Advice please.......

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loadsandloads
loadsandloads Posts: 353 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am doing 5K's as way to keep myself motivated and kind of have an idea if I'm improving. I am a walker and have no desire to be a runner as I am 55 and typically not all that athletic. I'm only 5'4" and currently walk at about 3 mph consistently. Obviously based on that I get 5K done in an hour. I have a 5K on Friday and am hoping to at least be under an hour. Here's where the advice comes in. I have another 5K in 6 weeks and would like to get my time down to 50 minutes.

Does anyone have any advice on how to increase my speed?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Replies

  • loadsandloads
    loadsandloads Posts: 353 Member
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    bump for some possible answers
  • rose313
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
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    This won't help much for the one next Friday, but C25k is amazing. It will teach you to run.

    EDIT: Just re read, you don't want to run. Slow jog through the running parts.
  • rrowdiness
    rrowdiness Posts: 119 Member
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    Hello,

    Realistically there is a limit to how much you can increase your pace before you're running, so with this in mind let's look at training options.

    You generally increase speed by doing interval training, and increase endurance by doing long distance training.

    Endurance is hard to quantify, it means working hard enough that you're working out (heart rate in the 'work' zone and breathing moderately), but not so hard that you're putting undue stress on your body or risking injury, and doing so for the length of time / distance you're expecting to compete at. Endurance training makes you able to maintain a work rate for a long period of time.

    Interval training means pushing as hard as you can for a short period of time, resting, then pushing as hard as you can for a short period of time and so on. By keeping sessions short, you can work at the highest rate possible, then rest and recover, then work hard again. Interval training gets your body used to high intensity work (like events) and greatly assists your recovery rate.

    As you're wanting to increase speed, your best option is to look at including interval training into your preparation for the events.

    C25K is great and includes interval training but it's designed specifically to get you to run 5km from a nothing start. There are many smartphone apps which are a bit more open, I use Endomondo (sports tracker) which has an interval trainer, and I've also used HIIT in the past as a standalone interval trainer. If you're a bit leary of technology you can go far more low-tech than this though!

    Football field: Walk around the outside of a football field (or any large rectangular ground). On the LONG side, walk as hard / fast as you possibly can. On the SHORT side, walk normally. Do 4 laps of the field (ie fast / slow / fast / slow x 4), rest for 2 minutes, then do another 4 laps.

    Over time, increase the length of the long laps and / or increase the number of repetitions.

    Sidewalks / footpaths / trails: walk fast for a set distance ie 3 lamp posts, slow for 2 lamp posts, same pattern as before (8 sets x 2 then increase as you get faster).

    You should be pretty tired by the end of the second or third set.

    Once your sets are done, do a warm down (5-10 minutes) and make sure you stretch.

    Finally, you MUST benchmark. Set a standard distance, like a 5km close to where you live or work, and do this distance once a week. You should start to see a reduction in your total times as you work through interval training; set yourself an audacious goal (ie 55 minutes / 5km) and a reward to go with it. You can even set this up as a 'measurement' in MyFitnessPal so you can track progress.

    Good luck!

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