Goal of sub 19 minute 5k (Read 5724 times)

Thats a good time...pretty close to 6:30 per mile. You can' t get down on yourself just think of all the miles you are putting in...I tried for 4 years to break 20 in a 5k then I ran a PR of 20:03...my next race was 20:37 then 19:35 all within a month. So if you get the right course you can take 30 seconds off your PR.

Thanks Michigan. I identified a few quick things I can do and hope I can run a good 5k on 3/22. BTW, when is your debut this season? Legs really sore after the 8k, 1 mile races on Sat and then a 16 miler yesterday.

Thanks Michigan. I identified a few quick things I can do and hope I can run a good 5k on 3/22. BTW, when is your debut this season? Legs really sore after the 8k, 1 mile races on Sat and then a 16 miler yesterday.

I should pass the 100 mile mark for the year to let you know how little running I have been doing this year! But that is a good thing. I am really getting into the training again and don't think I will burn out as easily this year. After running 50 miles in the last 2 weeks I ran a 21:34 on the treadmill and a 21:51 outdoors (solo efforts not trying to kill myself). I feel quite good like I can go below 21 minutes within 3 weeks. I am hoping to race for real on April 18th weekend. I may try a late March race to ready myself for the April grind but wouldn't be going all out. I would hope to be in 20:30 race by April 18th. My first goal is to go sub 20 again early this year. Then June through August there are 3 courses where I may have a shot at sub 19 if I can get my miles up to 50-60 per week for a couple months.

I took a small step toward this goal yesterday - after 45 minutes of making more adjustments to my supposedly-fixed-for-$411 treadmill, I did my first tempo run in a month. I hadn't varied my pace much while trying to build up my mileage but had: 5 miles in 37:52 including 3 miles in 21:52 (first and last miles were 8:00 warmup/cooldown). I felt surprisingly good, like I was barely pushing, but they are easily my fastest miles in months at 7:17 pace. Most of my runs are 7:50-8:05/mile. Not an earth shattering run; I have to be very careful because of a huge tendency when I get in good shape to overtrain. I should start a thread called "don't do this" and put some sample weeks in from my early/mid '90s logs. I am trying to compare to Spring 2004 when I ran a surprise 19:31 and I think I'm way ahead of the game. I am targeting trying to break 19 in the summer. I have tentative goals of sub 18:30 5K and sub 32:00 5 miles for the year, but this assumes I can actually stay injury-free which would be a near miracle To everyone on the thread - keep up the good work and good luck! Reading it helps to keep me motivated.

kpx33x, your 20th Century (pre 1995) looks a heck of a lot like mine. Here's hoping we can rock the 21st.

kpx33x, your 20th Century (pre 1995) looks a heck of a lot like mine. Here's hoping we can rock the 21st.

kpx33x and jeffgoldblue, you guys were fast when you were younger. I think you guys can be back to where you were soon. On the other hand, I was very slow. My speed was limited to 30m or so, as a soccer player. So, my distance running times are all faster than my few attempts decades ago.

I've got some similar PRs too. From a time long ago (1990 and before). I was mainly a 200-800m runner. With bests of 23.x, 52.x and 2:04.x I don't think I ever ran a mile race (or at least I can't remember). I miss track.... I never thought I'd be a marathoner, I detested long distance...

FWIW, my early 90's times were pretty similar to those, too.

Looks like I am a minority here (a slow poke when I was young)! I ran some 25 to 30 min 5k's when I was in high school a couple of times. Didn't run at all in college. I started running seriously when I was 34/35. And had the break through late last year to break 20 min for the 1st time.

I suppose the good bad thing is we don't have to try and match great times we did when we had youth on your side! (sorry guys!) know how fast we can go now.

Fixed. At 32, I am just as fast over all those distances, except the 400--though if I worked on my speed I could probably come close to running that 52 again. I am faster over distances from 10 miles up. If you are in your 30's, youth is still on your side, plus you have the strength and mental discipline of adulthood. If you can't run faster in your 30's than you did as a teenager, then you are doing something wrong. The only mental challenge that a history of fast times brings is that you know how hard you have to work, and how much patience it takes to get there. That thought can be a bit daunting at times--until I remember hwo much i enjoy the work.