For this couple of months, I will be doing 5k training based on Pete Magill's plan as written in Running Times (Magill is the oldest American to break 15:00 at age 47). The beauty about the plan is that it is very simple (one interval, one hill, long run) and has a week-by-week progression in terms of structure (e.g. 5 x 3mins interval, next week 4 x 4mins, following week 5x 4mins etc).
The only little tweaks that I make are 1) the original plan alternates hill session and drills, but I decided to skip the drills since I don't have anyone to monitor/correct my techniques. I normally do simple drills such as buttkicks, high knees, leg swings uring warm up prior to intervals anyway; and 2) I insert a 3000m TT in order to gauge my 5k goal pace
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=19258
In terms of goal, my minimum target is to better my PB of 18.33. This was done in the middle of marathon training back in May this year. Did the TT solo and actually targeted 88 per lap (3.40 min/km) but ended up running 1sec per lap slower than the target. I will be happy if I can get 18.20 or below in January, but I'll keep 86 per lap (sub-18) in the back of my mind (just in case) !!
Anyway, training this week
Mon: off
Tue: 9k easy (av 5:15)
Wed: 5 x 3mins (av 3:40 min/km), 3mins jog, total 14k (av 5:00)
Thu: 7k easy (av 5:25), in Jakarta
Fri: 9k easy (av 5:20), in Jakarta
Sat: 16k long run (av 4:55) including 6 x 200m hills
Sun: off
Total 55k for the week
Wednesday was my first 5k effort session and it felt damn hard. Paces for the 3mins segments at 3.40, 3.36, 3.42, 3.40, 3.40 min/km with 3mins slow jog in between. So on average, about 88secs per lap pace with equal recovery. Since I am not that fit right now, I trully hope the pace and effort required will come down in the next few weeks. (For comparison, I did 5 x 1k between 3.38-3.40 with only 2mins jog prior to my 5k PB). Due to work travel, I did the hill repeats session as part of my weekend long run (couldn't find a hill that take 1min to climb). Overall, I think it's not a bad week since I was training very sporadically in the last 1 month or so.
Is 86 a realistic goal for end-Jan? What do you guys think?
2 comments:
86 per lap is worth a shot. Although that's about a 17:50 schedule as the last 200 sprint always brings the time down. 87 gives you 18 flat with the kick-down.
Further training will give you some idea. For the 3k TT you'd want to be sub 10:45. Really interested to see how you go on this training, as I plan to do similar once I get the base mileage up sufficiently.
I think you're a chance. A couple of good sessions a week will def help and be a good gauge as to where you're at.
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