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

I'll jump on. With a PB of 17:36 from last month, this will be a very far stretch, but why not give it a go. At least I hope to take my time down to low 17.

I am fortunate enough to have plenty of 5Ks near me. Plan is to race a couple each month and see how it goes.

Good initiative to revive this excellent thread Father Russia!

I realized the other day that even though I've broke 17 three times in indoor track races, I've never done it outdoors, so I figured I'd revive this thread with my attempts to break 17 in the great outdoors.

 

Track is pretty much done for, I'm circling the New Balance Boston Meet on the 21st as a chance to try and go sub 4:20 in the 1500m, since I will be in the area, but there is no 5k that meet.  My next 5k race will likely be mid-June, once I'm in Tennessee for work.  I think I'm likely in shape to run sub 17 today if I was on the track in a race, but the opportunity for that has come and gone, so now I've got to get into better shape to try and do it out on the roads.

 

Anyone else up for some sub-17 minute action?

Not sure how long you will be here in TN, but if your here on 6/4, you could (and should) run the Music City Distance Carnival.

Ha, I never knew this thread existed!  Back in high school and college, sub 17 was the norm.  That was awhile ago, and It might be a decent idea to shoot for it again.  I just wonder if my legs can turnover that fast anymore.  Plus I would need to invest in a lot more short interval workouts.

Maybe after turning 40 next year that could be a good goal?

+1.  Yes.  From personal experience this is a very big factor; almost linear with all other variables held constant.

Not sure how long you will be here in TN, but if your here on 6/4, you could (and should) run the Music City Distance Carnival.

That is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, my lease starts 6/1 so that is perfect.

So I guess my plan for now is a 1500m on 5/21, to tune up a little, then 6/4 I'll take a crack at the 5k, hopefully I'll be under 17 by a comfortable margin.

P.S. being young rocks

I have a theory that the reason why middle-aged runners tend to be slower is that we tend to carry a few more pounds than when we were teenagers. If I could get back to the weight I was when I was 18 (probably about 70kg) I'd no doubt be faster than I am today at 77kg. Of course there are other reasons why we slow down, but for many of us that's a big part of it.

Weight is definitely a factor, but age is too.  I don't weigh any more now than I did in High School, but I'm much slower if we're talking about pure speed.  Back in HS I used to be able to run a 27-28 sec 200m at the end of an interval workout.  Spent quite a bit of time last summer working on speed, running nearly all out 200m intervals at the end of longer interval sessions, and the best I could do was 32 secs.  That's 4-5 secs slower over 200m.  That is a HUGE difference in speed.

However, I'm actually faster now at 5k than I was then, because I'm training much better.  My training was low mileage and lots of short (200/400) intervals in HS (I was a miler).  Higher mileage and more tempo work has me much stronger now than I was then, so the lost speed is more than made up for by the improved strength and endurance - at least at 5k and above.  I'm actually hoping to break 16 for the 5k this year, which I never thought was realistic until recently.

yeah I also weigh about the same as I did my senior year in highschool but have lost significant speed.  I could run a 53 second 400 then.  I can't even imagine that now.