5km in less than 30 mins - any advice?

The is @AnnPerkins
Well done @randomsabreuse

That’s reassuring thanks @ohhhhitsme. Good luck with your 19km!

@Knowitall2112

Just back from my 5k "race" attempt. I did it, 28.19! I've been training at approx 35 minute 5k pace and this beat my all time best despite being a solo time trial which is less fun.

I used Coach Greg. I did 4 runs a week - some are very short and a lot have optional extras. You can also "skip" warm up and cool down time sometimes, if the run is tough to fit in, I've certainly "warmed up" in the house, finding shoes etc and cooled down around the house cooking dinner... It might take longer to reach the goal if you skip workouts but it will give you ideas plus speed targets. If you can say you will do 4 work outs but skip one of the short easy run if you have to (prioritise the long run and the interval/speed session) it might give you more options.

The other thing I'd say is don't go flat out all the time. My plan was 11 weeks, in that time I had a "flat out" benchmark run on week 1, a couple of 1 mile time trials and a 2.5k time trial. The rest of the runs were at an easy pace except for short intervals. To be fair some of the "easy" runs were made tougher by conditions (snow underfoot meaning I was running in yaktrax or slogging through mud on the trails) so I was working harder to reach my target speed. There was also a very quiet week leading up to the "race" so you come in as fresh as possible.

OP I do think you are coming at this from the wrong way round. It’s not a case of running at a target pace, and then you’ll be able to stick with it for 30 minutes, and therefore have run 5k. You need to build up your distance first (forget about the pace) and once you’ve got better stamina, then you’ll find your pace automatically starts to improve.

I absolutely don’t want to dishearten you but at the moment you’re covering 3.5km at about 8mins 30 seconds per 1km; you need to be running at 6minutes per 1km. That is a big difference, but it is totally doable.

The first step, would be to mark out on mapmyrun a nice easy 5km route (and a 6km route, and a 7km) and become very comfortable with that distance. Then start thinking about getting your times down. Have fun!

If you're following the cues of this audio file thing, why not try an independent run and see how far you cover?

Create your own playing list and set a timer for 30mins. You might surprise yourself :-)

You could also play with running 5km and seeing how long it takes - and then keep doing it!

OP I did c25k two years ago and am 50yrs old. I got my PB down to 26mins (in about a year). It takes a good six - 9 months to build up a base level of fitness if you’re new to running, even if you’re generally fit to start with. So do give yourself time.

My advice would be 1) work on a base level of stamina; you need to be able to comfortably cover the distance before you start focusing on your time (in other words, if you want to start clocking some good times at park run come June, you’ll want to be 1000% confident you’ve enough gas in the tank to make the distance)

2. ditch the headphones. It’s good to really tune into your body, your pace, your breathing, how you are feeling; even if you’re hurting! And if you start to do road races later ( which are LOADS) of fun, many of them won’t allow you to have headphones. Paula Radcliffe says that lots of people use all sorts of techniques to distract themselves but what you should really do is really focus, listen to your body and learn how pace feels.

"Interesting about ParkRun averages. I looked up our local one which is run as several laps of a park I use as part of my regular run - gently undulating - and its average is 29.27 which seems just about in the achievable bracket! Plus the average for women must surely be lower, so that give me some encouragement that I won't be out of place there!"

The average for my local park run is 27 minutes.
Seems quite hard, but if you look at the results, there are lots of people who are in running clubs.

If you are looking at the parkrun stats then don't worry too much about the average. Look at the number of people who will be going a bit slower than you or about the same. As long as it isn't zero then there is nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about anyway as everyone is really supportive and the tailwalker always finishes last but comforting to know. Quite often there are walkers at parkrun who finish in 50 min (faster than I can walk) to just over an hour. And probably everyone will be slower than before at the first one back.

" So that's a 60-min 10k"

Well, not necessarily. I presume it would be easier to do 10kph for half an hour than for an hour.

Get into Parkrun when it comes back in June. Try to overtake/keep up with people ahead and aim for small improvements each week. The comments about hills and internals are spot on too. Get your body used to 10mm pace for short bursts to start with.

I would run 5k once a week. Just go slowly and see how long it takes.
I would also try running a shorter distance quickly. Even if you start at just 1k, run it as fast as you can. Build up the distance gradually but try to keep the same pace.
Thirdly, once you can comfortably manage 5k, make your longer run longer than 5k - try 6k- to build up stamina.
Do parkrun when it restarts. You will definitely run faster with other people there.

@SerenadeOfTheSchoolRun I'm going to get onto those single leg squats right now👌🏽

I still haven't got under the magic 30 min but I came close around a year ago. At the time I was training for a 10 k and nervous that the distance would be too much so building up my distance by doing a long run weekly getting closer to 10k. I also did a weekly parkrun and some strength training - apparently single leg squats are the best thing for running. Doesn't have to be lots just has to be regular. I also had lost 2 stone which I think makes a big difference as there was less of me to move I guess. That was definately diet and not exercise - I started running first and kept gaining until I started my diet. I do agree with the fartleks thing too but to be honest I don't think I was prioritising that at the time. Perhaps the weekly parkrun was a similar thing with sprint finishes and a bit of healthy competition to spur me on.

good luck

@AnnPerkins You'll do it. I think the shorter 'long' runs are to give you a break for the bigger one next week. So I'm on Week 9 and have just done my long run which was 8km 🤷🏻‍♀️ but I did 16km last week and I have 19km next week. That 8km was really good and I'm impressed with my pace, so I feel in good stead for 19 next week. I just need to work on my legs to carry me, as I find my aerobic fitness is good but my legs get tired.
Wow your HM marathon time was great, I'd be happy with similar. I don't have a HM planned to be honest, I was just going to do my own at the beginning of April. Not quite the same as a planned event but I just needed a goal that wasn't too far away

I'm either saying "I know" or "make your mind up to mine".

"Fuck off" is reserved for when I've just got back from my long run and it tells me to 'move'!

@Chocolateteabag

If you're trying to improve "hills" the most important thing is to keep the cadence up, however tiny your steps need to be to keep it. If you're going for a time it might be quicker to take slower bigger strides (or walk - which is annoying...) but for hill practice purposes keeping the quick/tiny steps going is more useful!

I also have a time target and my Garmin buzzes at me if too fast or too slow on average - so uphill hopefully is balanced by down!

I have my garmin set to buzz when my cadence drops below 170.
Trouble is it buzzes away when I'm struggling up the (numerous) hills I live in so I've started to ignore it even when I get up to the flat bits!

I have a plan to do some actual hill reps tomorrow to try to get myself going up them a bit quicker - no that I've made that plan, I can't "not" do it, but I'm not looking forward to it.

This thread is also spurring me on to actually contact and join the local running club I keep facebook stalking!

[quote ohhhhitsme]@AnnPerkins Yes the BUPA one, and I'm actually enjoying it!
Yes I joined at week 6, I felt like I'd already covered weeks 1-5 in my regular runs, and it's worked out fine.
I feel like I could run the HM now, but I want to be at my best so I'm sticking to the plan and hopefully that's helping my pace. I'd like to do it in under 2hr 15, preferably under 2hr 10.
The speed work is definitely helping. I keep shaving seconds off my 5k PB in the tempo run each week. Yesterday's was 27:51. A couple of months ago I was dreaming of a sub-30 minute! [/quote]
I'm enjoying it but the weekly increase in length of the Sunday run makes me nervous. I did 8 miles last Sunday and am expected to do just 60 minutes this week and 10 miles the week after. I worry about getting injured.

When is your HM? Mine is 11th April. I've only done one HM before, about 15 years ago. I did it in 2'11" and I'd be very happy to do somewhere near that again. I'm also doing the London marathon in October, I'll be happy just to finish that one!

Sorry for the thread hijack, OP. I'm going out to do intervals in a minute. It's my least favourite run of the week but I like the tempo. It's actually quite fun and really helping my pace too.

What made me faster was to set my Garmin to vibrate every time I dropped below my ideal speed. It’s the tech equivalent of someone giving you a prod & shouting COME ON!!!

What got me going faster was firstly increasing distance, and secondly getting DH coming out with me on his bike! He lets me set the speed but I set a faster one with him there, and that knocked a serious amount off my time.