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CJ goes for sub 20:00 5km

Objective in the title really...

Running 5km in the gym at lunch used to be my mid-week training for the half marathon (back in Feb) and I would do longer runs at the weekend.

Then it became a bit of an obsession. How fast could I do 5km on the treadmill? I started off at 2 degree incline but have dropped this down to 1 degree now.

My overall, long term aim is to smash next years half marathon, take a chunk out of my previous best and then train for the marathon 2018. Ha!
Follow, give me advice or whatever! Would be good to speak to any runners for tips etc.

Results in follow up posts...

(edited 7 years ago)

Good luck to you.

Recorded 5km times so far

Old recorded previous best: 27:19
04/04 - 24:24
06/05 - 23.26
07/06 - 22.46
19/10/2017 - 21.04

Best distance at 20:00 pace (15 kph)
[Didn't record date, but late May/early June] 2.5km
23/06 - 2.75km

All times are from a standing start at 1 degree incline.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 3

TSR Group Staff

Had a lazy long weekend, so just heading for an easy one now. Will look to do something more intense towards the end of the weeks I think (as I also usually do football training on Tuesdays).

Good luck!

Cheers guys.

Wanted a more leisurely pace but bored at 3km so moved it up a notch. Not sure if it was a good idea as my calf isn't particularly happy with me.

23:48

Reply 6

TheFarmerLad

Original post by CJ

Cheers guys.

Wanted a more leisurely pace but bored at 3km so moved it up a notch. Not sure if it was a good idea as my calf isn't particularly happy with me.

23:48

Hey man, great effort. I'm officially subbed :smile:

do you just do running or d'you also mix in some resistance/plyometrics?

Reply 7

TSR Group Staff

Original post by TheFarmerLad

Hey man, great effort. I'm officially subbed :smile:

do you just do running or d'you also mix in some resistance/plyometrics?

Hey,

Before running I was mainly interested in weight training, with occasional cardio. So that's a little hard to let go to be honest, but I did start getting a little bit bored of that and found myself going from three days a week gym time to barely once, so definitely needed to change it up. Am also trying to do more bodyweight exercises. Having lost about a stone from the start of the year, pull ups and dips are a lot less demoralising now!

Haven't done any plyometrics before, but I like the idea. Might start introducing some of that too :smile:

Will next be in the gym tomorrow - will do a 20:00 pace and aim for 2.6km, see how we go. I'm not holding out much hope... birthday parties and cake I'm sure hasn't helped recently!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 8

Angry cucumber

If you wanted to run a marathon, you could do it later this year. Running one of the ones in early October. Plenty of time :biggrin:

Sub 20 will be fine, good luck :smile:

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Reply 9

Gone Revising II

Good luck.

I agree with cucumber.

Reply 10

TSR Group Staff

Original post by Angry cucumber

If you wanted to run a marathon, you could do it later this year. Running one of the ones in early October. Plenty of time :biggrin:

Sub 20 will be fine, good luck :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

I love the idea of running the marathon, but I really want to enjoy doing shorter distances for a bit longer I think. I'm keen to smash my previous half marathon time (not amazing, I did it in 2:14 in 2014 and then 2:04 earlier this year) and then really kick on. A good sub 2 hours in next years half, then I'll be in good training mode for the full I think :smile:

Today's training was a bit crap. Body wasn't feeling it, so just ended up doing 2km at 20:00 pace... just one of those days. Did some front squats and some core work. Back on it properly next week!

Reply 11

TSR Group Staff

Original post by CheetahCurtis

Hey! I always find I run quicker when I'm running with other people (like at parkrun) than when I'm running by myself, especially if they are quicker you will automatically push yourself a bit. I can't actually think of when I last ran sub-20 on my own but my 5k PB is 18:27. If you do long runs on Sunday you could always do parkrun on Saturday, something to consider :smile:

Good shout - there's a good parkrun near here as well so i'm definitely going to give that a go this summer. I agree about running quicker with people too (or outside in general) - 18.27 is a great time!

Reply 12

TSR Group Staff

Quick update as I'm away today...

Only trained twice this week, Monday was 7.5km at a medium pace with some sprints at the end, and yesterday was a return to form, breaking the PB and doing 2.75km at 20:00 pace. Up 250m on previous PB.
Despite sore ankles going into it, it felt good and the difficulty only really kicked in at 2km. Unlike last week when it was a struggle getting to one! But ate smart and did it. Felt like a real slog though in the last 400m.

But yeah, a good result (if not in the political sense, given today's announcement :erm:

) Over half way there...

Reply 13

I found that when I was doing treadmill work, what worked for me was doing the first 3-3.5k at a decent steady pace but then that last 1.5k was sprints. Initially I started at 15 secs sprint (90% max heart rate), 45 secs recovery (but still at a decent pace) then gradually working up to 30 secs sprints, 30 secs recovery. This will help get your body used to doing faster pace. I always found that the recovery pace was higher than the steady pace but felt a lot easier!

Once you've done this you could then work up to doing longer threshold runs (80% max heart rate) at 5 min fast, 2 mins recovery, then repeat.

Reply 14

TSR Group Staff

Holy moses, I didn't realise I created this so long ago!

In between I've been casually running, nothing more, nothing less. Next year I will complete my first marathon (was rejected from London) and at least two half's (signed up to one already) so more serious training to come.

Anyway, I ran a treadmill PB of 21:04 this lunchtime. It felt hard, but not awful - I was increasing the pace from about 3.5km too, starting at 14 kph ending on 18kph for the final stretch.

Reply 15

Original post by CJ

Amazing, super speedy!

Do you do park run or anything? That might be a nice way to get used to speedy road races, the other runners will inspire you to run faster than them :P