Running a 5k PB

Around seven months ago I ran 5k in 17:36 (3:31/km pace) which was my personal best and set me up for a new 17:30 target.

But then for the rest of the year, even though I got 3-4 sub-18 minute efforts, I never got close to the 17:30 target. Then from December with the cold weather and icy conditions coming in I seemed to lose that bit of pace and dropped away even further. This was really frustrating as I was putting the training effort in, still doing the same mileage and trying just as hard.

Examples of loss of pace below.

Entire set of club handicap runs not breaking below 3:38/km pace over 4k :(

Saturday morning flat 5k fast effort - disappointingly dropping out to 3:55/km for 4th km

Saturday morning flat 5k fast effort - disappointingly dropping out to 3:57/km for 3rd km

But with good weather through March and April and a chance to train properly and even race, the form came back.

Training:
Coming out of lockdown and with warmer weather it meant training as a group again. Intervals and hill sessions meant that I could concentrate on running at speed again. I also tried to double up a tough interval session (3:15/km pace) with a tempo 5k effort at around 4:00/km pace.
Getting the interval work in - 400m and 500m efforts with pace around the 3:15/km mark 
Racing:
Coming out of lockdown also meant proper races started again. Running in a pack of similar runners for 10k or 10mi has been a great chance to get the endurance strength up again. I managed to run the ten mile race shown below without dropping below 3:55/km GAP pace. In a flat 10k I managed to run the second half in 18:20 - so I was confident a sub-18 5km was close again.

62 minute 10 mile road race over undulating terrain
Upper body work
The final part of training I concentrated on was improving my upper body strength. Just enough to firm up arms, chest and stomach. So 100 sit ups and 50 press ups a day through Feb, Mar and April (Mon-Fri).

1st May - fast 5k attempt
So finally, after ten weeks of hard work after a frustrating time - on a warm, still morning I had a crack at getting sub-18 again. I picked a flat five lap route around a quiet industrial estate 0730 on a Saturday morning.

After the first 2km I was averaging 3:25/km and still feeling good. This was a huge surprise as I'd have taken 3:36/km and have been happy. I was then desperate for this not to drop too much, so buried myself for km 3 and 4 managing to keep a pace of 3:30/km up. By this point I was confident of not just sub-18 - but a sub17:30 PB.

My pace dropped slightly in km 5 (being knackered already) - but it was great to clock a new PB of 17:21 as shown below...
A new sub-17:30 PB

So feeling good right now - I've got 10-11 races booked in for the rest of the year - and parkrun should return too - so I'll keep training hard and see where it takes me.

Further reading - post I did at start of 2021 about training plan for the year:
- https://northeastrunning.blogspot.com/2021/01/running-training-plan-for-2021.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The day before the marathon

Image
Manchester Marathon tomorrow. My fourth marathon and have trained harder than ever before. Back in January I blogged what my plan was for the marathon training block . I've pretty much followed it. Only difference being instead of two runs on a Tuesday I just started the day with a double session. But in summary: Go into the training block doing 90km (55mi) a week. Take it up to 120km (75mi) a week. 12 weeks of increasing efforts, with a three week taper at the end. At the maximum do four weeks in a row with 36km (22mi) long runs on the Sunday. Long runs to be at decent pace with at least an 8km (5mi) mara pace section on tired legs. Run every day - alternating between efforts and recovery Tue - hard session (Typically 4x1mile efforts followed by 5k tempo) Thu - hard session (Typically three sets of 5km at mara pace with floats inbetween)  Weekly distances Not sure how much to read into the Strava Fitness and Freshness chart. But fitness went from +59 to +103 to +86. Form went from...
Read more

Running goals for the year

Image
2023 was a good year. PBs in parkrun, 5k, 10k and Marathon. With the right conditions I feel I could have got 10mi and HM too - but cannot grumble. Particularly happy with parkrun as that is now eight years of incremental improvement through improved training and focus. Power of ten score card So what are the 2024 goals? It's a big year as I am 50 in July. Entering the V50 category gives me a real chance to pick some goals that weren't possible in recent years at the top end of the V45 category. So I'm intending on training harder than ever - and putting down some stretched goals that may not be possible - but are worth going for. Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon Goal 2  - Top 50 in the UK runbritain ranking for V50 at 5k distance Goal 3  - England masters vest for V50 Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon With hindsight I think I should have done around 2hr55 at London last year but a few things didn't go to plan and I ended up with a 2hr58. This year I'll try and put things right and ...
Read more

Training for goal 5k and 10k races

Image
At the start of this year I blogged about my running goals . Turning 50 in July - I wanted this year to be special. Running in the M50 category in July and August was a real chance to do well and to target this period. I also wanted to do a marathon performance I was proud of in the spring. This would have the double benefit of giving me the core endurance strength to then build on for later in the year. So... Jan-Mar Went from 90k a week at the start of Jan to 120k a week at end of Mar ( summary here ) - this hard work resulted in a 2:54 marathon which was a 4min PB in April! Apr-Jun So the foundation was in place. It was time to tweak the training and focus on the 5k and 10k races in July. I dropped the distance a little - so stepped right back from 120k a week and took things back to 80-90k per week. The typical week was... Mon - Easy Tue - Hard session of 8x200m, 4x400m, 4x400m, 8x200m Wed - Easy Thu - Intervals - either 8x1k, 4x1mi or 8 hills. Fri - East Sat - Hard parkrun Sun - M...
Read more