Improving your running time can make you feel great.
As a runner, your 5-kilometer time is a good way to measure your speed, endurance and general fitness. While finishing a 5k is not particularly difficult for an intermediate runner, it is possible to fall into slumps where every 5k run takes the same amount of time. This can be demoralizing, but don't worry -- there are a few concrete steps you can take that, over a few months, will improve your time and help you break your fitness plateau.
Instructions
1. Choose a 5k goal pace. This should be a reasonable improvement; if you are currently running a 5k (approximately 3.1 miles) in 30 minutes, you could reduce your time to 27 minutes. Setting a goal of 18 minutes, however, is just setting yourself up for failure.
2. Multiply your goal time by 60, then divide the total by 50 to reach your 100-meter pace. So, if you want to run a 5k in 27 minutes, multiply 27 by 60 (1,620), then divide it by 50, yielding 32.4. You need to average 100 meters in 32 seconds or less in order to reduce your 5k time to 27 minutes.
3. Run 12 blocks of 400 meters at your new pace -- this is interval training. To finish a 5k in 27 minutes, you need to run 400 meters in 2:08 or less. Wait 30 seconds in-between sets (rest intervals).
4. Drop your recovery time to 15 seconds once you are consistently hitting your new pace for a week.
5. Mix up your exercise routine with six 800-meter runs and three 1600-meter runs. Follow the same recovery formula as you did with the 400-meter runs.
6. Interval train by running as fast as you possibly can for 30 seconds, then slowing down for 30 seconds, then repeating until your pace starts to drop. This will increase your muscles' ability to process oxygen and respond quickly.
7. Perform weekly long runs of around 12 miles. These miles should have a varied pace, with an easy pace for the first few miles, then your goal 5k pace (from the 400-meter exercises) for a half-mile, slowing down for a few miles, then repeating the new 5k pace for another half-mile. Once you start to do this consistently, you should start running at your new pace for a mile, then gradually increase the speed of your easy pace.
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