5km in less than 30 mins - any advice?

[Knowitall2112]

Hi,

I'd love to hear advice on how to crack 5km in 30mins. If you've any tips, training plans or apps that you would recommend, please do share 😊

I graduated from c25k in January and I've continued 3x runs per week, cycling through the c25k+ follow-on programs,
Stepping Stones, Speed and Stamina audiofuel podcasts each run.

These have all been great, I really wish the NHS produced more of them!

I can run comfortably for 30mins but according to my Stryd footpods I'm only achieving 3.5km in that time frame. I'm running in step to the audiofuel tracks as per Laura's cues, so I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. If I ran faster than the beats per minute of the track that would defeat the purpose of using the audiofuel podcasts. The tracks generally move from 150bpm up to 165bpm.

All and any advice much appreciated 😊

My suggestion is more low tech! You need to get your body used to the discomfort of moving faster! And you do that by doing short bursts. So there are 2 things to add in to your training. First up, speed miles. Do a warm up half jog, then a mile going as fast as you think you can keep up. Then warm down. The second thing is fartleks (might want to check my spelling!) I expect there's a more scientific way, but what I do is jog to one lamp post, sprint to the next, jog again to the next, sprint, etc. After a bit, you'll find that pushing yourself for short segments increases your standard pace, and gets that 5k time down.

I would work up to running 5km a few times a week, no matter how long it takes, then once that is achieved do speed or hill work for 1 of your weekly runs.

I've just twigged that you're currently doing 3.5km in 30 mins. I think 5k in 30 mins is pretty quick, it's 3 miles isn't it, I find 10 minute miles quite quick. Plenty at my friendly ladies run club do 11 or even 12 min miles as standard. I agree with pp keep going a bit longer each time until you can do 5km. It would take more longer than 30 mins right now! When you can do 5km comfortably, add some speed work in as I said above.

yh I agree, at my peak running ability I am not much below 10-minute miles (which is what 30-min 5k is, or slightly faster), and I have been running regularly for years. So that's a 60-min 10k, my 10k pb is 55mins and that was a while ago when I was slimmer (and younger lol).

If you have only been running a short time, cut yourself some slack.

But I agree, a good way to increase speed is to sprint between two markers on your run (such as lampposts or trees) - you then find the jog element much easier in comparison and it will start to speed up.

Yeah, I think the one problem with the couch to 5k programme is that it suggests that you should be doing a 5k in 30mins whereas for most starters that's a way off really! All the advice above is great but I would also add that if you have the time I wouldn't stop with 5k but would continue building up your miles. I found my 5k times improved massively once I mixed it up with longer runs.

A 30 min 5km is fast! And I run a fair bit.

If you want to get to a 30 min 5km, I would ask yourself why?

But practically speaking - running longer and introducing hills and speed work. I would bin the idea of running to a particular beat as well tbh.

The advice of working up to a 5K first is great, my first 5K in 2015 was 46 minutes (can remember it vividly....)

Today I ran it in 24:12, nothing else apart from pushing myself and time got me there. You can do it! Just push yourself a little harder and you’ll get there

Interval training helped me crack 30 minutes, I was bobbling around 32/33 most of the time and saw improvements within 2-3 weeks.

Options are limited at the moment, but I always find I’m faster running with others. parkrun will be great for this when it starts up again.

waves at fellow fellrunner

To run faster, you need to run faster - sounds obvious, but putting speed intervals into your runs will make a huge difference, so your body learns how to move more quickly. It doesn't have to be anything fancy; just sprinting to the odd lamppost during your usual runs is a good starting point.

I found I had to plan and regularly run a route that covered 7km, that got me moving further and faster. then before I knew it I could run 5 km at a decent pace because my stamina was better. I would ditch the running to a beat, just runs

I improved my speed by doing C25k again but the second time around I used my "normal" running speed as the walk speed and then went faster in the running bit. I had to repeat some weeks a couple of times as running "fast" practically killed me. A friend has sped up recently by doing her normal speed but going further for most of her runs (7k+) and adding in some hill training so a normal 5k on a flattish route feels really easy.
Technique can make a real difference too. Are you running efficiently?
I never got below 33 mins and haven't run for 4 years now

I've been running for years and my fastest EVER was just under 29 mins and gosh I found it hard!

If you're running for 30 minutes why does it matter how far you're going? Unless you aren't getting your heart rate up enough, distance is irrelevant.

As pp have noted doing "splits" will increase your general speed (ie run as fast as you can for 1m then jog for 1m and repeat, adjust the timing as necessary).

You also need to build your distance stamina so that you actually cover 5k. As others have said a 30m 5k isn't bad at all. I think the fastest I've done is 25mins and I'd been running regularly for a year.

I'd alternate runs between ones with splits (keep these to 30mins) and ones based on distance but slower so that you get used to running the full distance.

You might also find running up hills useful to increase your speed but it depends on the geography of where you live as to whether that's easy to do or not.

@Whoateallthechocolate that's a good idea! Also @fellrunner85 @FellRunner94 I'm also a fell runner but not in username!

Interval training works for me. Also doing some longer distance helps.

I can generally do around 30 mins for 5km but have to put my mind to it - focus on cadence and pace. Also helps to have a flat route on roads - most of my running is on footpaths and mud etc slows me down!

Intervals definitely help me with overall speed. I don't follow any particular programme. Occasionally instead of a steady run I just do a sprint-walk-jog cycle. It mixes it up a bit and helps with speed.

(But for disclosure I can't do a 30 min 5k. At least not round here, where every run is hilly - I'm not sure what my flat time would be)

I completed C25K in august last year. Since then I was just pootling along but then started using the ASICS Run Master app (others available) and began the ‘win the long run’ training programme. Just a couple of weeks of surges training (30s fast,2 mins slow) and my speed increased significantly almost without trying.
Still haven’t cracked 30mins but definitely improving.

Hi,

Thank you for all of these responses, they're all appreciated; and very reassuring.

This advice is super helpful and I can see where I need to mix things up; it's also clear that I need to be patient.

The Stepping Stones podcast is generally my first run of the week and is 30 minutes long at a steady pace, with a sprint in the final 5 minutes. This session could potentially work well as a hill run.

Speed, is an interval training podcast, i think it's 5 intervals over the course of 30minutes. This is my midweek run. I find it pretty challenging, perhaps i could add in additional extra intervals each week. Or switch the midweek for a fartlek or pyramid run some weeks.

And my third and final run of the week is the Stamina podcast which is an endurance run, which I think lasts around 35 minutes. Again, perhaps I could just continue running through the 5min cool down and then keep extending that time each week until I get to 5km and then beyond.

I'm not sure how to build my own maps/routes, but I'll take a look into that. I've downloaded Strava, but I think I may need a paid for account for the map building feature. I've been quite disappointed surprised that I've not achieved 5km, but considering where I started in November, i need to just be patient.

I enjoy running to the beat of the audiofuel music tracks, along with Laura's coaching cues, together they help to provide a focus which reassures me that I'm not running aimlessly. On the otherhand I don't want them to become a crutch and I probably couldn't do too many months of them on repeat.

Re questions on why 5km and why 30mins, 5km is a goal as it would be great to participate in something like a Parkrun event later in the year. I started c25k in November and had never run before. So getting to at least 5km is something I'd need to work towards and be comfortable achieving for a Parkrun. Additionally, I have to run at set times of the day and with my warm up and cool down routine I need to be comfortably wrapped up with the run done in 40mins. So I'm hoping a goal of 30mins is realistic and achievable for Summer 2021.

I've around 20/25kg in weight to lose, so this is all going to take some time. Patience is going to be my friend through all of this.

Thanks again everyone!

I'd start by going longer first, basically keep adding time until you reach 5k no matter how long it takes you, probably about 45 minutes at first, then when you are comfy doing the distance you can start working on gradually bringing your time down. Intervals and speed work have their place but you also need to work on endurance.

Congratulations on all your running so far, you are doing a fabulous job!
For starters, I would just have a little check on a map to see if your stryd foot pods are accurate, search for ‘google map pedometer’ for a free map where you can plot out routes and it will tell you the distance.
Then secondly I would use the map to plot out a route that is 5-6k to run once a week, as per your suggestion with your Stamina training run, just keep going until you have done the distance.
Thirdly - I’m a huge parkrun fan and I’m sure you would be absolutely fine to go to parkrun right now (if they were open), we have all kinds of people coming along including many who walk/run or walk and take an hour to do the 5k. Parkrun are hoping to start up again on 5th June so that sounds like a really great target

Interval training is the way to go. Try 5 x 4mins at 80% effort with 2 min recovery in between. Swap out one of your weekly runs for this and see the difference.

I mix up longer runs with shorter runs and also include quite a lot of hill work and my time is improving.

You can use sites such as "map my route" to see how far certain routes are near to you - don't pay for Strava just for that