I need to start doing the odd 5K run with the Misses to keep her happy, she’s a triathalope and needs motivation so I promised to do some runs with her.

Im 45 and done one run in 30 years (about two months ago, I did her lumpy 5K route in about 23 mins and could not walk for 3 days, I know this was stupid but had her a bet)

I race XC MTB and road race, nearly always come in the top ten and podium the odd time. I am currently doing about 10 hrs on the bike a week and keep myself in good shape.

Question- Should I start off doing very slow 5 K runs or start by doing 1 K runs so my legs/back etc get used to it, time scales as well. (Also I don’t want it to start adversely affecting my cycling)

Awaiting abuse and feedback

Thanks Jason

Id train shorter and faster. Slow running is only going to end in injuries. Good warm up, a steady 5k run then cool down. Or 6 x 600m with 2min job between or similar.

Start couch to 5K at about week 4. It will help get you strong in the muscles that matter for running in a controlled manner. I tried week 6 as a start point and it didn’t go well.

If you can run 5K in 23:00 you’re already faster than me after two and a bit years. Just go out and run it slowly (like 10min/mile pace) and get used to doing the distance.

Train for distance first then add speed. There are extremes but generally a base of “steady” miles built up to sensibly will prepare you for faster and interval based stuff later if that’s what you want to do.

@Glasgowdan

Slow running is only going to end in injuries

Slow running is less taxing than faster running (less effective in building fitness as well of course)

I’d agree with surfer, lower incidence of injury running slow and though I’d say less effective at developing speed, slow pace is perfect for improving efficiency and building your aerobic system.

Completely different speeds I grant you but Mo does something like 90% of his mileage significantly slower than target (race) pace.

Matt

I would do both. Lots of really long slow cross country epic (for me) runs have helped the conditioning of my legs quite a bit, so I can knock out a hilly 10k on road better than before.

Just out of interest, why ‘runists’ and not ‘runners’?

Just out of interest, why ‘runists’ and not ‘runners’?

Jeremy Clarkson has a lot to answer for.

Great info chaps, some good advice. Never heard of the couch to 5K plan. Will use that and start at week 3.

Just dont want it to effect my MTBing in a bad way, runist comes from reading to much 5hit3 on here, nowt to do with Jeremy Ballbag 😀

+1 for low speeds to start with. My fastest training run is 20% slower than my HM pace, and generally even slower! and I would only do intervals at close to race pace, once a week out of 8 runs.

I used to just run ‘tempo’ runs 3-4 times a week and I wondered why I was always injured! There is some truth in the running cliches:

Slow down to speed up and end every workout feeling like you could do it again tomorrow!

What paulsoxo said. If you went straight out and ran a 23:00 5k you’re around a minute or so quicker than me already! No wonder you ached the next day.

Aim for 9:00 -10:00 min miles for the first few weeks and you’ll be reet.

Just dont want it to effect my MTBing in a bad way, runist comes from reading to much 5hit3 on here, nowt to do with Jeremy Ballbag

Where do you think they got it from?

You want runists………

The reading says………..

Riding a bike through the mud is more fun.

It’s in the trees…

Just dont want it to effect my MTBing in a bad way

It won’t unless you do shed loads of it at the expense of biking. In fact sprint intervals running helped my biking tons. Can’t generate anything like that much lactate on the bike.

OP already has the long slow base fitness. It’s not worth his time if he cant commit to 3-5 sessions a week to just go a long jog. Coming from someone who raced with a pb 15:15 when I was 18 I’d highly suggest he gets used to some faster tempo stuff. And yes, running slow causes more problems than people realise, our bodies just aren’t designed for it.

Even doing a spontaneous fartlek run with be much more useful to achieving a faster 5k.

OP already has the long slow base fitness

He hasnt. He said:

Im 45 and done one run in 30 years (about two months ago,

He is a cyclist which means he will likely develop overuse impact injuries if he tries to run too much intensive speedy mileage straight away.

He may ir may not be overuse injuries. Best thing could be to just build slowly and see how you feel. That’s what I do. Despite being shit and fat but still pushing myself I have no injuries. Because if something feels sore I will walk.