Improving 5k and 10k pace

[adamoliver]

Hello,

I'm a beginner runner and started running in October last year. I've mostly been running 5k and slowly improving. After plateauing a bit with my 5k times I decided to build up to a 10k run for the first time.

My current best for 5k is 25:54 and 58:02 for 10k. I've only run 10k once so far and am currently running a 5k 2 times per week.

I've seen some great feedback on the forums and I'm looking to put together a plan to help initially improve my 5k time to below 25mins and 10k below 55mins and hopefully make more improvements after that!

Thanks,
Adam

[TheEd]

Hi Adam and welcome to the forums

we can guide you to use one of the 10k training programs provided and then change the sessions to your need

what we would require is for you tun a 4k time-trial as a marker from which we can work with

select a route than you can use in future, best still find a 2km loop that you can use for your training in the future as well

over to you

TheEd

[adamoliver]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the message. I did the 4k time trial after work tonight. Legs still felt a little tired from running on Monday so I think I could probably go a bit faster but I'll probably always say that

Here are the results:

Time:
21:22

Splits:
5:09
5:22
5:33
5:17

[TheEd]

nice going .. do light running over the weekend, every 2nd day

keep it easy and relaxed

then Day will be Tuesday

take a look at this and see what pace you should run for your first 2k session

Program Tips

http://www.time-to-run.com/training/10k/programtips.htm

over to you

TheEd

[adamoliver]

Ok, so time for 4k is 21:22, add 1k and get 26:40.
Double the time to get 53:20 and add one minute to get 54:20.
10k at 54:20 is 5:26 pace, rounded up is 5:30.

So going by this, on Tuesday, should I be aiming for 5:30 pace for 5x2000m with 90 seconds of rest between each rep?

Thanks,
Adam

[adamoliver]

Completed the 5x2000m tonight. I found it quite hard going to keep up the pace towards the end as my legs tired and ended up a little outside the target of 5:30 overall.

10:54
11:08
11:17
11:05
11:22

Average page for 10k - 5:35

What's next?

[TheEd]

nice Adam, you moving in the right direction

ideally we start our Day 1 on a Tuesday, Day 3 Thursday

so that the longer run fall over the weekend

giving you Tuesday for the 6 x 1k

TheEd
ps.. if 5k is your aim, you can benefit from the 2k session

[adamoliver]

Hi,

Should I try to follow the sub 55min 10k program? If so, would it be advisable for me to do 30min easy run today as day 2 and 3x2k on day 3 (Thurs)? I can't see where the 6x1k fits into that though so maybe I'm not looking at the right thing. :mmm:

Thanks,
Adam

[TheEd]

apologies adam, I somehow missed this post

where are you now, are you training on the schedule?

regards

TheEd

[adamoliver]

Hi Ed,

Since last time I posted on here I have made some improvements. I set a 5k time of 24:23 a couple of weeks ago and 54:52 for 10k earlier this week and have also run my furthest yet which was 15k.

I started out following the program but found that I needed at least a day of rest in between to recover. Running the day after faster or longer runs I found that my right calf was very tight. Do you think this could be due to poor technique or poor balance? Any recommendations for how to improve recovery?

At the moment I don't want to overdo it and have just been running around 3 times per week as I feel like running every day could cause injury but I would like to keep more to a program. Would you recommend a training program with running 3-4 times per week?

Thanks,
Adam