Do you believe breaking 20 in the 5k is a major accomplishment?

It feels that way until you break 20 minutes. I am far from a genetic freak and really have to work to be a decent runner. I have ran low 36 for 10k and with more training high 16:50s for 5k. I would have never believed I could run these times 3 years ago but they happened through a lot of mileage and setbacks.

Running is a slow progression, what seems like a huge accomplishment now may just be a steady run 5 years in the future. Don't worry about these magic barriers. Run hard and run often.

It doesn’t take talent or even a ton of work to be able to break 20. People with no talent just need to put in more miles. But pretty sure anyone who runs 50 miles a week can break 20 even working doing any serious speed work. Throw in some tempos and some strides, anyone can hit 20 at 50 mpw.

thewinthatwas wrote:

It feels that way until you break 20 minutes. I am far from a genetic freak and really have to work to be a decent runner. I have ran low 36 for 10k and with more training high 16:50s for 5k. I would have never believed I could run these times 3 years ago but they happened through a lot of mileage and setbacks.

Running is a slow progression, what seems like a huge accomplishment now may just be a steady run 5 years in the future. Don't worry about these magic barriers. Run hard and run often.

I agree completely. Unless your magical barrier is the WR lol. Then they don't seem so easy. ;)

It depends where you're coming from. If your first 5k is 30min, 20mins is a enormous accomplishment. If it's 21:xx, it's a small victory.

it's personal wrote:

It depends where you're coming from. If your first 5k is 30min, 20mins is a enormous accomplishment. If it's 21:xx, it's a small victory.

Don't most people start off with a 5k in around 30 minutes?

My first 5k was 32:30 5 years ago

2 weeks ago 19:09

Most, yes, but not all.

david45 wrote:

it's personal wrote:

It depends where you're coming from. If your first 5k is 30min, 20mins is a enormous accomplishment. If it's 21:xx, it's a small victory.

Don't most people start off with a 5k in around 30 minutes?

I don't think so, but my first 5k when I was like 13 was 21 minutes

Everybody on Letsrun ran their first 5K in 17 minutes off of no training in High School and ended with lifetime pbs from 14 to 17 minutes.

Very few guys run as slow as 30 minutes for 5k. That is not to say that the average person in the population would not be that slow but individuals self select their sport. We have 100 guys try out for cross country and none ever run as slow as 30 minutes. 75 of them break 20 minutes on no training and some run sub 17 on no training. We cut the guys who can't break 6 minutes for a mile because we have so many guys. The freshmen get one year before being cut.

The slowest I have ever run a 5k is 18:00. That was my first road race the summer after my freshman year in HS. I had bever been a runner but had played soccer and basketball for several years. I ran track that spring and my coch threw me into a 3200. I ran 10:52. A few weeks later after the season was over I entered that first road race.

I am now 45 and that first race is still the slowest I have ever run a 5k race. My pr was 15:35 back in my prime. And just for reference, I don't consider myself a genetic freak. I was never offered a scholarship to run, never made any money, never did it full time. I am a hobby jogger.

With that said, if you are a dude still in his 20s or 30s and can't break 20, something is seriously wrong. Unless you are fat. Really, your not doing it right. 20 is not fast. At all.

david45 wrote:

Don't most people start off with a 5k in around 30 minutes?

No. Any healthy, active man in his 20s or 30s who is not fat should be able to run 22 minutes any daybof the week. That's 7 min mile pace. 22 min is like a base line that most can do without any training at all. Age and weight and activity level can mess with that.

Not me, 5k is just not my distance. My first 5k was 20:55. I was 38y/o, running for 6 months, 15mpw. No other sports before that.

4 months later I ran my second and last 5k: 19:40, but that was 15 minutes after an 800m.

I have run some 18 minute 5k tempos, but no more races. I really don't like the distance and pace.

a better post than OP deserves

It's a fairly significant accomplishment for a woman or an older guy. For a young guy, no.

For a sprinter, yes:

https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=20941

I don't think that Flo-Jo broke 20 either.

absolutely not.

Nearly every able-bodied person should be able to do it, though the overwhelming majority have zero interest.

So a double whammy against it being in any way impressive

For me, sub 20 wasn’t a big deal, but sub 40 10k was huge.

one of the greatest ever american distance runner says himself that, "getting better is better than being good."

most people are more excited about dropping time than what time they run.