Towards the end of marathon training, I started to look forward to it all being over. Not just because I wanted a break from spending hours running on the weekend, but because I wanted to get back to running shorter races. I don’t believe that running a marathon is harder than running a faster 5k or 10k - they’re hard in different ways. But different is what I craved.
Last summer I entered a 5k race series with the aim of running under 23 minutes. I did that a couple of times before the summer was over but annoyingly, then got stuck on 22:01. This spring I’ve already run 21:37 during a down week of marathon training. So, once my legs have recovered I’ll be using parkrun and that 5k race series to try for a PB (currently 21:21 from 2016).
If you’re finding yourself wondering if you could go a bit quicker over a 5k, the below are my tips for doing this. I’ll be sharing a ‘Faster 5k’ training plan later this week…
Run faster in training
If you don’t already do it, add in intervals or tempo sessions to your training (ease them in and get some advice if you’re unsure). Not sure how to do intervals? Here’s some advice. For a 5k, one of my favourite interval sessions is 3-5x 1k at goal 5k pace with 90 seconds recovery. It’s hard work!
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