Re: 5K

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"onemarathon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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In article <[email hidden]>,

(rick zebco) said:

Over the last 3 years I've tried several methods of gettin better k
race times.
*doubling my weekly mileage for about 3-4 weeks
*lots of hills reps ( once a week,progrevly adding each week)
*100 meter spints
*400 meter spints
* 1 mile hard runs
* weekend long run (7-10 miles)
* stairs (progressivly adding each week)
* biking

Sometimes I have success,& trim my times down, sometimes I seem to
stay about the same,
I have done several combinations of the above & I think my problem is
when I do get faster, I'm not sure what the one key was.
I can look at my logbook & look at my best races & see what I did for
training prior to that race,but how far back do u go? Are the workouts
you done the past 2 weeks,3 weeks,4 weeks the most crucial, or even
the training you did 2 months ago ?
My goal is a sub 20 min, the best I done is 20:47 last year. I
thought i trained hard all winter, but the 2 races I did this spring
were around 21:30.
That got me pretty down. I still run,but I am taking a break from
racing for awhile....maybe next year. I need to find out what is the
best way to get to 20 min, & train hard for a few mos.

and now for something completely different:

i've gotten my two best 5k times this summer (within weeks of each
other). i don't have any real secrets to divulge since my running
workouts have been rather unstructured and more "free-form" in nature,
but prior to those races i was doing two strong tempo runs per week and
one fartlek session per week. not a lot of mileage... only about 27-30km
per week, but i made those km's really count. you may ask "why only
three runs per week?" the answer is that i was also doing a lot of
cross-training, more specifically for triathlon. i was also cycling 40+
km's 2-3 times a week, and swimming for close to an hour once a week.

a lot of distance endurance work in the other disciplines really seemed
to complement my running. the overall conditioning, which allowed me to
peak just in time for those races took me beyond my previous road racing
efforts.

your non-running workouts, if given even just a bit more attention,
would allow for better overall conditioning, and give the running
muscles a rest. as for you times, well.... you are ahead of me... my
best 5k is 22:11.

best of luck, and see the other posts for the scientific methods of
getting to where you wanna be.

I agree the cross training helps - I think the main reason is
that it replaces the mileage you are not doing in terms of
increasing aerobic capacity.

The added bonus is the working of other muscle groups.

As a cross-trainer myself I agree up to a point. As others have said
specificity does matter, but that comes more into play at higher levels of
competition. If you're cycling in addtion to running, its better to use a
high cadence and this will help keep your leg turnover up for running and
won't bulk up your legs as much.

- Tony

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cheers,
--
David (in Hamilton, ON)
www.allfalldown.org
www.absolutelyaccurate.com