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Feeling a bit inspired by this Olympics stuff and looking for some advice from some experienced runners on how to improve my PB.
I like my cycling but running is the only thing I race at. Preferred distance is 10k but I raced a 5k last year with a sub 19min finish.
My 10k PB is 39.52, about 10 years ago after a bout of track training with my local club. Without any specific speed training I got a 40.20 a couple of years ago which was a surprise, I thought age would slow me down (now 39). Best of all, almost all the field ahead of me were older (I was in top 20% of the field) and this encouraged me that age needn't make improvement impossible.
So I'm thinking about working on my 10k and 5k PBs to see what I can do. I do a lot of core strength work anyway so I was planning on going back to track training for a couple of months and then going for a race, to see what happens.
Picking a time at random, a sub 18 5k and sub 39 10k would be awesome. But how do I pick a target time to work to?
Plus, are lightweight shoes worth the cost when working to these kind of times?
For me, it was volume of running. I've done very little speed training this year but doing 55-60 miles a week has seen my speed at the lower middle distance (5 & 10K) plummet.
Most of my training is at 7:30/7:40 min miles just lots, once a week I do yasso 800s but I did 5K at 5:41 pace on Saturday
Intervals, intervals, intervals. Just pick your poison - all sorts of different sessions you can do which will help you get down to <18min 5k. Yasso 800s seem to be flavour of the month and will get you there, though they're really designed for marathon training, and something a bit shorter is likely to be more appropriate for 5k/10k. My "favourite" is what I always describe as "Boardman" intervals as I first came across it as a session he did - run hard 45s, rest 15s, repeat 8 times, rest 2 mins, repeat whole set 2-4 times (I tend to run distance rather than time intervals, so pick a distance which takes me 30-45s at speed).
I think it very much depends on your own make up, so any advise needs to be taken carefully.
What worked for me was just speed stuff. 2 minutes flat out 1 min rest, repeat 8 times, resulted in 34min 10k, maybe a max I've ever run in a week is 15 miles over 2-3 runs.
I tried longer runs, but it just caused injuries.
Edit: See what I mean? someone gets good results from distance, someone else doesn't!
agreed intervals/speed work is the traditional way to improve times. But you obviously need your base fitness there before you even start this kind of thing. It's pretty punishing on your body so don't do like 6 spedd sessions a week or anything!
Shoes - no i doubt it, i've never had anything special and run sub 38 10k.
I wouldnt worry too much about lightweight shoes I recently raced a 10 miler in a pair of Nike Pegasus and they felt as good as any lightweight racing shoes I have used over the years.
Intervals as aracer says will significantly improve your race performance as will training with a group who are quicker.
Introduce a 90 min steady run at the weekend and either a second interval session or hill repetitions per week and throw in some steady shorter runs and thats it.
Repeat and run further and faster.
I'm certainly no expert but consistency in training is the best way to do it IMO. Figure out how much time you want to spend per week and structure your sessions how you want and tweak the speedwork a touch each week to keep improving. If you have time for 3 sessions a week you could do something like a 60min run a 40min run and a speed session and then do this week in week out [i]not missing a single session at all[/i] that last bit being key. You could chuck in tonnes of speed work lots of track time etc but you are likely to pick up injuries and be forced to miss sessions. If you don't run too much atm build up to it slowly, stretch lots get your form right and a sports massage every few weeks works wonders.
As for the shoes I'd imagine you could prove that they make no difference what so ever. But I find every time I step into a nice light set I can push a little bit more, you feel fast in them and being in the right place mentally is worth a bunch of time.
Iain