Forums >Racing>2015 sub 20 5k
I'll be racing my first 5K on May 2nd and hoping to go sub 20. Anyone else sharing my goal for 2015?
I've been feeling good about my goal all winter long, running my intervals on an indoor track. But this week I ran them outside, and realized it's going to be quite a challenge, especially if it's windy. Race day magic better be there
Walk-Jogger
Good luck with this, Cyberic!
I'm also hoping to get back down <20:00 this year, at age 60. My first race attempt will be March 28th. I think I'm real close to 20:00 now but not quite there yet. I've also been running intervals and the occasional 5k tempo on an indoor track all winter. Lots of speedwork, but little in the way of distance runs or weekly mileage.
Retired & Loving It
Joggaholic
Good luck to you! I've been after sub20 for a whole year now, only managed it once somehow early last year, and now I'm slipping farther and farther away...
I'm also hoping to get back down <20:00 this year, at age 60.
Yikes, that would be an 80% USATF age grading! Go get 'em Cecil.
From the Internet.
I will be lurking and wishing you all luck! Sub-20 is a long-term goal of mine, hoping to make it a little closer with more miles and experience under my belt this year. Breaking into the 22s would be a nice start.
Was talking to this local running coach I know at lunch and he was telling me that he is organizing a 5K on an indoor track next saturday. They rented the place from 2:30-5:00 PM and are going to split the location cost between the runners. He thinks it will cost from 8-10$ each depending on how many people actually show up. It's on invitation only. It will be in waves depending on our goal time, so there's not too many runners on the track at once, and people on the track pretty much run at the same speed.
I'm going to check on the family calendar tonight and if I'm free, I'll get my first shot at sub 20 as soon as in one week. On an indoor track, it might be easier too.
Wing, wishing you the best of luck on getting it soon.
Wow Cecil, at 60 it would really be nice. I'm a *ahumm* youngster at 45. Go get it!
Lauren, thanks and good luck on your goals too. Do you have a 5K in view? If so, do you have a time objective? Sub 22 is it?
That indoor 5K sounds awesome, nice way to finish off a winter of training.
My plan right now is to find a 5K 2-3 weeks post-half marathon to capitalize on the fitness I've built during this training cycle - my half is May 17, so either the weekend of May 30-31 or June 6-7. I have a lot more long tempos and longer long runs on my legs now than I had last fall, and I plan to run a few short/fast workouts in the last few weeks before my taper, so I'm hoping that might bode well for a PR attempt assuming I don't get injured between now and then.
I'll have a better idea on time goals once I've been outside for a few more weeks (all treadmill all the time in February, ugh) and get in a couple workouts on the track. If I can run somewhere in the mid-22s I'll be very happy, sub-22 I'll be absolutely thrilled!
Been on the bench the last couple weeks, but hoping to get better and back at it soon.
Hoping to take a crack at sub-20 this summer.
My PR in 2012 was 22:20 in Oct 2012 on an avg of 12-15 MPW and sporadic track workouts.
2013 was lame, so I won't go there. Couldn't get below 24:00 as my running was sporadic and all the races I did were in significant heat.
2014 increased my mileage to an average of 22-25 mpw for the 5 months leading up to my current PR of 21:10. Since January, I've bumped up the mileage to ~30mpw in preparation for a spring half. After that's over, I will resume the 5k specific workouts, and hope to lower the PR again this fall. Don't know if I can get the sub 20 this year, but I'm confident I can get sub 21, and hopefully get within striking distance of that 19:59 by fall of 2016.
I'm 36, so hoping I have a few good years left.
PRs:
5k - 20:51 - 9/5/15
10k - 47:00 - 5/25/15
15k - 1:10:19 - 11/21/15
13.1 - 1:42:25- 4/25/15
26.2 - TBD (someday)
SMART Approach
I am in again. I haven't done it since early 2007-the last time I was completely healthy. I have run 20:15 or so the last 2 years. This might be the year. Of course I am 8 years older and not a high mileage runner. My hammys are finally feeling good after 7 plus years. I have a 5k in 3 weeks on a flat fast course. I ran 20:15 on it 2 years ago. I guess I will see where I am at. I feel a bit more fit this year but more than likely the Fall will be my target if I can stay free of tweaks and drop a few lbs.
Run Coach. Recovery Coach. Founder of SMART Approach Training, Coaching & Recovery
Structured Marathon Adaptive Recovery Training
Safe Muscle Activation Recovery Technique
www.smartapproachtraining.com
Hi Cyberic,
Count me in on your sub 20min 5k. I cracked it last fall at a smaller race but I'm guessing that I'm not there yet this year.
Also, if you get sub 20min on your first 5k, well, congratulations
Cyberic - that indoor 5,000 sounds awesome and I don't care what shape I was in I'd try to get in that one! I've never had the opportunity to run on an indoor track (don't have any that I know of around me) so I wouldn't let the opportunity pass. Good luck on the sub-20.
I'm training to get back to sub-20.
I've been on the shelf for most of Dec, Jan and Feb with a littany of foot problems. I took those months off to try to get my feet back to where they used to feel. I've been successful at that part as my PF and heel bursa in my left foot are 100% recovered although I still have very mild discomfort in my right foot (a neuroma between my big toe and 2nd toe).
OK, with that out of the way here's what I've been doing ...
Jan - 16 miles
Feb - 31 miles
Mar - finally started back to regular training and am at 82 miles this month
Have done a couple club races and a few VERY abbreviated workouts (a couple 200m repeats, a few 400m repeats) and am making some progress:
3/7/15 - 5.74 mile hilly club race in 41:54 (5K equivalent of 21:18)
3/14/15 - 3.00 mile hilly club race in 20:34 (5K equivalent of 20:56)
Oddball distances? Yes! My club cycles through a set of road courses every Saturday. Each course is very hilly AND an oddball distance. It's been that way for years - I think the original members back in the 60's wanted a way to keep it more interesting so the distances are 2.75, 3.00, 3.54, 4.68, 4.76, and 5.74 (not run in that order). Yes they are reported to the 100ths of a mile! I think someone just laid out the courses to get various distances and then they 'wheeled' them with a Jones counter to get those numbers. Running those courses is great training for 5K and 10K road racing which, back in the day, was the focus of what those guys did.
So progress is occurring mostly just from starting to run again and my fitness increasing. Has little to nothing to do with the insignificant 'workouts' I mentioned above). That's the tack I will continue on until my fitness is back to some reasonable level.
I have a real 5K road race coming up this Sunday. It's a USATF-certified race and supposedly flat and fast. I'm hoping to be in the 20:50 range. We'll see how it goes and I'll report results here.
I'd be very interested in seeing what you guys are doing to train for and hit your sub-20's.
This is what worked for me in the past. On the same miles I am doing now I did a bunch of Critical Velocity reps which are around 10K effort pace. I worked up to 6 X 1K reps with about a 90 -120 sec jog recovery between working to only 60 sec recovery. I always followed this work out with 4 X 200m fast or some hill reps. I would do this 2 out of 3 weeks in a mid week longer type run with adequate warm up and cool down. The other week I would do a longer type tempo work out of 5 miles at about 50 sec slower than current 5K pace. Sometimes I would just do a Fartlek like 10 X 1 min a fairly fast pace. Last night, I did 3 miles at fast tempo. Be careful with those and be sure not to race them.
This would be one of my quality days and the other quality day was on Saturday as part of another long run of 9-10 miles with tempo miles in it. I would mix it up. Last 2-3 miles faster, run faster 2 miles within long run but twice. Every other mile run faster (like tempo pace). 4 miles in the middle faster.
Because of my lower miles, I only did 2 quality work outs per week. I would also do striders whenever possible on other easy runs which were definitely easier. This got me into 19:20 shape on 25 miles per week. Unfortunately, I have not been healthy enough for years to keep up this type of schedule. RIght now I am healthy and revisiting it. I truly believe this type of schedule allows progress and is much better than hammering 400m intervals all day.
Cool, nice to see people joining in to the challenge!
It's set: I'll be racing on the indoor track Saturday afternoon. It's a brand new track, 200m. The difficulty is that we'll be turning a lot. I know that on a 400m track, you're actually turning for ~220m, so that's more that half of the time. I'm thinking the ratio will be even greater on a 200m track.
It is a friendly race. No chip time, no medal, no t-shirt, nothing official. But the time I run will count (for me). I mean, 25 laps of a 200m track IS EXACTLY 5000 meters.
There are probably going to be 4 waves:
Wave1 : 15:30 to 18:30Wave2 : 18:30 to 21:30Wave3 : 21:30 to 24:00
Wave4 : 24:00 +
The times for each wave are subject to change on race day, but it's going to be something like that.
Since I've never raced a 5K, I'm not sure if my goal of sub 20 is realistic or not. I ran a 1:34 half marathon this past September, and I have not really taken a break from training this winter. I think it should be feasible, but definitely not easy.
I'll see. More news when I've actually raced it.
Good luck Eric. I think with a 1:34 half you have a good chance at doing this.