Forums >Running 101>So want to do 5k in 25 minutes
I want to achieve that in 2 months right now my pb is 37.37 for 3 miles, albeit I did that nearly 2 weeks ago now when my hamstring was first sore, been struggling since then with the runs cause I cant really run with my hammy, But have increased distance on the bike a lot to keep fitness up and am only limited by the equipment in the gym being capped at about 27/28 kph for the upright bike and around 18 kph for the reclined bike, which I am slower on any without the speed cap being factored in. How do I fix my hamstring? How do I do core exercises? Which ones? Im guessing when my hammy heals Il be around 33 minutes or maybe 30 minutes for 3 miles, once it does I am planing to do 12 miles running a week then 13 up to about 19 slowly adding in 1-2 miles a week.
Without seeing your log but based on what you're saying, it sounds like you're racing every workout. This will only lead to burnout and injury (speaking from experience here). Slow down, run longer and more often.
To quote a common saying around here: Run lots, mostly slow, sometimes fast.
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Latent Runner
As for your 25-minute 5K, I have to say, it probably isn't going to happen; low 30-minute range is the best you should hope for based upon your recent recorded times, your level of physical readiness, and any reasonable amount of training.
Fat old man PRs:
How long have you been running? Are you overweight? How often do you run?
Getting faster takes time and consistency. If you run four days a week, mostly slow and easy, over time your speed will pick up. Trying to push the pace gets you injured, as you've found out.
I usually end up with sore hamstrings either from running too fast or running a lot of uphill. If you're doing treadmill, don't crank up the incline all the time. It's counter-productive.
For now, rest your legs. Do some walking to stretch out the muscles, but don't run until the pain is gone. If you have a foam roller, try rolling the backs of your legs. Ice may help, or Epsom salt baths. When the pain is gone, start over, running slow and easy. Gradually build your mileage to 10+ mpw, then try running a 5k race. (You run much faster in a race environment than you do on your own.) Keep building your base mileage. A month or two later, race again. Chances are you'll see improvement. You aren't likely to see a 12 minute/mile improvement in two months, but you will get faster, if you run consistently. If you keep running, you may eventually get to 25 minute miles, but it won't happen overnight.
If you are overweight, then work on your diet. Most weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym.
Half Fanatic #846
When I first started running, I was doing 3 miles in almost 40 minutes. But I quickly (in a year or so) got down to the lower 30 minute range. Now, a few years later, my PB is 28:14 (I'm hoping for 27:XX in my 5K coming up). All this to let you know instead of knocking off minutes for a 3 mi. run, think in terms of seconds. Think of improving your times in small steps over time. Sure, I'd like to do 25 minutes for a 5K, but it most likely ain't gonna happen for me, mostly because I'm probably a lot older than you.
How do you "fix" your hamstring? Rest it. For days, maybe weeks. When it has healed, take it easy for awhile (no speed at first - then maybe once a week). Your time might be close to the same as before, not quicker; and most likely a bit slower. Spend a few months building your weekly mileage base of mostly easy running. Save racing for a real race.
Find a Beginning 5K training plan to follow (Hal Higdon, Couch to 5K just to name a couple). In the meantime, search for information and discussions on training, injuries, cross training, and racing. You have to start with where you are to get to where you want to be - there are no shortcuts for this. Relax, enjoy the journey and Good luck!
"I don't always roll a joint, but when I do, it's usually my ankle" - unk. "Frankly autocorrect, I'm getting a bit tired of your shirt". I ran half my last race on my left foot!
queen of headlamps
My first and only 5K was in May of 2012: I didn't really race it, just ran it at a comfortable pace, and I finished in 33:45. Then I got pregnant, stopped running, had a baby, and eighteen months later the first 3.1 miles of my half was 26:40.
I present this just for a bit of context.
I'm relatively new to this, but if you're at 37 now, to get to 25 you're cutting around four minutes off of every mile that you run. That's a lot to expect very quickly. What if you don't get it? Will you be motivated enough to continue? Why not start with a goal of 33?
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Dream Maker
So first thing is get your hamstring in shape. Go to a physical therapist if you can. You can't improve injured.
When you're done... it's all about consistency OVER TIME and miles. Do not go as fast as you can all the time. That's the enemy of improvement both in effectiveness and in supporting consistency.
Your mileage is pretty low so you have lots of room for improvement in your 5K time.
But when you're looking at two months, don't set a goal like that. Instead, set a goal for good training- for increasing your weekly miles at a reasonable rate and not racing every workout - and then just see where you are in two months and what's reasonable then.
Without seeing your log but based on what you're saying, it sounds like you're racing every workout. This will only lead to burnout and injury (speaking from experience here). Slow down, run longer and more often. To quote a common saying around here: Run lots, mostly slow, sometimes fast.
Can you see my logs now? I was initially doing that but was switching strategy but had already became injured, I try to jog ever 2-3 days after 7 days with no jogging but I still have groin strain and tight quads, ham is a bit better, not injured just tight. I going to leave it to next Wednesday or Thursday to jog, just increase my bike miles, slowly and will also do just core not high itensity training as apparently burpes etc are just as bad for my injury as running, my light jog when uninjured is probably between 5mph and 5.5mph for long runs of about 4-5 miles, if I can finish 4-5 miles when my injury heals up.My top speed before was about 9.3mph so if my groin gets better it will probably be at least 10mph now for my sprint.
How long have you been running? Are you overweight? How often do you run? Getting faster takes time and consistency. If you run four days a week, mostly slow and easy, over time your speed will pick up. Trying to push the pace gets you injured, as you've found out. I usually end up with sore hamstrings either from running too fast or running a lot of uphill. If you're doing treadmill, don't crank up the incline all the time. It's counter-productive. For now, rest your legs. Do some walking to stretch out the muscles, but don't run until the pain is gone. If you have a foam roller, try rolling the backs of your legs. Ice may help, or Epsom salt baths. When the pain is gone, start over, running slow and easy. Gradually build your mileage to 10+ mpw, then try running a 5k race. (You run much faster in a race environment than you do on your own.) Keep building your base mileage. A month or two later, race again. Chances are you'll see improvement. You aren't likely to see a 12 minute/mile improvement in two months, but you will get faster, if you run consistently. If you keep running, you may eventually get to 25 minute miles, but it won't happen overnight. If you are overweight, then work on your diet. Most weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym.
Hi I am a bit overweight but not that much, my best time was set whilst injured, I am recovering from Chemon and radio a few years ago (about 2) and I think being unfit affects my muscles more, takes them longer to build up recovery heal period, also my thorid sometimes dips but not enough yet to require thyroxin. I set my best time for 3 miles whilst injured: 37.37 my best lap for 400m was 2.02 which is about the pace I need to be able to do for 12 laps. My cardio fitness has improved since I set my best 3 mile time, but my legs wont let me run, going to try to go 7 days without running so that would be thursday (today), Friday, saturday,sunday,monday,tuesday. Gym tommrow just bike/weights, Tuesday Bike, core (non hight intensity), strength, Thursday (Bike/jog (see if i can jog or not by then).
My first and only 5K was in May of 2012: I didn't really race it, just ran it at a comfortable pace, and I finished in 33:45. Then I got pregnant, stopped running, had a baby, and eighteen months later the first 3.1 miles of my half was 26:40. I present this just for a bit of context. I'm relatively new to this, but if you're at 37 now, to get to 25 you're cutting around four minutes off of every mile that you run. That's a lot to expect very quickly. What if you don't get it? Will you be motivated enough to continue? Why not start with a goal of 33?
Yeah but Im a bit quicker than 37 minutes, I did that whilst injured which shows how unfit I was before. Im 9st 13 now from 10st4, my ideal weight is any where between 8st10 and 9st 6 so I figure Im still at least 7lps off of my best weight and the mere 5 plbs seemed to affect me more what with recovering from affects of chemo and raido. I do have ambitious targets mainly because I started to pick up some real sprint pace just before getting injured, a pace I was sort of managing before when I trained a lot more but unknowingly had cancer and had no fat on me, so I figured I'd be even faster when I was back to optimum weight. But Injury makes it hard to asses just how fit I am currently. I do feel like I have now lost a bit in some ways and gained in others since the injury but really I have to work so had to even jog a little with my groin as it is, my hamstring feels better though, still a bit tight but healing, I also injured groin at same time its now gotten worse but it was getting better, I believe hight intesity training on monday didn't agree with me. I am just going to try to slowly build up my bike miles so my muscles get stronger and my cardio improves a little, or at least doesnt decline much. After waiting 7 days I tried jogging with no success then I tried jogging every 3-4 days and no luck, so now going to go for 8 days of no jogging just walking/biking/weights.
So first thing is get your hamstring in shape. Go to a physical therapist if you can. You can't improve injured. When you're done... it's all about consistency OVER TIME and miles. Do not go as fast as you can all the time. That's the enemy of improvement both in effectiveness and in supporting consistency. Your mileage is pretty low so you have lots of room for improvement in your 5K time. But when you're looking at two months, don't set a goal like that. Instead, set a goal for good training- for increasing your weekly miles at a reasonable rate and not racing every workout - and then just see where you are in two months and what's reasonable then.
Cool, I had written a plan out but injury means I cant follow it, it was going to be building up first to 7 miles running, then 13 with every other week after that adding a further 1 or 2 miles until i got up to 19 miles close to the race, then i start to decrease miles slightly but not a lot to "taper" for the race so that I'm fresh but still building fitness as given my fitness probably more training not less before a race would be better for me, as long as I have maybe managed to go back to about 10 miles for the last 7 days including the race day.
When my leg is better would it be ok to run about 12 miles at a slow pace over a week, then build up to say 18 miles given I probably wont be able to get as high as that 19 figure in time now?In the mean time I was planning to do indoor bike, my pb for upright bike is 31.05 which is about 11 mph for 6 miles. That new pb set whilst injured and without really hurting my groin any more than it was, problem is the bike indoor is limited to 16mph when it cuts off so really fastest time possible on the bike is 15mph. I am thinking adding distance will force me to slow down and will improve my fitness, if I slow down even if my milage increases I probably will find my groin heals up a bit better. I might also take up swimming, is swimming ok when you have a groin injury, if so is crawl actually better than breast stroke as your legs dont make outward movement?
I also forgot to say I had been getting fitter only going to the gym once a week then when I went twice for a few weeks I then went 3 times one week, got injured and set new pb for 1 mile of 10.24. It was mainly trying to do each run flat out that injured me I feel, and going as hard as I could for 400 m which was 2.02. I believe Id be faster than 2 minutes for 400 m now, and could run 4 laps faster too but I want to do more mileage but cant jog at all right now it seems, I try a really slow jog at 4.5mph but still really sore my legs say no, dont want to make the injury worse. It was a few days after going 3 times in one week I managed to limp round to a new pb of 37.37 on the treadmill, I feel my "easy" run pace is around 36 minutes now when I have totally non injured legs ( I dont mean non fatigued, I mean non injured) but I have no clue what my new flat out pace would be if I try to run as hard as I can, I know I probably would set a new pb via running to hard, having to walk for a bit then running to hard again and still be faster than 36 minutes if my legs would allow me to be able to run.
Feeling the growl again
It was mainly trying to do each run flat out that injured me I feel,
You don't get faster by going all-out in practice...you get faster by consistently running more. Slow down as much as you need to run more.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Train to finish a 1/2 marathon. Then go back and work on speed.
Ya but cant put a running plan into action till my legs heal, in mean time I'm trying to do same thing but building mileage with indoor bikes, might swim too. going to leave it one week and two days before I try to run again, i.e. a week on monday. Good news is my weight lifting has improved as I read in a runners magazine strong arms help you to run better, I am now up to 30kg x3sets, x5 reps on lat pull down which is my best machine. Also discovered the ab and side ab weighted machines at the gym today which is good too so will work a lot on core work whilst my legs are unable to run, did new pbs for all the weight machines today, pecs up by 2.5 kg, chest press dito, shoulder press up by 5kg to 20kg 3sets of 5, seated row up to the same as the shoulder press a 5kg improvement, if you count each rep as being additive then I improved by hundreds of kilos today! (5kg per rep on some machines,x3x5, 7.5 on the lat pull downx3x5, 2.5x3x5 for chest pec and press) I am 5ft 3.3 161 cm 5.3 foot in google is not 5.3 ft flat btw as their are 12 not 10 inches in a foot.
I think when I have slowed down I will be running easy 3 mile pace at around 36-37 minutes will try to then slowly increase easy mile pace each day being a few seconds faster whilst still taking it easy. I am going to go for a sports massage next week and see a sports physio at Christmas time.