sw07

I've been running competitively for over a year now and I was averaging 15-25 miles a week prior to injuries I had in mid May. I took 5 weeks off to recover and I'm now slowly increasing my miles. I'm currently at about 12-20 per week now. I keep track with the runnersworld training log. I realize 5k's are very anaerobic- I felt it today, but I would eventually like to step up to 10k's and I plan on doing a 1/2 next March. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

RunbikeSki

SW that is a great time given the weather and the field. It's over 105 in the south, I am guessing that Sac is much cooler . It might be that having such a competitive field elevated your run a bit more than you realized. (Unless you found it demoralizing - which doesn't seem like you).

A 7:10 pace??? OMG I can only dream of such a thing. I believe you can sub-20, but it will take a lot of dedication and maybe a couple less races as you focus on the train regiment.

As handcycle2005 suggests, you might think about adding the intervals into your routine. (You might already be doing them, and I am just not aware of it, however).

Or you could keep on just having fun

handcycle2005

sw07, those are good 5K times you're running off low mileage. 20:00 is quite realistic.

5K
Once a week, do a long run. Pick a one day a week and add 1 mile every 2-3 weeks until you're up to 8-9 miles. Hold at that point, pick a day halfway between long runs and add 1 mile per week up to 6 miles.
Long run at easy pace, midweek run at steady state pace.

Intervals.

workout 1

2x1200m@current 5K race pace(5:22-5:27) jog 400m recovery in between
Jog 400m
2x800m at goal 5K race pace jog(3:10-3:15) 400m recovery in between
Jog 400m
2x 400m@ faster than goal 5K race pace(1:28-1:30)jog 400m recovery in between

workout 2

3x1000/200 combo(1000m@5K goal pace, jog 200, 200@ faster than 5Kgoal pace) 1000 in 4:00, 200 in :43-:45
Jog 600m in between

If running long Sat or Sun, do these workouts Tu/Thu.

10K
Same long runs as above but you can add repeats to the interval workouts.

1/2 marathon

No intervals, two tempo runs per week 20-25 min. each.
1 long run per week of 10 miles or more. Preferably more if possible up to 15 at an easy pace.

Easy, steady state, tempo paces are given in the calculator I linked to above.

Good luck.

RunbikeSki

Thanks HC, I'll keep the time in mind. If I had completed the tempo a the prescibed pace it would have been just under 27 minutes.

BTW, "comfortable hard" for me is when I have to start making deals with myself to finish the last 1/4 of the run on pace. "Ok Pam, just make it to the next gate", "Now that wasn't so hard, now let's make it to that telephone pole". "Well done, and now the end is in sight and you can stop when you get there!" A comfortable run means I still had another mile or 2 left in the tank.

lastri

Hc, runbikeski, SW07. What is your suggestion if I don't have a court, or somewhere to measure the distant. (1200m), Can I use the time instead? Like 2 minutes fast and 1 minutes jog to recovery.
Mai

handcycle2005

Absolutely. Just work out the approximate time and figure half that time for recovery.

Also, Google Earth has a measuring tool that is very accurate.

Added: Some of the Timex Ironman watches have multi-interval countdown timers and the Garmin Forerunner GPS watches have a number of workout options you can set up.

RunbikeSki

The average city block in DC is 0.1 mile on each side (roughly .16 km). So if you live near a nice square block you could run around the block 4 times for a distance of 0.4 mile or 0.64km.

sw07

Thanks HC, I'm going to print this out and start a training routine.
It's kinda funny how I stated running to keep the my weight in check and now it's going to the next level.....


Thanks Pam and yes it is a little cooler up here- mid to high 90's during the day and the morning temps are in the 60's, perfect AM running weather.

And yes, you're right about the elevated field competition- I felt that I did start out way too fast, but I had to get around the kids, strollers and slower zig zagging runners in order to get my comfort zone, but that never happened. I just went ballz out and kept trying to pass people
Once I hit the 3 mile mark and the last straight away was in sight, I had a an amazing foot race to the finish with a little 15yr girl and she beat me by a 1 second That's ok tho, it was fun pushing myself that hard in the 1/8 mile.

I do need to add intervals to my routine and I should cut back on the races- they're just so much fun tho....I've also got a 5k trail race this Saturday, I'm wondering what kinda of time I'll get on that race.

I also had a nice long morning run today, did 5.90 miles before work- felt great

handcycle2005

sw, a slight correction to the 10K work-do the 1200s at 10K goal pace, the other repeats the same as stated, increase to 3 of each distance.

Your racing schedule does not look too extreme though when you want to go for a PR, you should look for smaller races. Less crowds to weave through.

General rule of thumb for race recovery: 1 day per mile of racing before racing all out again, 2 days per racing mile to fully recover and keep racing at that level for long term.

Example: you could race 2 5Ks in a week but if you have 5 or 6 races, they should be a week apart.

sw07

Oh, that's good info to know regarding recovery...so running almost 6 miles this morning probably wasn't a good idea then....I also walked a large car show yesterday- maybe 4 miles at a leisurely pace.....shoot, I guess an afternoon bike ride would be pushing it.