You are in luck!
You may never win a gold medal or even that big 600 person Turkey Run 5K, but WE CAN ALL MAXIMIZE OUR POTENTIAL! But it probably won't happen from training like an elite athlete though (unless you are one).
A lot of us (especially males) want to think we are great runners and try to keep an intense training schedule, but often that makes us worse runners if anything BECAUSE THOSE TRAINING PROGRAMS ARE NOT FOR NORMAL PEOPLE! Often, they send the message that you should be pushing toward 100 mile weeks and doing 10000m of 1000m repeats at 5K race pace. That doesn't work for a lot of us. In fact, I have all but completely abandoned dedicated "speed" days. Instead, I push myself to 10K pace for the last mile or two of a long run, if I am feeling good. Or I will do fartlek on my training runs just to remind my muscles what "fast" feels like.
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| Easy pace long run with last couple of miles at 10K pace--a great workout to build endurance and speed! |
Don't be ashamed of stuff like that! You, like most of us, are a normal person!
You and your body know what it can handle if you listen closely. That may mean you can do 10000m of 1000m repeats, but it may mean you can't!
Listen well: You will not PR your 5K by running 10 x 1000m repeats when your body is totally burned out--you will get injured!
All I know is that for years, I could run about a 21 minute 5K. When I was 17 or 18 I could run a mile in 6:00 flat. I would try to run three 6:00 miles back-to-back miles once or twice a week at the most and then do other aerobic stuff: riding a bike, flag football, basketball, capture the flag--whatever my friends were doing.
Into my mid-twenties, I would go on a few runs a week with a friend and we would try (but never really succeed) in breaking the 20:00 mark for 5 kilometers (3.1 miles). It was fun.
Somewhere along the way I decided to "take running seriously". There are a couple of things I picked up that I do not regret: Nice, proper running shoes; shorts that don't rub against my knees the whole time; and working in some longer distances once in a while (and by longer I mean 7-12 miles).
However, a lot of what I picked up when "taking running seriously" may have had a negative impact on me. Impact being the key word. Go online and read up about how to be a good runner. You will either be insulted or injured by the advice.
For example, it seems like you either see a menu of 6 days a week with a couple fast efforts per week (a tempo day and an interval repeat day for example) or you get a program telling you to do three days a week and walk half the time.
I agree with the first program for elite athletes, and the second for true beginners, but what about people like most of us that have been running for years and maybe want to improve, but are not built like intercollegiate cross country stars?
A lot of programs outwardly state that if you're not doing 30-50 miles per week you are a "beginner". What funny terminology. It makes you feel bad about doing a nice fast 20 minute 5K with wu and cd on the weekend, a couple of nice 15 mile bike rides and playing basketball for an hour with your buddies one day in the week. Sounds like a nice, fit person to me! In fact I would say the majority of the American population would call that an "active" person. But in runner's language, you are a "beginner".
So what is the alternative? Well, you check out a so-called intermediate program and think: "That is a little too much for me." So there is a link on the webpage that says, "If the intermediate program seems like too much, check out the beginner program". So you click the link and get something like this (satire and hyperbole WARNING):
"If you are here for the beginner program, it is probably because you are new to running. Beginning this week. get up off your couch for 3 of the 7 days. Be sure to consult your doctor first. Now, walk around the block. DO NOT RUN AT THIS TIME! Just walk this week. It will be enough. Starting in week 2, you will walk for your age in years time 360 seconds, then rest for your age in years times 180 seconds. On week three, alternatingly jog lightly for 3 seconds, then walk for your age in years times 360 seconds. Increase the jogging by 3 seconds each week. Within two or three years, you will be able to jog a whole mile! It may seem impossible now, but don't give up!"
OK. So, some people can run everyday and include a tempo run or two, some speed work and some really long runs. Other people do need to start of with some brisk walking, but what about what I think must be the majority of people interested in running--pretty fit people that run to stay healthy and go compete at a few events each year. And by compete I mean against themselves, not to be the best out of 1,000 runners! These are people that want to have fun staying fit and push themselves to hit new goals, be it a PR on a certain distance or just to place higher within their age division.
There are not many programs really made for you out there in cyberspace.
Well, over the last couple of seasons, I tried to keep up with some of these so-called "intermediate" training plans on the internet. Easy days, a bunch of "training" pace runs, some tempo, some speed work. But the difference is, this year I started the season feeling worn out from keeping this type of training schedule. I tinkered with the "beginners" programs but felt bored out of my mind and couldn't get my pulse above 67 most days during the workout. So I scrapped that almost instantly.
So I decided to do what any good researcher would do--Google search. I found a blog post about a runner who had done a half marathon or two and just kept getting injured. She shared a training program she had successfully used in the past to stay fit and not get injured. It was basically your typical "intermediate" training plan, but a bunch of the runs were replaced with cross-training, strength training and even--YOGA!
She inspired me to do the same thing--make my own version of a running program. I decided I would do most of my "runs" on an elliptical. If you read up on this from a "true" runner, they will say that these elliptical miles don't "count" because they are too dissimilar to real running. Ok.
So my miles don't count.
But I started doing it anyway. I would do just my long runs on Saturday on pavement and the rest on the elliptical. So according to real runners, I am logging mostly 7-12 mile weeks this season.
I suppose in the circles of "true" runners this labels me as a beginner of some kind.
What's worse is that I am only on the elliptical another 2 days a week at the most. If my knee is sore, I go on a bike ride instead. If my body is not up for the long run--I go on a bike ride or use the elliptical.
YES--THAT MEANS I LOG ZERO HOURS SOME WEEKS!
I suppose that makes me, technically, a non-runner in the eyes of true runners...But that's what I do. So now, before you stop reading I have to get to the title of this post:
"WANT TO PR YOUR 5K? STOP RUNNING!"
It sounds fake--like a gimmick. In MBA school they told us there is no "free lunch". Or maybe your parent once told you that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is.
That is not the case here. It is just a matter of fact that you have been "taught" over and over by people who are running experts, that you are a beginner if you do not run more than 3 times a week, or more than 25 miles a week or whatever they say.
In fact, I wonder if it is even good for most people. As I talk to my runner friends, a lot of them complain about achy body parts (or pretend they don't ache even though they really do). In my experience, a lot of runners feel pressured to keep running three or more times a week in order to be considered a "real" runner, or to "keep their running fitness" or whatever.
Like I say, I do not regret buying nicer shoes that help my feet, going to non-baggy shorts, or working in the occasional longer run, but this season, even with only one day out on the pavement, I was feeling kind of beat up.
Not as bad as last season or the season before that, but I came home from a 12 mile run at 8:30 pace and just asked myself, "Why am I doing this again?" The next week, I was scheduled for a 13 mile run and just went for a bike ride instead. On Tuesday, my knee was still a little achy if I tried to run so I blew it off again and went on another bike ride. Same thing on Thurs, the next Saturday and so on.
BASICALLY I HAD ONLY BEEN RUNNING 5-10 MILES A WEEK IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THEN TOOK TWO WEEKS COMPLETELY OFF OF RUNNING.
This morning, I realized the knee felt good. The fact that I hadn't thought about my knee in two days was a good sign. So I donned my short soccer shorts and a 2014 Capitol Memorial Run t-shirt and headed out into what looked like an impending deluge.
With storm clouds overhead and two weeks completely off, I just started off by walking for about 5 minutes while commenting on my friends' recent Strava activity. I finally had to run to get across the busy street by my house so I just hit Start on my phone app. and then kept running.
Because I often run the route I chose for that day, I knew where the 1 mile mark was. I decided to not really push until the mile mark just to let myself settle back in to running. Just before 1 mile I looked down and saw that I was on a 6:45 pace. So I got kind of excited, but made sure not to push myself too hard.
Somewhere between mile 1 and 2 I saw that I was holding at 6:00 flat without even realizing that I had been doing so, so I decided to push that mile pretty hard just for fun--a little "fartlek" if you will. I had to get across a bunch of busy streets so the next time I looked down I was already at mile 2.5 and had a PR on the 2 mile distance. So I decided to push through to the end.
This would usually mean 3.1 miles, but I know with these running apps it is good to go a bit over the distance to make sure it captures the whole thing so I pushed through to about 3.3 miles. Then I backed off to about a 6:45 pace again the rest of the way home.
Well, real runners would call it a "fake" PR or say it doesn't count, but the app says I did the 5K in 19:35. I didn't use a stop watch, but I knew my start time and the distances on that route, so even before looking at the phone I knew I had gone sub-20:00 in REAL time.
In short, I will be sticking with this new training strategy.
To me, the key is to take away what works for you and to not be ashamed to abandon what doesn't. For me, an occasional slow run of 7-12 miles works wonders, but doing them on a regular basis or doing more than 7-12 miles wears me out. Mixing in a little speed work for a mile or two in my workouts is very helpful, but dedicated speed days seem to be less effective. Doing two or three days of yoga instead of "active rest" days is also much more effective for me.
What is your experience?
FOLLOW UP 5 WEEKS LATER: I am still at it! I make sure to run at least once every two weeks and to do some kind of cardio at least 3 times a week, but other than that, I listen to my body. In fact, even today I jumped on the bike instead of running because I didn't feel up to the impact of running.
Two weeks ago I PR-ed the 5K AGAIN at a local 5K: The Capitol Memorial Run. As much as I love running (it broke my heart to first cut back), running less has ironically been very fun as well! The runs seem to mean more and I look forward to them more because I feel rested and ready to go.
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