Forums >Racing>Goal of sub 20 5k
I'm beginning my 5th year running (I'll also be 55 this year). Last year by far was my best year. My goal for a 5K was to finally break the elusive 24:00 barrier for me. I finally ran a 21:37 on the same course. I also shattered my 5M times by about 5 minutes 37mins and change and ran two 10Ks in the low 47s. All of these were faster paces than any of my previous 5K paces. But I'm not greedy, so this year my goal for the 5K is to break 21:00 and get under a 7 min mile pace.
Sub 20 is my current goal as well. I ran a PR of 16:11 my Junior year in high school (14 years ago) and took about 12 years off from running after high school. I ran my first 5K last June after picking running back up about 6 months earlier @ 23:55. My next one in September was @ 21:55. I ran a third a few weeks ago @ 20:22; Almost there! I'm curious as to how low I could go if I really committed to training. I'm not sure i'll ever be in the neighborhood of my PR again though. Has anyone had any success in getting back into great shape after taking years (and years) off?
Well after grabbing my book DANIELS RUNNING FORMULA I realized I should only run 4 miles worth of Tempos since I am only running 40 miles per week. That sounded better. I ran a mile warmup then sauntered onto the track very nervously for some jr high kids were in the seats watching me and I didnt want to blow up. I got myself relaxed and did fine. 7 minute pace is really not that fast if you hit all the splits which I did nicely. I actually did 4 X 1600 meters. Split 1.... 6:59 Split 2....6:59 Split 3... 6:57 Split 4...6:49 Tried not to get too carried away but I felt good on the last 1600 meter interval. I knew it was no time to be fancy but I kept strong even though I could have loafed in the last 2 laps I took 80 seconds rest between each 1600 meter interval. Total miles today 8...weekly miles 34. It was a good test today.
Dude, you didn't do a tempo run, you did 4x1600 intervals.
Dude, you didn't do a tempo run, you did 4x1600 intervals. Your tempo run would be nonstop 20 minutes at 7mm pace. 7mm tempo run would convert to about a 6:30 5k pace, which would just miss sub-20. If you can run your 20 min tempo run at 6:45's, that should convert to a 6:15 5k pace and you got it. You've got to do your mile repeats at about a 6:15-6:20 pace to be on track to break 20. Crank it up and train faster, run your 400 intevals at 5:40's. If you run your 400 intervals and tempos at these paces once a week for 4 wks, you'll break 20 in the 5th wk no problem. You have plenty of speed to do it, you're just letting your brain get in the way, it's called paralysis by analysis.
I've got a fever...
As far as doing 5:40 mile speed in my quarter mile repeats I think that is too fast. I am only aiming for 6:27 mile pace in my race so I see no need to run at a much faster pace for 85 seconds when I am doing it now in 91 seconds and it is much easier pace for me (and still much faster than anything I will need to do a sub20 five-k.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
I'm not sure what kind of mileage you're doing, but the general rule of thumb is that more miles will improve your time more quickly than intervals. If you're already doing substantial miles and have been for a while, then intervals are great for helping you peak. Don't discount the idea of the fast quarters. Shorter faster intervals stress your body differently and affect different systems than your race pace. Even though you need to get under 6:27/mile to break 20 minutes, running quarters at 5:40 will benefit you if for no other reason in that they will make your race pace feel slow to you. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't be doing intervals, I just wanted to make you aware that the pace of short intervals serves a definite function. As a related side note, a really good variation on the old 5k standby workout of mile repeats is to do them as a 600-1000 superset. The workout is 3x(600-1000) with 4 minutes recovery. Run the first 600m extremely hard, then without stopping, downshift into your current 5k race pace. The fast 600 will make the race pace portion feel slow, and will also train you to run at 5k speed under some duress.
There is a place for going 12 mph and it can help but I see no reason to do so for more than 30 seconds at a time (like a few striders at the end of runs every other day at the max).
I had the 5:40 pace (85sec/400m) in mind for R-Pace workouts, not I-pace. Looking at the numbers a little more closely, I see that your 20:17 5k corresponds to an I-pace of 95sec/400m and an R-Pace of 89sec/400m. So 5:40 pace is a little fast for R-Pace, but not unreasonable. Look at it this way -- if you're doing a Daniels R-Pace workout, and you're felling really good, your might find your self running that fast. .
Supa Dupa Fly
It is much harder in your 30s to run times you ran in your teens. But if you put in the miles your time will drop. I see you haven't been running very many miles yet so your times have a long way to drop if you keep increasing mileage. You have natural talent to draw upon. I don't know about running low 16s again but you should be able to go below 18 in my opinion maybe even get close to 17 ... if you get up above 35 miles a week. Increase miles slowly though.