because it's based off what day of the week our meet is. This is just an example of a typical week.

nah, our coach only focuses on the top two runners and just tells the rest of us to just run. that's i'm going and training on my on because he doesn't really focus us so

kk123 wrote:

Male

Usually get 1 long run, 1-2 tempo runs, 1-2 hard workouts (1 km reps or something of that sort)

mon: continuous run (5-7mi, around 8 min pace)

tue: hard workout (broken 5k, 1 km reps, something of that sort)

wed: continuous (same as mon)

thurs: ez day

fri: xc meet

sat: rest

sun: long run (10mi usually)

Order of the workouts are not consistent because it's based off what day of the week our meet is. This is just an example of a typical week.

honestly, this is not a terrible looking week. if you are junior and definitely if you are senior, i'd look at getting miles on Saturday. no reason for a day off if you are durable. could easily put in 5 easy miles. I'd throw in 4 or 5x200 at least one of those days, but really, it is endurance that is holding you back right now.

what pace are you running your 5x1k at? and again, you say your coach is only interested in top 1 or 2 runners, but your work week looks pretty solid, imo.

What would be a good typical week for someone like me?

high school xc coach wrote:

what pace are you running your 5x1k at? and again, you say your coach is only interested in top 1 or 2 runners, but your work week looks pretty solid, imo.

Believe all the splits were roughly around 3:30 (rest was 400m jog)

kk123 wrote:

high school xc coach wrote:

what pace are you running your 5x1k at? and again, you say your coach is only interested in top 1 or 2 runners, but your work week looks pretty solid, imo.

Believe all the splits were roughly around 3:30 (rest was 400m jog)

3:30 is fast as hell for somebody only running 20 minutes. you should be under 19 minutes, easily. I have a kid who was struggling to run sub 4:00 on his 1000s, last month, and he just broke 18 yesterday. (on a super fast course!) normally he is closer to somewhere around 19. 19:40 on the worst, hot day.

our week looks like this

Sunday: 10 miles

Monday: 7 easy

Tuesday: race, 4x200, also 2 mile warmup and cool down 7.5 miles total

Wednesday: 7 easy

Thursday: 2 mile warm up, 5x100 build ups, 5x10 second hills, 5 miles easy (7.5 total)

Friday: 2 mile warm up. 2x400 at race pace. 2 mile cool down (4.5 total)

Saturday: 2 mile warm up. race. 2 mile cool down. either 4x200, 2x400, or 4x 30 second hills (7.5 total)

if we only have 1 race, we will do a workout with anywhere between 5-8k of reps at 10 seconds slower than race pace. Typically anywhere between 800s and 1200s. amount of reps depend on experience and speed. hills or 200s thrown in at end.