Forums >Racing>2 weeks and 6 days... still time to improve?
Hey everyone! I have a 5k in 2 weeks and 6 days. My goal has been to run it under 29 min... my current pr is 31:28 ... first what can I do to speed up and second am I too close to the race to improve my fitness level? When is the cut off for that? I would love to see 28 min or less so I'm willing to try anything.
Need info on what your current training and any plans you may have for the next 3 weeks for anyone to give any meaningful advice. Sure you'll improve if you train intelligently from now until race day, how much depends on a whole lot of factors, like how log ago was that PR, what were the conditions on that day, what was your training for that one vs your current training, whether you are better conditioned now etc.. Just don't overdo it the last 3-4 days before race day.
More importantly though, Why the focus on the 5k in 3 weeks? Plan on becoming a lifelong runner, and run consistently using any of the many training philosophies out there, most of which boil down to "run more, mostly easy, sometimes fast". After a year or two you will be amazed at how far you've come.
Currently I run 3-4 miles 3-4 times a week. I cross train with swimming or strength at least twice and make sure I have at least one full rest day if not two a week. My last race was mothers day... So may is when I got that PR. It was perfect weather and flat terrain. On my practice runs I'm still only hitting between 30.5 and 31 minutes .. oh and on some of my runs every other week I'm doing sprint work instead of an easy pace run.
And yes I'm definitely a life long runner just seems speed doesn't come as naturally to me as distance running but I'd love to be good at both.
I meant I run 3-4 miles Each run 3-4 times each week lol not just 3-4 miles. Saturday I did a 12 mile hike in the hills for incline training and for fun.
First of, don't time all your training runs. Leave the watch home for a few and just run. Secondly, if you can run a 5k in 31 min in training, you sure can run 28 min race. Race day magic is real. I have to work hard to run faster than 10 min miles in training, but can run about a 22-23 min 5k.
At this stage the only sprint work I'd do is some strides at the end of easy runs. one example of Strides
thank you so much! I'll definitely incorporate some of that. And you are right about race day spurring us on to be faster. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and add in Strides and see what happens
SMART Approach
Keep doing what you are doing. Tip. Exactly one week before event wake up like you are doing the race. Same prep. Take some caffeine if you wish one hour before. Do a warm up jog with a few striders. Putz around 5-10 minutes moving, one or two more striders etc just like you would on race day. Then take off and run the first 1.5 miles of run like you would race day and then finish with 2-3 easier miles.
The goal is to simulate race day and make you feel a bit more cmfortable. The second goal is to get a sense of pacing. You don't want to blow your wad the first mile and then miserably survive. Remember, you will be pumped with adrenaline race day and you will take off with what feels like a good pace but it will be too fast. Start a bit slower (in your mind) and you probably be right where you need to be. You will have plenty of time to finish strong even if you start a tad slow. If an inexperienced 5K racer gets to 3/4 mile to 1 mile and is spent, you will never bounce back and will run the next 2 miles slower and your race time will suffer. I see it all the time as I pass all these runners at 1 mile who start too fast. Good luck!
Run Coach. Recovery Coach. Founder of SMART Approach Training, Coaching & Recovery
Structured Marathon Adaptive Recovery Training
Safe Muscle Activation Recovery Technique
www.smartapproachtraining.com
Try running a training race as fast as you can. I mean start off faster than you usually run and see how long you can sustain the faster pace and if you can sustain a faster average pace for the 5 km to see if you can knock some time off.
When I was a beginner runner, I was running 5k around 30-31min and never seemed to be improving, like I hit some sort of wall or something. Finally I decided my next run I will run as fast as I can for as long as I can, just to see how long I can sustain the faster pace. I don't remember the exact final time, but I knocked 5km pace down to 26min and change.
Also, on race day, try to get as far up in front in your corral before the race starts so will have less people ahead of you to pass if your pace if faster then the pack. If you are in the back of the pack it is difficult to move up because the pack does not spread out enough in a 5k race to make passing very easy.
Don't do this. 5k's typically don't have corrals unless its a very big race, and starting up too far in the front will a) make you go out too fast b) get dirty looks from people passing you, c) may discourage you seeing so many people passing you. At 25-28 min 5k pace start at about the middle of the crowd and focus on picking off a runner slightly ahead of you who is running about your pace, keep doing this till the end.
If you have a strong desire to quit and walk in the second mile you are running the right pace. Don't give in to that feeling and keep going. If you are feeling comfortable then you are going too slow, speed up, its going to end pretty soon and 2 minutes after crossing the line you'd swear you could have gone faster if only you were a little tougher.