5K Question

[Chris]

Hello all,

I'm slowly building my base, with the goal to finish my first marathon in December 2009. Right now, I'm at 5 miles/6 days a week. My goal is to get that to 10 miles/5 days a week and 1 long run up to 20 miles on the weekend.

Now, for my question:

• There's a company competition we do every year with other area companies. One of the events is a 5K. This event is in September 2009.
  
• I'd love to improve my speed at the 5K (my last time was 25:00). Any suggestions on how to increase speed for this event while still working up my mileage? Or should I not worry about speed right now and just continue building my miles (hoping that better endurance translates to faster times for a shorter race).

Any suggestions you might have would be appreciated.

[Dallen]

Your biggest increase in speed right now will come from just increasing your mileage. You could add in a little speed work, but you don't want to add speed work and increase mileage at the same time. I would wait until you get closer to your mileage goals before you worry about speed. You could also benefit from trying a couple other 5K's before the race where you impress the guys you work with.

[Jon Allen]

Dallen is right, by far the biggest improvement will come with mileage increases.  If you really want to do well in the 5k, add some 5k specific training (i.e. fast repeats, etc) to your training about 3 weeks before you race- that should be enough time to add a bit of speed on time of your marathon fitness.  Racing a few 5k's before like Dallen says would also help.

[April G]

Your increase in mileage will cause an increase in fitness, which will cause a faster 5K!  I am new runner, have been running for about 9 months, and with simply increasing mileage and overall fitness my 10k and 5k times have been steadily plunging without speedwork.  Racing a few 5k's before the one you want to do well in will help sharpen up your speed and remind you how short a 5k is so you will not be afraid to push a hard pace on your target 5k!  Good luck!