Improve 5K Time

slingerz

I have a bit of a conundrum for people. I have been training for the GAA all year so would be relatively fit and young-ish however my best time in a 5k is 28.30 which to be honest is fairly slow relative to what i am seeing my peers do the distance in.

However, the more i attempt to improve my times the worse i am actually getting. last week was a busy week with training and matches but i got a run in and the 5k track that we usually do so i set off for the 5k race on saturday optimistic of a new PB at least.

what happened was i was over the 30 minute mark for this 5k! I have no idea what I have been doing wrong as I have plenty of training done. I have friends doing it and improving every week with 0 training from week to week!! one friend is 51 and just took up doing them with a month and a half and has gone from 31 mins to a respectible 24.47 last week!!! this compunded the fact that herself, who has never beaten my in a 5k finished over a minute ahead of me for her own new PB of 29.05!

im at my wits end with how to improve these times:mad:

ecoli

slingerz wrote: »

I have a bit of a conundrum for people. I have been training for the GAA all year so would be relatively fit and young-ish however my best time in a 5k is 28.30 which to be honest is fairly slow relative to what i am seeing my peers do the distance in.

However, the more i attempt to improve my times the worse i am actually getting. last week was a busy week with training and matches but i got a run in and the 5k track that we usually do so i set off for the 5k race on saturday optimistic of a new PB at least.

what happened was i was over the 30 minute mark for this 5k! I have no idea what I have been doing wrong as I have plenty of training done. I have friends doing it and improving every week with 0 training from week to week!! one friend is 51 and just took up doing them with a month and a half and has gone from 31 mins to a respectible 24.47 last week!!! this compunded the fact that herself, who has never beaten my in a 5k finished over a minute ahead of me for her own new PB of 29.05!

im at my wits end with how to improve these times:mad:

This probably has a major factor on the reasons. Athletics training is about periodization. Many people training to run their best go through the cycle of heavy training load > taper > race. The idea is that you stress the body to a certain extent and then allow to recover and adapt. Long term the training will help you over the people who are doing zero training but short term they are simply fresher than you

My advice would be to add a mile or two to your training warm ups in GAA and build your aerobic capacity. The GAA training in itself should be considered your quality sessions but I would try to add easy running around them (no race efforts but 3-4 miles in say 32-35 min) try to keep these at a pace which you are able to hold a conversation at. Approach the training with a progressive view and I can assure you down the road you will take huge chunks off that time. Aerobic training is about consistency and progression.

Best of luck with it

spurscormac

This has been done a few times here, so to help, can you give an example of your training week.
What distances are you doing and what pace are you doing them at?

Common mistakes are to train to fast and not far enough.
i.e. racing all your training sessions and only doing distances as far as your goal race.

With the exception of marathon training, you should be doing a long run once a week at greater than your goal race.
If your only doing 5k for now, you could do 6/7/8 miles as your long run at a nice slow pace - depending where you're starting from mileage wise.
Most of your training should be done at a comfortable pace where you can chat to training buddies.

Let us know what you are doing now & you'll have a bunch of answers with suggestions on how to change it for the better.

slingerz

ecoli wrote: »

This probably has a major factor on the reasons. Athletics training is about periodization. Many people training to run their best go through the cycle of heavy training load > taper > race. The idea is that you stress the body to a certain extent and then allow to recover and adapt. Long term the training will help you over the people who are doing zero training but short term they are simply fresher than you

My advice would be to add a mile or two to your training warm ups in GAA and build your aerobic capacity. The GAA training in itself should be considered your quality sessions but I would try to add easy running around them (no race efforts but 3-4 miles in say 32-35 min) try to keep these at a pace which you are able to hold a conversation at. Approach the training with a progressive view and I can assure you down the road you will take huge chunks off that time. Aerobic training is about consistency and progression.

Best of luck with it

thanks for the feedback, i was wondering if it was lethargy that slowed me up so much the last day, after he 1st KM i knew that it was going to be a long day as I felt that I didnt have it in me to push on. i do reckon that the training will stand to me once I focus on the running once the GAA is over for the year.

spurscormac wrote: »

This has been done a few times here, so to help, can you give an example of your training week.
What distances are you doing and what pace are you doing them at?

Common mistakes are to train to fast and not far enough.
i.e. racing all your training sessions and only doing distances as far as your goal race.

With the exception of marathon training, you should be doing a long run once a week at greater than your goal race.
If your only doing 5k for now, you could do 6/7/8 miles as your long run at a nice slow pace - depending where you're starting from mileage wise.
Most of your training should be done at a comfortable pace where you can chat to training buddies.

Let us know what you are doing now & you'll have a bunch of answers with suggestions on how to change it for the better.

in relation to pace i cant really say as I am not able to give an estimate to the time i reckon it goes from 7.30 a mile to 10 a mile. the majority of my training will be GAA based training which would include interval runs, speedwork etc. again distances are unknown but they would be decent enough id imagine.

as for long runs you are right in that i generally only go as far as the race distance so i do understand your point on going beyond the race distance. what would be the optimum long run distance that i should go for in training for what are predominatly 5K races? I would like to be able to/have the confidence to do a 10K race in the knowledge that the distance would be no trouble to me

spurscormac

slingerz wrote: »

in relation to pace i cant really say as I am not able to give an estimate to the time i reckon it goes from 7.30 a mile to 10 a mile. the majority of my training will be GAA based training which would include interval runs, speedwork etc. again distances are unknown but they would be decent enough id imagine.

as for long runs you are right in that i generally only go as far as the race distance so i do understand your point on going beyond the race distance. what would be the optimum long run distance that i should go for in training for what are predominatly 5K races? I would like to be able to/have the confidence to do a 10K race in the knowledge that the distance would be no trouble to me

If you're currently only doing GAA training, then it won't be of huge benefit to you for running. Field sports such as gaa, hurling, football, etc would be much more based on short sharp speedwork, twisting & turning at pace.
While this type of speedwork is fine for running, its not ideal training on its own, as you really need to get the miles in the legs.

It all depends on the amount of time you have available to train - how many gaa sessions are you doing & what are they made up of?

An ideal running week would consist of something like the following:-

1x long run
2x session (1 tempo, 1 speed intervals, your gaa training would equate roughly to this)
3x regular runs, easy enough to hold a conversation
1x day off

As I say, that's ideal scenario for someone focusing solely on running. You'll need to fit any running around your current gaa training & match schedule without overdoing it.
Let us know what that schedule is & we can advise something around that.
It'll probably be just some easy miles to improve aerobically, but without knowing your average schedule its hard to know where & what you can fit in.

slingerz

spurscormac wrote: »

If you're currently only doing GAA training, then it won't be of huge benefit to you for running. Field sports such as gaa, hurling, football, etc would be much more based on short sharp speedwork, twisting & turning at pace.
While this type of speedwork is fine for running, its not ideal training on its own, as you really need to get the miles in the legs.

It all depends on the amount of time you have available to train - how many gaa sessions are you doing & what are they made up of?

An ideal running week would consist of something like the following:-

1x long run
2x session (1 tempo, 1 speed intervals, your gaa training would equate roughly to this)
3x regular runs, easy enough to hold a conversation
1x day off

As I say, that's ideal scenario for someone focusing solely on running. You'll need to fit any running around your current gaa training & match schedule without overdoing it.
Let us know what that schedule is & we can advise something around that.
It'll probably be just some easy miles to improve aerobically, but without knowing your average schedule its hard to know where & what you can fit in.

generally GAA training/matches would equate to 3-4 times a week and i would do a parkrun on saturday morning. from what you said there it appears that a general run during the week to get the miles in the legs is what needs to be done

Hard to beat pounding out the miles.

Was into hillwalking, hiking etc. and it made very little difference in run times, but as soon as training and fitness became much more run oriented times dropped away. Like anything, it's all about application and wouldn't assume that one type of fitness will translate into another, that GAA fit which is excellent in itself will result in better times out on the roads, no more than being good at GAA makes someone a good tennis player or rugby player. There is more to running then just "being fit".

slingerz

Deleted User wrote: »

Hard to beat pounding out the miles.

Was into hillwalking, hiking etc. and it made very little difference in run times, but as soon as training and fitness became much more run oriented times dropped away. Like anything, it's all about application and wouldn't assume that one type of fitness will translate into another, that GAA fit which is excellent in itself will result in better times out on the roads, no more than being good at GAA makes someone a good tennis player or rugby player. There is more to running then just "being fit".

that makes sense to tbf. Would you reckon that 1 run a week in conjunction with the GAA training should see my times improve? I would ideally like to get to sub 25 min for the 5k

slingerz

slingerz wrote: »

that makes sense to tbf. Would you reckon that 1 run a week in conjunction with the GAA training should see my times improve? I would ideally like to get to sub 25 min for the 5k

I'd run more than once a week tbh. There will be others here who will be far better at giving pointers towards training, but don't think one run a week would be enough to make a significant impact. I would have thought maybe 3 times a week would be far more likely to result in reducing times, and then the more you put in, the more time you will knock off. It need not be killing yourself or a chore mind, even half an hour...but regularly.

slingerz

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd run more than once a week tbh. There will be others here who will be far better at giving pointers towards training, but don't think one run a week would be enough to make a significant impact. I would have thought maybe 3 times a week would be far more likely to result in reducing times, and then the more you put in, the more time you will knock off. It need not be killing yourself or a chore mind, even half an hour...but regularly.

so a handy run in other words for a couple of km just to get into the routine of running consistent distances?

Clearlier

slingerz wrote: »

so a handy run in other words for a couple of km just to get into the routine of running consistent distances?

I'm more or less paraphrasing what ecoli said with a slightly different perspective.

At this point in your development as a runner you should focus on time on your feet and forget about distance.

Twice a week run at an easy pace for about 20 minutes. Easy doesn't mean lazy.
Focus on running with good form - run tall, relax your shoulders, don't force it, just let it come.
Start the runs off really, really easy, barely above walking pace and pick it up slowly.
Never go so fast that you couldn't hold a conversation.
In the 2nd week do 22mins twice a week, in the 3rd 24 mins.
When you get to 30 mins twice a week, take a stepback week where you do 25 mins and the following week do 33, then 36 and so on.

When you're doing an hour twice a week add in a 3rd run starting off with 20 mins but you can build this one up a little faster.

When your GAA training finishes start doing 10 mins of one of your runs at a faster pace - the effort level for this should be such that you could talk to somebody but you'd rather not. Build this up week by week 2 mins at a time until you get to 20 mins.

If the parkrun is as much a social event for you then by all means do it but don't run it hard more often than once a month. On the above plan you'll see some initial improvements but the real changes occur about every 6 weeks - often quite suddenly.

If you complete the above suggestions and still want to improve come back to us and we'll give you a few ideas on next steps.

slingerz

Clearlier wrote: »

I'm more or less paraphrasing what ecoli said with a slightly different perspective.

At this point in your development as a runner you should focus on time on your feet and forget about distance.

Twice a week run at an easy pace for about 20 minutes. Easy doesn't mean lazy.
Focus on running with good form - run tall, relax your shoulders, don't force it, just let it come.
Start the runs off really, really easy, barely above walking pace and pick it up slowly.
Never go so fast that you couldn't hold a conversation.
In the 2nd week do 22mins twice a week, in the 3rd 24 mins.
When you get to 30 mins twice a week, take a stepback week where you do 25 mins and the following week do 33, then 36 and so on.

When you're doing an hour twice a week add in a 3rd run starting off with 20 mins but you can build this one up a little faster.

When your GAA training finishes start doing 10 mins of one of your runs at a faster pace - the effort level for this should be such that you could talk to somebody but you'd rather not. Build this up week by week 2 mins at a time until you get to 20 mins.

If the parkrun is as much a social event for you then by all means do it but don't run it hard more often than once a month. On the above plan you'll see some initial improvements but the real changes occur about every 6 weeks - often quite suddenly.

If you complete the above suggestions and still want to improve come back to us and we'll give you a few ideas on next steps.

That sounds like a reasonable approach thanks for that, the parkrun is a social thing but at the same time we all know how competitive we get against our friends!!!

hopefully the GAA goes another while longer but i think the 2 handy runs a week should be achievable for the most part every week even with GAA training.

Im going to give it a try and come back it you again before the year is out. lets hope we're talking about going sub 23 at that point!:D