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Original poster

Could any runners offer me tips?

29 replies

CP2701 · 29/05/2022 00:07

So, I completed the couch to 5k. I like to think of myself as relatively fit, I play netball numerous times a week. Running is obviously completely different though!

I am determined to become good at it but I am just not improving. I still can't complete a 5k in a decent time, it is painfully slow. My heart rate, according to my watch, is about half in zone 4 for a run and half in zone 5. I sometimes think in order to improve, I need to slow down even further but I just don't know if that's humanly possible for me! It feels so painful as it is (taking me just 12 to 13 minutes to run a mile).

I'm not sure what I should try next. I try to do a couple of shorter, easy runs a week and One longer one.

Please give me some tips as I feel so rubbish at this! I like running fast so at the minute, it seems so boring! 😂

OP posts:
Original poster
CP2701 · 05/06/2022 22:12

Fellrunner85 · 05/06/2022 16:38

Agree with the pp who said to stop worrying about heart rate and just run to feel. For a slow and steady 5k, worrying about HR won't do you any favours- instead you should be running so it feels comfortably hard; by which I mean you could just about hold a conversation. At the end you should feel tired, but not collapsing to the ground or throwing up tired (as you might at the end of a marathon!)

Also, it sounds obvious, but you need to run faster to run faster. Putting one speed session in a week will make a huge amount of difference; even if it's just informal fartleks (ie sprint one lamppost, jog three, repeat for 30 mins with a 5 min warm up and cool down). If you run slowly all the time, you'll struggle to speed up - in my own experience, I always get slow over 5k when I'm marathon training (well I do these days, anyway - my first couple of marathons helped me get faster but only because it was the first time I'd run serious mileage), but if I'm doing targeted speed work I get my edge back.

Other things that will help are strength work, to get those glutes firing, and hill reps. Oh - and mileage. You say you're doing two short runs a week and one longer run, but if that long one is your 5k then you're only doing 5-10 miles a week? I'd suggest making one run longer (4, 5, 6 miles, building up slowly) then do one 5k (parkrun?) and one speed or hill session a week.

I find 5k a tough distance to race over, but since completing c25k I've got my time down to 20 mins if I'm racing, or 24-25 mins as a steady effort.

I cannot physically run more than 3 miles. 😔 I'd love to be able to. I do feel OK after my run, I don't feel like I'm going to collapse in a heap. But I feel like going further would be pushing my limits.

Am I best to focus on being able to run further? Or being able to run no more than 5k but in a better time?

What should my first goal be?

I have been focusing on my breathing recently and have noticed a small improvement.

OP posts:
purplesequins · 05/06/2022 22:26

speed comes with time and stamina.

you can add some intervall runs and hill work as well to help.

wrt heart rate - wrist heart rate monitors are not entirely acurate. and I'm not sure about zones at all.

I did c25k a couple of years ago. managed a sub 30 min 5k after about a year.
today did a 10k 'slow' morning run (5.20/km) average heart rate was 170, with highest peak at 180. at no point did I feel like I was about to keel over.

purplesequins · 05/06/2022 22:28

at the end of the run you should feel like you could go on 'forever' iyswim

DelilahBucket · 05/06/2022 22:39

Hills will improve your endurance. Sprint training will increase your speed. We live in a very hilly area and I came to the conclusion I was just going to have to embrace them. I ran a route this morning I've not done for about 8 months and there is a long steady upwards bit and it felt good that I completed that section and still felt like I had some left in the tank, when previously my legs would be like dead weights.
It took me months and months to get to 5k, I didn't do C25K, just off my own back. I hadn't run for nearly ten years. Then I just found I could go for longer and longer.

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