Forums >Running 101>5k or another long run in my training?
I’m in week 4 of my 8-week 10k training plan and it says to run a 5k. I couldn’t find out why except figured it was just to get your body to practice actual racing (pace).
i thought I’d skip it and just do another 6.5-7 mi long run. But am going back and forth on this.
what do you guys think?
my 10k goal is to break 1 hour (verse covering the distance). And it’s my first race.
Can I do a 5k race on my own and then follow it up immediately with an additional 3-4 slow miles or is that too much?
an amazing likeness
Trust the training plan. (I recall you're using a Higdon plan...)
You need both distance and speed training as part of your prep. Run the 5K (on your own if needed), run it hard. Get the intended training benefit from it.
When you add a mile warmup and mile cool down, you'll have a 5mi day, which is longer than a good number of your daily runs. Plus the hard 5K section will give you a good indication if your 60min goal is within reach.
What you really don't want to happen is that you go into your goal 10K with a pace target (from your 60min goal = ~9:30 miles) in mind, and no supporting evidence that you can run that pace for the 10K.
You've got this! Trust the process.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
+1 to what MilkTruck said, If you do decide on running the 5K by yourself, know that it will be slower than an actual race, where the adrenaline, others running with you and having an actual finish line will all push you than you can by yourself. I am at least a min/mile faster in a actual race than I can run for the same distance.
If you can run a sub 10:00 min pace 5k in your solo effort, sub 60 10k is a piece of cake. I could hardly run a 9 min pace 5k solo, but fairly confident, can ran a 50-51 min 10k in a race. Race day magic is real
Yes, I’m following the Hal Higdon plan.
Okay, got it. I know this is bad but I’ve never truly did that long of a warm up for ANY of my workouts (go easy on me). I include my “warm up” in the run, starting off slow then increase or same pace. So a mile long warm up should be at an easy pace?
Thanks happy feet...didn’t think of the adrenaline rush of an actual race. Great point! I’m Supposed to run the 5k tomorrow, so I’m going solo.
I like the added 2 miles for warm up/cool down too.
which brings me to another question. Maybe I’m logging my runs wrong...do I add cool down and warm up distances??
Gizmo - its your log, so if you want to include warm up/cool down into your log then go ahead, you can log it as a jog and then log the rest of your run, or just log it as one. I personally always do at least a one to two mile "warm up" and just log it as part of my run, but the runs where i care about pace i log my mile splits so i can see the difference since the slower warm up miles will mess with my overall pace
also, if you feel like a one mile warm up is to much, try a walk/run warm up instead, so you aren't going into the hard effort cold, but you aren't exhausting yourself first either.
My apologies if my earlier reply made it seem like there was some special reason for the 1mi warmup -- that's not the case. You want to jog a bit to have you heart rate build up, get oxygen flowing through the muscles, get the muscles warm and ready for the work out.
How I approach warm up depends on how I'm feeling, and the workout to come. For a hard workout...I may start out walking easily, then more briskly, then stop and do some dynamic leg swings...then jog, and so on; this usually takes about a mile or 8-10 minutes. The goal being to have gotten the 'engine' woken up, warmed up and ready to go to work.
Christirei advice is spot-on...it's your log, put the data in how you want to see it. There's no right way or wrong way. Folks here handle the warm-up/cool-down entries in all sorts of different ways.
Personally, I go with 1 entry using 3 'splits' or 'segments' -- the warmup time/distance + the workout time/distance + the cool down time/dist -- all as 1 log entry.
The other approach is to have 3 log entries which has the benefit of letting you see the pace/distance of your workout (ie, the 5K section) at a glance in your workout summary page.
This is very helpful. Thank you both. I did toy with the idea of splitting up each run but I wasn’t sure since most of my warm ups are shorter than a mile (i.e. a significant distance)...thanks!
SMART Approach
Also practice your pre race eating and drinking before you do 5k. Do your warm up jog. Last 2 min of jog run at faster pace. Then walk around a couple minutes to get HR down and then GO. Run hard but shoot for even pacing and very strong finish. Record your 3.1 mile time and report back. Walk 1-3 minutes, hydrate and then jog another mile or two.
Run Coach. Recovery Coach. Founder of SMART Approach Training, Coaching & Recovery
Structured Marathon Adaptive Recovery Training
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ugh.
30:59:01
im changing my 10K goal to 70 min. so pissed.
not sure what is so different other than, i started off a bit faster but then went controlled. then slower, then after half way, sped up, controlled then sprinted. couple dogs and cars in the way but we're talking milliseconds...
on top of that, stomach cramps from running too fast.
i dont see how different this is from my treadmill training except
1) on weekdays, i eat breakfast and wait about an hr then train
2) treadmill is flat (i dont do incline)
3) i noticed halfway through todays outdoor 5K that there was a bit of incline and decline (i mapped out my route to avoid 2 big hills).
4) i normally dont warm up for 1 mi but i did that very slow and then even rested a bit before i started the 5k...
WARM UP
1.05 mi-11:29:50
lap 1- 10:57:98
avg pace: 11:06
max pace: 9:31
avg speed: 5.4
max speed: 6.3
5K
3.10 mi -30.59:01
lap 1-9:53:61
lap 2-10:28:09
lap 3-9:43:00
lap 4-54:40 (.10 mi)
avg pace: 10:10
max pace: 8:00
avg speed: 5.9
max speed: 7.5
cool down
1.13 mi - 18:24:83
Gizmo, don't get to down on yourself!! it was a good solid effort and it gives you information heading into the second half of your training. You still have four weeks of training left before your 10K and who knows what you can accomplish!
first thing, when you are racing your 10K you will be surrounded by other people, and don't forget what a motivator that can be, I have NEVER been able to do a time trial by myself that even comes close to race day effort, i just can't make myself turn on that extra gear if there aren't people around me that i am actually racing against. Your pace will drop a bit just by that fact alone
next thing, i know with your kiddos you need to run on your treadmill, but you should definitely mess with the incline a bit, start out at 1% and during your run just mess with it a bit, up to three or four percent and back down, you don't need to jack it up to 10% and leave it there for the whole run, but do go up and down a bit throughout your run to help prepare you for running outdoors
be encouraged, your third mile was your fastest!! that means you have got the training in those legs, you just have to practice a bit more. maybe try another time trial 5K in two weeks just to practice once more before your goal race. You can do this!!
Gizmo, don't get to down on yourself!!..... I have NEVER been able to do a time trial by myself that even comes close to race day effort, i just can't...... be encouraged, your third mile was your fastest!!.......You can do this!!
Gizmo, don't get to down on yourself!!.....
I have NEVER been able to do a time trial by myself that even comes close to race day effort, i just can't......
be encouraged, your third mile was your fastest!!.......You can do this!!
This.
Okay thank you guys.
ive been obsessing with the whys in this and realizing this is the max of what I can do. I was hoping for at LEAST 29 or 28. My fastest ever was somewhere in the 27 min range but that was before I got sick and stopped for 2 one-month periods. Maybe I’m not back to that level yet or I’m just aging..
The part that pisses me off is that I do about the same time for 3 mi on a flat treadmill but I’m starting slow and gradually building and well it’s easier to sustain speeds on a treadmill I guess and I feel fine. I probably put in up to 85-90% effort.
but for this, I feel like I put in up to 100% effort and it’s the same time. PLUS my stomach cramps and I felt like I was running out of gas bc of the speed and super effort.
so now I will mess with the incline (I did that before but stopped bc I thought I was overdoing it), try to replicate my weekday morning routine into my outdoor run routine. I never eat/fuel before Saturday morning runs bc I can’t eat that early nor can I wait a whole hr to start digesting. Plus never thought I’d need fuel for anything under an Hr run. But maybe I do need the fuel for the speed. Once, I did feel great after having a date first.
i also wonder if I gained anything running this 5k or was it “junk miles?”
thank you again.
not bad for mile 25
Gizmo, be gentle with yourself! You're an equally wonderful person whether you run a 45:00 or 75:00 10K. Just see what you can do, and keep persevering. That's the best we all can do.
😀Haha thanks for putting it in perspective! I’m starting to be ok with a later time. I gotta get over this “beat the elite with just a yr of real training” mentality!
you are right, thank you!