I wanna run 5km

[Mike Jett]

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Awsome, that all makes sense. Thanks tdarko and godofgamlbers.

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I'm in about the same boat as you, but I didn't really look to 2p2 for my advice as trustingly. Tdarko echoed a ton of very solid information that I read while doing my research, but I figured I'd give you the best link I bookmarked to help you out.

It has a bunch of articles written towards beginning runners, and only slightly contradicts some of the advice given so far in this thread. One thing that stood out was just the scheduling. You really need to be careful, i've gathered, about running back to back days when you're first starting out.

The general consensus was that this is one of the major leading causes of injuries in beginners.

Here's my favorite page so far:

Cool Running - New Runners

Good luck with it.

[spacetime]

25 minutes is very doable for a 23 year old male.

I would recommend cutting the cigarettes out immediately.

The 5k is a primarily aerobic event (With oxygen). Therefore, most of your training for a 5k run should be focusing on this. While there are many factors not being considered (genetics, sleep, nutrition, toughness), By just doing your schedule (2k/5k alternating) for a month or 2, it would be reasonable to assume that you are going to be able to drop your untrained 5k time of 32 minutes by a good amount. Whether you will be able to get to 25min is entirely up to you. I would suggest making one of your days a bit longer then the others (called the "long run" by runners). Try and get up to doing 10k or so on this day.

20 minutes would require a great deal more training considering where you are at right now. Ill post some examples of this if you would like.

[00Snitch]

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I would suggest making one of your days a bit longer then the others (called the "long run" by runners). Try and get up to doing 10k or so on this day.

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Yep, based on other posts, I revised me schedule to look like this:

mon - 2km
tue - 5km
wed - 2km
thu - off
frid - off
sat - this eventually will be my longer distance, I guess I will aim for 10km, but I think until I can more comfortably run 5km, I will stick to that for a while
sun - off

I also play touch football on wed night. indoor soccer on saturday and cricket on sunday.

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Ill post some examples of this if you would like


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Sure, thanks.

[AmazingBlender]

You should be able to get down to 24-26 in a week of that training. since that would be about 8 min miles.
20 miles is very doable as long as you loose some weight.

[Troll_Inc]

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Thanks for the all the advice. Common themes seem to be:
1) Don't do four days straight
2) Add in some longer distance
3) 25mins should be doable with a few months training
4) 20mins is probably not doable with out a significant amount of work


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There's some good advice in this thread, but I don't think anyone has hit on the optimal training plan.

I think a novice running can utilize the same training programs that seem to be well established.

Tue-Speed work on a track. 200 meter sprints/pickups followed by 200 meter walk. Do a low number to start with, like even just 3 or 4 and add a couple each week. 10 minute warm up and cool down.

Wed-off

Thur-Hill repeats or longer intervals depending on where you live. Again 10 minute warmup/cooldown. (If you live near hills, do them for 2 months, then add in a longer interval session..work up to 3-4 minute intervals at or near race pace.)

Fri-off

Sat - long run. start out at 40 minutes and add 10 min each week. Alternate jog/walk. Most important is time, not how much you run.

Sun or Mon - 20-30 minutes real easy if you feel like it.

Every 4th week take a break and just do easy stuff. And throw in some 5k races - they are the best training of all.


I think this sort of plan also has the advantage of not feeling like it's "work". The focus is on training and it's broken up into different facets.

I think that pretty much anyone that isn't physically handicapped could get themselves in good enough shape to run 20 minute 5k, but you could be looking at something that would take you 3-4 years to reach.

Depending on how much fat you have to lose, 25 minutes could take a while too. But the harder it is, the more rewarding to accomplish.

[Rolon]

Speed work for a 5k? Really? I think you could get down to 20 mins easy if you just cranked out 5 miles a day at 75%-90%. Sort of an unorthodox traning schedule but thats how I did and it worked pretty well. Do that for a month and a half and BOOM, you are fine.

[Troll_Inc]

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Speed work for a 5k? Really? I think you could get down to 20 mins easy if you just cranked out 5 miles a day at 75%-90%. Sort of an unorthodox traning schedule but thats how I did and it worked pretty well. Do that for a month and a half and BOOM, you are fine.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Lydiard

I would also suggest working your long run up to 1.5 to 2 hrs to run your best time.

I think those are the two biggest mistakes people make the most not long enough runs for a long run of the week and not fast enough intervals.