5K in under 20 minutes

spikyone

Good luck with this, I'm in the same boat pushing to get a sub-20 at my local parkrun (current PB 21:09). The most straightforward training plan I've found - albeit with no specific sub-20 plan - is at 209events: https://www.209events.com/assets/uploads/T116.pdf

Having said that, I cycle to work most days and also play indoor football once a week, so fitting in a 'real' training plan is not easy, and I guess I would probably be over-doing it. I've been taking my rides to be roughly equivalent to the longer/slower runs, throwing in interval runs a couple of times per week and a longer ~1hr run on a Sunday.

It's good to have a few routes of similar length, so that when workouts are repeated in your plan (e.g. there are four or five 60-minute runs in the 209events sub-18 plan), you get a different mix of gradients, sections "off-road", etc. It builds a bit of flexibility into your fitness and means you're not getting into a rut.
If you don't already have one, get a decent running watch that can display your pace and can be programmed with interval splits (Christmas is coming...)
Lastly, being warmed up properly before your run can be surprisingly beneficial. I used to walk about a mile to my local run, but moved house and now cycle almost 4 miles to get there, which has coincided with a slight improvement in my times.

Good luck and please keep posting your times, it would be great to hear how you're progressing!

donglemouse

I'd give a personal recommendation to the book Faster Road Racing by Peter Pfitzinger - if any of you are prepared to train with 3-4 runs per week at a total distance of 30-40 miles or build yourself up to this from your current training levels.

There's a lot of detailed suggestions for training in this book including specific plans for distances for 5k to half marathon

Also second the recommendation of a GPS watch of some sort if like me you are fairly hopeless at judging pace by feel

Finally I think there's plenty of recommendation that you should prior to your flat out 5k do a gentle 5-10 minute run beforehand to warm yourself up so you aren't starting cold, 5k isn't enough distance a gentle run beforehand will adversely impact performance

indesisiv

I've just ran my first sub 20 5k. Although it was the first 5k in a 10 mile race ... still, I held the speed though through the rest of the 10 miles.
I just need to sort out the mental side of 5k as I always run faster in longer races!!

I second donglemouse with the warm up, for a 5k race you need to be doing at least a couple of miles warm up.

1393jason

I broke 20 mins by basing a lot of my training around 500m reps. I started on 5x500m at sub 20 pace with 1minute rest. And added an extra 500 each week. Once I get to 10x500m I start replacing a couple of 500m reps with a 1k rep. So it would be 8x500m and 1x1k etc.

I also did this to break 40min for 10k.

beefturnmail

Firstly (and this is not said to discourage, but so that you don't injure yourself), how fast a person can run is down to genetics and age – you could train yourself into the ground and still not achieve a sub-20 5k, as it could be beyond your capabilities.

Is your PB of 21:50 under race conditions or in training? If in training, you will be faster in a race anyway. If in race conditions, knocking 10% off your PB is a big ask, but probably just about achievable.

Some people on here mention speed\hill work, but before you do that I would build up a bit more of a mileage base (to build endurance and reduce the risk of injury when you start speed work) – 5k 3 times a week is 10 miles per week. I would build up to nearer 20 miles a week, by adding an extra days (or two) running per week and building up (some) of your runs to 5 miles. Do this gradually though – perhaps a mile a week, or alternating 2 miles extra with no change (so e.g. 10,12,12,14,14).

Then once you are regularly running 20 miles, I would start adding in speedwork. I would recommend 800m reps first, then 1km reps and finally 1 mile reps. You want to build up to 6 x 800m, 5 x 1km and 3 x 1mile with the fast sections done at target pace (4 min/km), and rest sections done at a jog If you can do these in training, you will get sub-20 under race conditions. Again build this up slowly though or you risk injury. Maybe try 4 x 800m at 4:10 pace first and see how that goes (but build up the mileage first).

I managed to decrease my 5k time from 20:45 to 19:27 by doing this

adom_thomas

While walking breath from nose only don't from mouth (close your mouth while walking). It may increase your speed!

indesisiv

I have now made my target of sub 20
Hopefully should be able to bring that down to around the 19 mins mark if I go and do a flatter 5k.

This is a rough snapshot of my last months training if it helps. The warm up on the Thurs is just a precursor to some cross training that i do.


http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s443/indesisiv/Capture_zpsqx2espdv.jpg

Stoke

I'd love to be able to run 5k in 20 minutes. Really good that is. Best I've done is about 28, but I'm a little on the big side so while I do play sport, football mainly, running (on roads) is hard on my joints.