Tips to run a fast 5km

20 seconds.

Hello and welcome to yet another lovely rambling about life and experiences that sometimes come from the act of running. This read will have plenty of takeaways especially if you are trying to run a sub 20 minute 5 km ( or even just a personal best for that matter. ) The only thing this blog cannot do is the work for you. Enjoy.

There was a decision at the beginning of the year to hold myself accountable and have a more structured training plan so I could feel and see progression. This meant hiring a running coach.  I looked all over Kuta and found Jack Ahern. When he asked my goals for the year I started with a sub 20 5km - my previous best was 20:52. He then suggested the KutaRun 5 km less than a month into the year. With the Relay I was able to squeeze in 2 solid sessions to see where I was at. 

The entire week leading up to the race had me in mental shambles. Especially after a session the Tuesday before that absolutely smoked Jill and I my main thought was; how can I keep that pace for 20 minutes? Now remember that there is absolutely nothing on the line here. I am not an Olympian, Runfluencer or have anybody to impress over this. I cant imagine the nerves some athletes must feel when it’s their entire being resting on a performance that hopefully comes on their good day. 

I needed some words of advice.

Thankfully our run club has attracted and fostered some incredible humans that work really hard to run really fast . They span the far corners of the earth from Seseh to Sweden, Norway and Ireland. Some are coaches, one paints houses, can bench press double his body weight and somehow still move his legs really fast, another has put in more miles in a year of running then I drive my motorbike, the common thread is that they all believed in me. 

  I messaged all of them and asked for tips on a 5KM PB. Here are their answers.

Johnny -

This is what i generally share with my clients if they know their threshold pace and done the work to maintain it.

5k Focus:

-0-2km: "Go out hard" - You will go out hard with all that energy and anticipation. You will be trying to find your pace and stride and thats all ok. Be focused but careful not to go too hard and burn out off the beginning. This start will be easy but stay within 3-5 seconds and you will be ok.

-2-3: "Relax" - You will now have found your groove. It will be fast, but be confident. you have done this pace before. Don't worry about whats to come. its a race of one km at a time. Think to yourself the mantra "relax". Ease your shoulder tension, shake your hands, think about your foot turn over and RELAX the mind. Also SMILE! all this will work out. Hang in there.

-3-4K: "Time for the Grind and the Hurt" - There is no easy way around this one. You are pushing to your limits to achieve this and this is what you want. You will now be in the pain cave. Hang in there and now refocus. There will be a tendency that this will be the slowest section and not exactly on pace, but dont worry this is normal. stay with the effort and mentally remind yourself to hold on and keep grinding. 1 more to go

-4-5k: "Let it RIP!" - This is the final stretch, you will be in a world of hurt, but this is exactly what you train for. keep that effort going, you know this is almost the end. If you are feeling good and still have energy, RIP IT! focus on good form through this final stretch, swing your arms faster and your legs will follow, chest up. This is a race and its time to cross that line leaving it all out there. YOU GOT THIS!

Mary -

Tbh after mara i think 5km is my fav distance

Def go out hard on pace, not enough time to focus on negative splits tbh you’ve just got to accept those last 1-2km are going to suck and be painful. For me a strong 5km finish means I’m basically puking at the finish line.

Your legs/lungs should be on fire 🔥 you can run crazy mountain trails and insane vert, this is nothing compared to that. A 5km is a blip in time!!

It’s your time to shine!! ✨ it’s going to hurt but it won’t kill you, which is important to remember lmao

Liam -

Shorter the race, longer the warm up

make sure we have some intensity in there, it'll reduce the lactate spike at the beginning & will prime vo2 kinetics / make oxygen higher when you start the race

15-20 mins jogging, dynamic stretches, maybe some drills

2x2 mins @15K pace, 2 min rest

1x3MIN @HM pace

maybe 2-3 10s strides at 90-95% but not so necessary, you should be primed

Try finish like 10-15 mins before start so you can fully recover

mentally it's hard, either try negative split, go out at goal pace, and hold on for dear life - obviously way better if you can run with others / paced even better

but by yourself is a slog, need some serious music in the ears if that's the case, and a WHY lol

Simon -

Sweeet jezuz! 

Have a goal pace in mind 

Be strong in the start few seconds under for the first 500m and dial in the pace, doesn’t matter if you are 1-2secnds over the pace. Small buffer from the start and with 1500m trying to push and squeeze all the way to a sprint finish

Yeah lets say 

Goal is 3:30 

3:25 shouldnt be that hard for 500m 

Cruise in to 3:35 for the next 500m 

And work easy down towards 3:30 all the way and finish at last 500 3:20 or whatever you have left

It’s Kinda cool to feel you can ride with the startwave a bit and dial it in. Since you have a pacer aswell he can help you cool off if you go to hard. But 3:55 first 500 to 4:05 2nd 500m equals 4:00 for the first km

Gustav -

I think sit down and go through the race in your head so that you are prepared (minute by minute from when you wake up until you are over the finish line). Create the plan write it down and then trust that the plan is set and try to think about something else. Distinguish between preparing for the race and just overthinking. 

Plan: 

· Timing and how to get there (where to park)

· BIB collection (day before or in the morning of the race?)

· How's the course? Do you need to gain time somewhere because of elevation?

· How to warm up (I'd say run 1-3km and do some strides so that you've been running faster than the anticipated pace). You will wanna be warm

· What pace to keep (set that plan and stay on it). It's a short race so it's going to be exhaustive early on. Don't start out too fast (classic mistake). Stick to your plan. A lot of people will start too fast and you will catch up 

· Can someone pace you? Ask Liam maybe

Have to give big thanks to Noah who woke up at 3:30 to come pace me. He also had some wise words. He said people who have done this before understand “that” feeling. If you have never experienced it before it’s really hard to keep going. 

This was exactly what happened. My legs got heavy, like my speedy little shoes got filled with cement, my heart rate was so high I couldn’t swallow. Ever had that? I broke through a bakers dozen of walls before I had to just STOP. The one thing I told myself not to do I did. Noah surely thought we were walking home but somehow I got back on the horse and found a bit of a stride in the last 800 m or so to come across the line in 20:26. A personal best.

I’ll leave you with this quote I read from David Roche “ if you wait for the data to say you’re ready you will never be ready “

If you’re still here I hope you set some crazy goal and just go try. Feel it, figure it out, no failure, just feedback.

See ya soon for a run and coffee!

PEACE 

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