Can I go sub 21 5k with no speed work?

Yes. 30 mpw is more than enough.

Yes.

If you're young, yep.

sydneyf245 wrote:

Is this enough to break a sub 21 5k for a female w/ no speed and maybe 4-5 strides 3x a week?

Probably yes, but it depends.

If you've been doing 30 mpw + strides for a long time and that got you to 22:08, suddenly going to <21:00 in 5 weeks, without changing anything would be tough, unless you weren't trying very hard during the 22:08 effort, paced poorly or did other things easily improved.

But if the 30 mpw + strides is an increase from what you were doing before, then yes, a 1+ minute improvement is possible. Especially if you are young and/or a new runner. In that case, improvements are faster than if you've been at it for a long time.

You said you don't do any "speed work." Doing 4-5 strides, 3 times of week, is a type of speed work, by the way. If you don't want to do speed work other than strides, consider adding a few extra strides and making those strides just a little bit longer and faster, and you might see some improvement.

Also, make sure you're pacing very evenly. Wear a GPS watch and lock into 6:40/mile pace from the very start and don't drift off of that, until the last mile or half-mile where you push down on the gas pedal. It's amazing how much runners that are new to racing, can improve their race times just on proper pacing, alone.

This!

For me, what worked to break 21 was starting off at 6:50 pace for the first mile, and gradually pushing hard through 2, 2.5 and leaving it all out there the last 0.6 miles.

If your young I would say yes

If your older I would say no

as gettingfasterdude suggested, it will be very hard to do if you have changed nothing in these next 3 weeks.

-learn proper pacing (perhaps consider pacing workouts

-take rest days seriously (recovery, sleep, nutrition to an extent...)

-running hills is a good way to activate more muscle fibers/be more efficient

i am a guy, but when i broke 21 for the first time my pr was about 22 something. i started to do everything that i described above at once, and it made me get to 20 low. i didnt know anything about pacing, though.

sydneyf245 wrote:

Just ran my first 5k in 22:08 and have a 5k turkey trot as my next race in 5 weeks. I run about 30 miles per week and also have been doing some incline walking as well for 30 min to get my heart rate in zone 3 as my runs usually are (sometimes 4). Is this enough to break a sub 21 5k for a female w/ no speed and maybe 4-5 strides 3x a week?

Speedwork is over-rated. In high school, my program did a ton of speedwork but pretty low mileage <25mpw. I never broke 19:30 as a male for a 5k. Then at 34, after many years off of running, I decided to start running again, except I just jogged for a year gradually building up to 55 miles per week (at 8-10min/mile pace) and all of a sudden I got down to 18:30. The only speedwork I did was one game of soccer per week, and occasionally I would run 2-3 miles at sub 6:30 pace on one of my long runs.

Assuming you were running less than 30 miles per week a month before your last 5k, by increasing your running to 30 miles per week, you should get faster. Of course, if your training isn't progressing your times won't necessarily progress that much either. Rather than adding speed, I think you should gradually increase your miles to 40 per week. If you feel good you can even gradually get up to 50. I think for most people there is something magical about averaging at least 1 hour a day of running, plus a long run that might be a bit longer. This is roughly 45-50 miles per week.

Yes you can. Add some hills to your training.

You can probably do it. On the other hand, if you have decent fitness you might run 3 repeat miles around race pace with a couple/few minutes between jogging around. Is that speed work? It's really strength work but repeat miles once every week or ten days can work wonders.

sydneyf245 wrote:

Just ran my first 5k in 22:08 and have a 5k turkey trot as my next race in 5 weeks. I run about 30 miles per week and also have been doing some incline walking as well for 30 min to get my heart rate in zone 3 as my runs usually are (sometimes 4). Is this enough to break a sub 21 5k for a female w/ no speed and maybe 4-5 strides 3x a week?

With 5 weeks left, you count back from new race day:

- taper 5 days-7days, no new stimulus

then you have 4 weeks left for a new stimulus.

So in this 4 weeks you should do race specific work outs.

5x1k @5k race pace 60-90sec rest

5 weeks before your new race, 22min pace, going down to 21min pace 1 week before race

, or 3x 1 mile @ 5k race pace

I ran 20.30 5k yesterday - 55 yr old male. I never do speed work. A typical week for me is:

Mon: 45 mins steady

Tue: 45 mins steady

Weds: 45 mins easy

Thu: 45 mins steady

Fri: rest

Sat: 45 mins steady

Sun: 90 mins easy

Steady is about 8.30 miling. Easy is 9.30 miling. About once a month or so I run a 5k - usually inside 21mins - that's the only time I run quickly otherwise I get injured.

Everyone is different. I ran my first 5k as a high school teenager.

I had joined the xc team midway through the season.

My first race was at Sunken Meadow, which was a tough course. I ran a 19:36.

I had done no speed work prior to that at all.

So to my mind, a reasonably good high school athlete (I was no super star) could break 20:00 on a hilly course w/ minimal training.

Assuming you're older, the equation changes. Try 3 x one mile @ 5 k pace.

lexel wrote:

5x1k @5k race pace 60-90sec rest

With 60sec rest, this is a balls to the wall workout. Unless you are an aerobic monster, I would recommend 120-150 sec rest or drop the number of 1Ks to 3-4.

sydneyf245 wrote:

Just ran my first 5k in 22:08 and have a 5k turkey trot as my next race in 5 weeks. I run about 30 miles per week and also have been doing some incline walking as well for 30 min to get my heart rate in zone 3 as my runs usually are (sometimes 4). Is this enough to break a sub 21 5k for a female w/ no speed and maybe 4-5 strides 3x a week?

Totally. 22-low & more mileage should get you there or pretty close. I would say that doing every run in zone 3 or 4 isn't great. It's a lot of grey zone running. Better to do some Z1/2 & a day with anything in the Z3-5 range. It doesn't have to be much or something too complex. 1:00/2:00/3:00 reps with equal recovery. Start easy & with a low number of reps. You're going to get better adaptations that way. You shouldn't be hammering every day at something close to your 5k pace. But if you keep doing that it'll work out in the short term & you'll make some small gains.

30-40 mins/day and 5-6 strides/day is more than enough

mid D guy wrote:

lexel wrote:

5x1k @5k race pace 60-90sec rest

With 60sec rest, this is a balls to the wall workout. Unless you are an aerobic monster, I would recommend 120-150 sec rest or drop the number of 1Ks to 3-4.

Ditto. This is why so many runners don’t hit their goals. They don’t understand how to translate pro workouts to hobbyjogger paces.

A pro 5k race is 2:35-2:40/km. When they run 5x1k @ 5k pace, it’s 5 x 2:30-2:40 efforts.

A 21:00 5k runner would be doing 5x1k in 4:10-4:15.

That’s like a pro runner doing 5 x mile at 5k pace with 60-90 sec rest.

Like Mid d guy said, it’s a balls to the wall workout.

Do 5 x 2:30 at your 5k pace, or just about 600m. That’s the stimulus you want.