Sub 20 5k

[runninggirl]

Hi,

My name is Becky. I am 43 years old & have been running for over 28 years. I have run a sub 20 5k in my younger years and am looking to break 20 again as a Masters runner. Over the summer I did a few duathlons & cut back my running to 15-30 miles per week and added in cycling miles. In the spring when I was focused on running I ran 40-50 miles per week with a sometimes weekly 3 mile tempo run. My times this year have ranged from 20:40-21:30. My goal is to attempt to run a sub 20 min 5k at a Thanksgiving race this year. That would be my A race. Along the way I plan to do some 5k runs & maybe a 10k race which would be B/C races. I love the 10k programs on your site and wondered if I should follow the 45 min or 40 min plan & modify it?
Any help and/or advice would be appreciated. I have a 5k this Sat and another 6k race along with a 30k bike as part of a relay on the following Sat.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Becky

[TheEd]

Hi Becky and welcome to the forums .. great to see your ambitions and hopefully we can assist in some way to achieve these goals

the 5k this Saturday will assist in providing a marker for future training

are you able to mention what training you are currently doing, please?

what your week is made up of and what your longest run may be?

onwards and forwards

TheEd

[runninggirl]

Hi TheEd,

Thanks for getting back to me. This is my first week of running only training. My past several weeks have been a combination of running/cycling. My long run was on Sunday for 10 miles, Monday off, Tues-7 miles with 3x5 min with a 60 sec rest ranging from 4:16-4:20 km pace or 6:53-6:59 min per mile.
Wed-8 miles easy. Today I ran 40 min with the last 10 min@ 4:41 km pace or 7:31 min per mile pace. I plan on taking tomorrow off & then the 5k race on Sat. I haven't done a lot of speed work up until the last couple of weeks or so. Let me know if you need an additional information. Thanks for all of your help.

Becky

[runninggirl]

I just thought I would get back to you with my race results today. My 5k time was 19:14 but the course was about .3 short. I am guessing my actual 5k time would have been 21:20-21:30. My Garmin got 6:55 min per mile average for the whole race.

[TheEd]

this is quite strong running Be

if the course is 300m short and using 30 seconds per hundred for 5 minutes per k we would add 90 seconds and you would still have a 20:45, so this is maybe at a higher level than you anticipated (??)

will go through a few things and then post further .. Tuesday will be Day1

nice going today

chat soon

TheEd

[runninggirl]

Thanks TheEd. I think it was maybe 500 meters short but hard to say. My Garmin read it as being 2.8 miles as opposed to 3.10. Thank you for all of your help. I really appreciate it & look forward to Day 1.

Becky

[TheEd]

aaah ha .. your .3 is in miles.. heere I was going on metric

TheEd
:yes:

[runninggirl]

Hi TheEd,

I'm sorry for the confusion I am in the US & we go by miles. I went back & converted my Garmin to metric if that helps at all. The stats were:
4.47 km@ 4:18/km

In metric my long runs are usually 16-17 km. My runs during the week range from 8k-13k. Last week I ran around 60 km total miles for the week but would like to ramp up my mileage again to build a strong base. I am looking forward to what your suggestions might be.

Thanks again,

Becky

[runninggirl]

Hi TheEd,

I thought I would report back again. I ended up running another 5k today. It was a 4 loop course with a hilly section on each loop. I ran 20:51. Again my Garmin showed it as being a little short. The race organizers said they wheeled the course. I am thinking 20:51 might be comparable to what I can run on a flat course right now?

Becky

[TheEd]

OK B .. we going to look to use the sub 40 minute 10k program structure but will revamp it towards the 5k

are you sure you only want to race up to 5k?

TheEd