Going from 26 minute 5k to sub 22

KATJH

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. There are some fast people on these boards so I was wondering if anybody could offer me some advice on how to get faster. I have questions. How long would it take to drop five minutes in the 5k? What should my training week look like and what workouts should I be doing? I’ve been running 40km per week for five years now and would like to get faster. My fastest 5k ever was 21:45 but I was younger then and I would like to beat my lifetime PR.

Richard 2

Hi what does your training week look like?  do you do any sprinting? 

I would definitely try and find an athletics club, many clubs do tuesday and thursday evening speed/threshold sessions - a month or two of these and you'll get faster without doubt

park run is another option of course - do it regularly and attack it

what is your weight like?  dropping a bit of weight will affect your time, its often difficult but has a massive effect

otherwise build in a speed session or two to your weekly running, some form of interval high intensity and try and do this regularly

good luck
Richard

KATJH

Hi richard. Yes I do speedwork, I am more of a natural sprinter (I can run 14.5 100m without much training) so speed isn’t an issue, endurance is the biggest issue for me. I regularly do 400 repeats at 1:40s and 800 repeats at 3:55 (1 minute rest in between the 400s/2 minutes rest inbetween the 800s) and have been doing speedwork for quite a few months but I don’t seem to be getting any faster which is frustrating.

Also, I am 5’2 and 125 lbs so I’m not sure how much weight comes into play at this point..

glenjones

How many 400 or 800 repeats are you doing in a session?

KATJH

8-10 x 400
6 x 800

KATJH

In fact I just did some 400 repeats today
1:35
1:41
1:39
1:41
1:42
1:43
1:43
1:44
1:41
1:38

glenjones

I've been stuck in a similar way. I got my 5k down to 22:07, but can't get under it. I'm similar in that I run an int session like yours each week. I'm also on decent mileage at the moment as marathon training, so doing some 18-20 mile runs, and I've lost a stone, but still not improved. Did some reading last night, and decided I was going to add sets of hill sprints as a weekly workout, that was something being specifically recommended for improving 5k speed.

So looking at a week being something like Longer run, hill work, speed session + something else to mix things up (e.g. a social run).

Not sure if that helps, but thats what I'm doing

KATJH

I was thinking of building up to 20x400 repeats over the course of 3 months. If I am doing them at 6:40 pace then surely doing five miles of speedwork st that pace would make me faster? The problem is I have a LOT of physical health problems so even when I look after myself I find it hard to adapt to training which really sucks

The regular route which I run has a lot of hills so on my milage runs I sometimes sprint up them if I’m not feeling too tired, hill sprints would be a good idea

Dustin

26 to 22 is a massive jump and you do need short speed and endurance.

For 5k, shorter, faster sets with shorter recoveries tend to lead to greater improvement.
Such as 3 blocks of 5x200 off 45s (3 minutes between each block), or 10x400s off 60s
Throw in some 800s, these should be at (or slightly quicker) than race pace.
This is where it gets tricky as 26 minute 5k is ~8 m/m 22 minutes is ~7m/m.
So start off doing consistent ones sub 4 minutes - which you are doing. I'd drop the number (maybe do just 4 to start) and aim for say 3:45s which is ~24 minute pace. Build these up to 6 over time.
More reps isn't necessarily better.

Also try some 1k or 1200 reps - just 3 or 4 again which help more with the speed endurance.
300s are also horrible: build up to 10 off 90s recovery. They are a cross between a full hard sprint effort and the more steady/hard 400

Realistically to go from 26 to 22 needs your pace to drop 80s/mile. That will probably take a couple of years.
I'd break it down to incremental gains: a minute at a time. When you are consistently running sub 25s it is easier to push on towards 24.
Also when you do some 3-4 mile runs, incorporate a mile (building to 2-2.5) at the target pace.

As an aside for Glen I don't think you can improve over 5k if you are marathon training - I tend to concentrate on either marathon, 10m-halfM or 5k-10k and train specifically for it: they all have different core components.
I'm currently marathon training so 5k and or 10k times are on hold until late spring/summer.
  

Sub17ParkRun

Run 5km every week as a tempo run. 
Hill sprints or short intervals. 
Long run between 6 to 10 miles.
You can improve over any distance by running more miles and consistency.

Pete Holt

imo looking at your history - it seems to me that as you are an experienced runner, have been working on interval sessions for quite some time. 400s being effective for 5k training. furthermore and quite significantly you mention health issues. it is my view that you are lacking strength.  get to the gym focus on glutes, hips, and hamstrings. once you have better strength then add in some hill sprints to lessen your injury risk.