I don't monitor my heart rate on a regular basis. I should start and put my Garmin to work. My 5k PR is 21:37. For logging purposes... My easy pace is between 8:00 and 9:00 - most comfortable at 8:20 Between 7:00 and 8:00 I consider a medium pace. Between 6:00 and 7:00 is tempo/race pace.

I am no expert but it seems to me that your training paces are not very correct (unless your 5k PR was set a while back and you are in much better shape now). From your 5k PR, your avg pace is 6:57. Tempo pace should be 30 to 45 sec slower than 5k pace, so it should probably be between 7:27 to 7:40+ for you. Easy pace should probably be around 9 min.

I've been trying to follow Daniels' VDOT tables. For my 5K PR of ~21:38, he recommends an easy pace of around 9:17, which seems to be about right under ideal conditions.

My 5k pr is 20:17 and I aim to run outdoors at 8:30 for easy pace runs.

Good luck at your next 5K. I hope it goes well. Another question that may be of interest is the total number of easy miles done each week and 5K PR. I do between 30 and 35 miles per week easy pace (between 9:00 and 10:30)

When I ran my 21:00 last year I was doing about 20-25 miles per week in total, with one long run of 8-10 and one day of hill work but really no speedwork. This year I am running an average of probably 35 miles per week with one long run and either hills or speedwork as my other hard workout. I broke 21:00 last month with a 20:54 and I really think I can attribute it to the extra miles.

If you can do those workouts then I'm not sure what is stopping you. I couldn't do that when I first went sub 20 in the 5k. Note that I currently use the McMillan pace calculator: http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm Pace ranges for all training distances are based off my 5k & 10k PRs. They line up exactly.

I have got a 18:57 5k, and this wasnt even a race, I did it on my own, so I know in a race I ahould be able to beat this. I need to enter a 5k to test myself.