Goal of sub 17 minute 5k (Read 8285 times)

Thoughts, anybody?

 

I think racing a 5k every week and running lots of easy miles the rest of the week can work.  There's lots of people who've had success with that.

 

As for me I got brutally sick and I'm just now trying to get back to normal mileage before resuming hard workouts.  This thing knocked me on my ass and I've lost nearly 3 weeks.  I think my spring sub 17 plans are out the window but maybe later in the summer.  I'm already signed up for a 5k on memorial day weekend and assuming I get a few decent weeks of training before then, I'll at least know where I stand.

 

It's always something with this stupid 5k quest, though.

Well, a PB of 18:25, so the higher mileage appears to be working. Next weekend is the Edinburgh Marathon, so I'll not be doing a 5k. At the Wimbledon Common run I chatted to one of the runners who put in a 17:20 time, and who'd completed the London Marathon in 2:42 three weeks earlier (his slowest of twelve marathons!). He said - yes - miles, and a race once a week, but reckoned you also needed to build up strength. So his suggestion was once a week to do fartlek, or reps on a hill. So perhaps I'll add that in after the marathon...

I am pulling for you Thunder ... I dont want to see a 17:01 ...

 

I will not be ready until end of August if then.

 

Yeah...17:01 would be bad.

 

Not as bad as 17:00.0.  Trust me.

 

(But I am also pulling for you.  And I also likely will not be ready until end of August, if then.)

Aiming for 17:15 this Sunday.  If all goes well, I might try my first sub-17 two weeks later.

@PJM43:  While you may see some success from the "fire and ice" program you are following, that is mostly due to the increase in milage.  You will see success, yes, but not as much as you would if you followed a more traditional approach.  You NEED dedicated Tempo runs, you NEED intervals, you NEED repetitions, and you NEED long runs in order to achieve the most you can.  Its not complicated at all; you can cut and paste the 5k 24 week training guide from Daniel's Running Formula and have a solid amount of success.  It will help you in the long run.

 

@Diamond J:  Sounds like you talked yourself out of the race there.  Don't let the weather or anything else get you down.  Sack it up and get after it; you will find you can do perfectly fine in almost all conditions, its you talking yourself out of it that really gets you down.  No excuses.  Sack it up.  Get after it.  Then again, you did PR, but perhaps you could have PR'ed more.  Yes.

Sub 17 has been a goal of mine for several years, and I had posted on this thread a bit last fall, but just didn't get enough races in to get there at that time.  The last certified 5k I ran was last September, and I clocked a 17:02.  I spent the winter and early Spring training for a marathon, so have just gotten back to the shorter stuff in the past few weeks.

 

I took my first real shot at a sub 17 since last September this weekend, and I'm happy to say I snuck in in 16:58.  It was a nice local 5k that I've run several times, but none of the better local runners were there, so I ended up running alone most of the way, actually winning by 50 seconds.  First mile was 5:23 and felt decent, second mile was 5:33 and I was starting to tire.  Held it together well enough over the last mile to still be in position for the sub 17, and had just enough left to get through the line in time.  Final 1.1 was in 6:03 (5:30 pace).

 

Next up I'm shooting for a 16:40.  It will probably take a little while to get there, but I feel like I should be able to do it with more specific 5k/10k training.