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

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