running - speed or distance?

HannahPendrigh
HannahPendrigh Posts: 147 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have been doing the C25K programme and just completed my first 5K a few days ago!! So proud of myself considering I really struggled to even run for 1 minute at the beginning! I did it on the treadmill at an average of 8.1 km/ph (upped it to 8.5 on the last km cos I was feeling awesome) and I managed the whole 5k in 37 minutes. But I didn't stop to walk once woohoo!!

My dilemma now is should I focus on improving my 5K time (I would really like to get it under 30 mins eventually) or work on my distance? Eg I could try to go 1 more km each run or something.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated here! :)

Replies

  • LauraTGreen
    LauraTGreen Posts: 14 Member
    I'd say whichever you want really. Either way you will be improving your fitness. When I completed c25k I chose to work on distance, but that is only because I run outside and wanted to try some different routes. I think that if I had done it on the treadmill, I'd work on speed, so that I don't have to spend ages on the machine staring at the same spot, but that's just me, I get bored easily haha.

    Well done on the 5k :D xx
  • HannahPendrigh
    HannahPendrigh Posts: 147 Member
    Yeah, I might try to work on my speed first then! It shouldn't take too long to get it under 30 mins! Thanks :) want to transition to running outside soon, think I'll have to if I move back down to England cos there's no Bannatynes near Sleaford (nooooooo!) Xx
  • KristiRTT
    KristiRTT Posts: 346 Member
    In my experience, adding lots of slow miles to your weekly base will make you faster! I went from not running at all, finishing my first 5k in 31:29 after 2 months, to racing a 1/2 maratjon in 2:09:02! I went from a 10mm for my 5k to almost a 9mm for a 1/2! My 5k pace is now just under 9mm! This is with lots of slow miles and hill training!!
  • timeasterday
    timeasterday Posts: 1,368 Member
    My dilemma now is should I focus on improving my 5K time (I would really like to get it under 30 mins eventually) or work on my distance? Eg I could try to go 1 more km each run or something.

    It's up to you and whatever aligns with your goals. Have some future goals in mind and work out a plan to get there. Many people finish C25K and then say "now what?" Lots and lots of training plans out there to take you onward to 10K, half marathon, or full marathon. If you want to get faster at a 5K, there's a plan for that. If you want to run a 10K in a couple of months, there's a plan for that.

    But overall, getting more miles (or km's for you metric folks) in each week will also make you faster. Doing a day each week of sprints (intervals) or hill climbs will help too. Have one long run each week and keep bumping that up a little. But watch your weekly overall distance and make sure you don't increase more than 10% a week.
  • closenre
    closenre Posts: 225 Member
    like ^he^ said.. its up to you... if your goal is to get faster, speed up, if your goal is to go farther, than do that. I wanted a marathon so I ran slow and only recently have I begun to care about my speed. Good luck!
  • viragoeap
    viragoeap Posts: 107
    Ha, ha, you bring back fond memories. I too did this programme some years back and have since ran 3 marathons and probably about 25 1/2 marathons. The key is not to try and do both speed and distance at the same time. I worked on distance until I had reached my ultimate goal which was the marathon. Then I traded in the mileage to concentrate on interval and threshold sessions. As others have said, you will get quicker with a good distance base under your belt. Good luck and have fun!
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    My young experience has been to run longer distance helps my speed of my shorter distances along with endurance. I like to mix in HITT and hill sprints as well.
  • HannahPendrigh
    HannahPendrigh Posts: 147 Member
    thanks everyone for your advice :)
  • lrichelle
    lrichelle Posts: 54 Member
    In my experience, adding lots of slow miles to your weekly base will make you faster! I went from not running at all, finishing my first 5k in 31:29 after 2 months, to racing a 1/2 maratjon in 2:09:02! I went from a 10mm for my 5k to almost a 9mm for a 1/2! My 5k pace is now just under 9mm! This is with lots of slow miles and hill training!!

    Agree with this. I started training for half marathons a few years ago and marathons about 18 months ago and it's amazing how much faster you get at the shorter distances just from adding mileage. I went from a 32-33 min 5k average to 29 minutes with more mileage and no speedwork.
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
    In my experience, adding lots of slow miles to your weekly base will make you faster! I went from not running at all, finishing my first 5k in 31:29 after 2 months, to racing a 1/2 maratjon in 2:09:02! I went from a 10mm for my 5k to almost a 9mm for a 1/2! My 5k pace is now just under 9mm! This is with lots of slow miles and hill training!!

    Agree with this. I started training for half marathons a few years ago and marathons about 18 months ago and it's amazing how much faster you get at the shorter distances just from adding mileage. I went from a 32-33 min 5k average to 29 minutes with more mileage and no speedwork.

    Yep. There is no substitute for aerobic base. You get this by running lot of easy miles over time. This will improve your pace at every distance. Then, with the base established, you can hone your speed for specific races.
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    Speed training for new runners is mostly a big waste of time.

    The reason is that speed isn't what people at that level lack. Here is proof. Your 5K time is 37 min. That averages to 3 minutes per 400 meters. Now, go out to a track and after warming up run 400 meters (1 lap) as fast as you can. I'll bet you will finish in less than 3 minutes, maybe a lot less. If you run it in less than 2 min 47 sec then you already have all the speed you need to run a faster 5K. What you lack is the ability to maintain that speed for longer distances (i.e. endurance).

    In technical parlance, you lack aerobic capacity; that is the body's capacity to move oxygen to the working muscles and those muscles' ability to use the oxygen to convert fats and carbohydrates into energy.

    The way to increase aerobic capacity is to run lots of miles at an easy pace and to extend a weekly long run to a minimum of 90 minutes. It takes time to build but the more miles you run the faster it builds.

    A little bit of speed training at this point will be helpful, not so much for building speed, but more for learning how to run at 5K pace; how to absorb the extreme discomfort and not quit. I see too many people finishing 5Ks with smiles on their faces wondering why they don't finish faster. If they are smiling then they simply haven't learned to push their body to the extreme limits needed to race their best time. The last mile in a 5K should be a constant battle between your body wanting to shut down and your mind forcing it to endure an ever increasing level of pain. Learning to anticipate and continue running through this pain is something that has to be learned by doing it and teaching the mind that it can continue to push the body without killing itself.
  • jsd_135
    jsd_135 Posts: 291 Member
    In my experience, adding lots of slow miles to your weekly base will make you faster! I went from not running at all, finishing my first 5k in 31:29 after 2 months, to racing a 1/2 maratjon in 2:09:02! I went from a 10mm for my 5k to almost a 9mm for a 1/2! My 5k pace is now just under 9mm! This is with lots of slow miles and hill training!!

    Agree with this. I started training for half marathons a few years ago and marathons about 18 months ago and it's amazing how much faster you get at the shorter distances just from adding mileage. I went from a 32-33 min 5k average to 29 minutes with more mileage and no speedwork.

    Yep. There is no substitute for aerobic base. You get this by running lot of easy miles over time. This will improve your pace at every distance. Then, with the base established, you can hone your speed for specific races.

    I've been wondering about this as well. So glad to hear that this is the consensus view. It seems so much easier to work on distance than speed. I'll have to start tracking my weekly totals so I can shoot for a specific increase in distance rather than just pulling some number out of the air. So, no more than 10% increase per week, correct?
  • dsjohndrow
    dsjohndrow Posts: 1,820 Member
    I would start training for a 10K. Hal Higdon has some easy plans. You might also try Bridge to 10K B210K.

    For me, it is just the time spent running that has made the most difference. Last year I was doing 3-5-3-4 mile runs 4 days a week. This year I have tired to concentrate on the time, not the miles or the speed. I am running 30mins - 40 mins - 70 mins - 50 mins and 120 mins 5 days a week. I am getting in about 30+ miles.

    My 5K is down over 7 minutes in a year. My 10K is down about the same.

    Congrats! Good luck, Have fun.
  • Liz_Mfp
    Liz_Mfp Posts: 172 Member
    Yep. There is no substitute for aerobic base. You get this by running lot of easy miles over time.

    This is what I am doing for most of a year
    :-)
    I already get faster and I go VERY easy :-)
  • Mlkmaid
    Mlkmaid Posts: 356 Member
    Google going from 5K to 10K. I did a few days ago and found a lot of good programs.
  • phytogurl
    phytogurl Posts: 671 Member
    In my experience, adding lots of slow miles to your weekly base will make you faster! I went from not running at all, finishing my first 5k in 31:29 after 2 months, to racing a 1/2 maratjon in 2:09:02! I went from a 10mm for my 5k to almost a 9mm for a 1/2! My 5k pace is now just under 9mm! This is with lots of slow miles and hill training!!

    Agree with this. I started training for half marathons a few years ago and marathons about 18 months ago and it's amazing how much faster you get at the shorter distances just from adding mileage. I went from a 32-33 min 5k average to 29 minutes with more mileage and no speedwork.

    Yep. There is no substitute for aerobic base. You get this by running lot of easy miles over time. This will improve your pace at every distance. Then, with the base established, you can hone your speed for specific races.

    I've been wondering about this as well. So glad to hear that this is the consensus view. It seems so much easier to work on distance than speed. I'll have to start tracking my weekly totals so I can shoot for a specific increase in distance rather than just pulling some number out of the air. So, no more than 10% increase per week, correct?

    This is good information as I was wondering what the next phase would be after running the 5k distance for a while.
  • PixieAdele
    PixieAdele Posts: 102 Member
    Speed training for new runners is mostly a big waste of time.

    The reason is that speed isn't what people at that level lack. Here is proof. Your 5K time is 37 min. That averages to 3 minutes per 400 meters. Now, go out to a track and after warming up run 400 meters (1 lap) as fast as you can. I'll bet you will finish in less than 3 minutes, maybe a lot less. If you run it in less than 2 min 47 sec then you already have all the speed you need to run a faster 5K. What you lack is the ability to maintain that speed for longer distances (i.e. endurance).

    In technical parlance, you lack aerobic capacity; that is the body's capacity to move oxygen to the working muscles and those muscles' ability to use the oxygen to convert fats and carbohydrates into energy.

    The way to increase aerobic capacity is to run lots of miles at an easy pace and to extend a weekly long run to a minimum of 90 minutes. It takes time to build but the more miles you run the faster it builds.

    A little bit of speed training at this point will be helpful, not so much for building speed, but more for learning how to run at 5K pace; how to absorb the extreme discomfort and not quit. I see too many people finishing 5Ks with smiles on their faces wondering why they don't finish faster. If they are smiling then they simply haven't learned to push their body to the extreme limits needed to race their best time. The last mile in a 5K should be a constant battle between your body wanting to shut down and your mind forcing it to endure an ever increasing level of pain. Learning to anticipate and continue running through this pain is something that has to be learned by doing it and teaching the mind that it can continue to push the body without killing itself.

    youve really explained this perfectly, i've just starting to run outside again (only 20mins on a morning x4-5/wk) but want to increase milage on a weekend, it would be amazing to run 90mins non-stop! my record so far has been 10k in 1hour 6mins. I was going to run 3 miles tomorrow at my normal pace ~10min/mile but don't know whether to go slower to increase the miles or power through as far as I can possibly go at this normal pace, then build from there?
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    I was going to run 3 miles tomorrow at my normal pace ~10min/mile but don't know whether to go slower to increase the miles or power through as far as I can possibly go at this normal pace, then build from there?
    The heartrate range for "easy" pace is 70 to 80% of heartrate max. Staying in this range during easy runs and running more miles is more beneficial than going a little faster and running fewer miles and being too tired to run again the next day.
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
    I was going to run 3 miles tomorrow at my normal pace ~10min/mile but don't know whether to go slower to increase the miles or power through as far as I can possibly go at this normal pace, then build from there?
    The heartrate range for "easy" pace is 70 to 80% of heartrate max. Staying in this range during easy runs and running more miles is more beneficial than going a little faster and running fewer miles and being too tired to run again the next day.

    BINGO!

    In order to get to the point where you can run consecutive days, then, 3 days in a row and then up to 6 or 7 days a week or 7 to 10 running sessions per week, you have to run each day with the thought in mind that you want to be fresh enough to run the next day. You won't always run the next day, but let your body be ready to do so.
  • PixieAdele
    PixieAdele Posts: 102 Member
    Nice one thanks, I don't have a hrm but I'll take it a but easier and increase a few percent a wk. Originally I was running Monday Wednesday and Friday in the morning and fasted. Tues Thursday Saturday and Sunday I go to the gym and most likely do cross training then weights. This week I wanted to try fasted morning running Monday-friday plus the gym on the the normal days but I missed yesterday.

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