Time from a 19:30 to a 18:00? 5K - Tips and Traning?

Question

Last year, my fastest 5k was around 19:30. This year I want to increase my time to around 18:00. What kind of workout should I be doing, and what are some tips that would help me. The courses where I live have lots of hills, and I'm a slim guy, so Im planning on doing push-ups and other some other workouts and I think that will help some. Thanks.

Answer 1

That depends on what you're doing now for training.  Run, a lot.  Keep one and only one quality (fast) session in your week.  Do everything else easy and I mean truly easy as in effortless...much slower than you're doing now.  One of those easy runs should be long (build up to 10-15 miles).  Occasionally double up your day.  If you spend 2 months building up mileage and then holding that level for another 2 months or more, reduce it back down.  All your build up should be cautious and cyclic (increase for a couple of weeks, then cut back) and listen to your body.

If you're trying to get from 19:30 to 18:00 in a couple of weeks...forget it.

Answer 2

The one thing that will help is doing a lot of endurence training.  Build up a good mileage base first.  About 25-30 miles a week (about 5 miles a day).  While doing these longer runs, find roads with hills and sprint up them while on your long runs. It will help you get use to hills while being tired. (like in most races) Do some tempo runs too, they are shorter runs (2-4 miles) at a quicker pace than normal training pace, but not quite race pace. They will help with your speed over long distances.  Also work on some upper body strenght too, sit ups, push ups, not too much, otherwise you'll get too muscular and it wont help you run faster.

Answer 3

yep , just train, get comfortable at a certain pace and increase it.  Increasing comfort at a higher level pace will naturally let you race faster.