I need help improving running

MeteoraTitanium
MeteoraTitanium Posts: 102 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi
I've been doing 5k on average once a week for about 9 months and my time is roughly 29 minutes sometimes more or less. I'm at a plateaux with it, I'm not getting any better and I'm quite tired by the end of it.
I have a race to do in a month and I've not been running consistently enough.
Are there any training apps I could use?

Replies

  • z4oslo
    z4oslo Posts: 229 Member
    Once a week will get you nowhere if you want to improve. you need 3-5 a week, and you dont want to start with more than 3.

    There are loads of training programs on the web.

    If you insist on an app, look up apps like freeletics running
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freeletics.android.running&hl=nb

    Good luck.
  • tirowow12385
    tirowow12385 Posts: 698 Member
    edited June 2018
    29 minutes is roughly where I am at after 9 months too.
    Losing weight will be the major factor that will improve your time, less weight means less body mass your heart has to pump and oxygenate, learn to breathe and feed your body oxygen by breathing purposefully and not only when you need to do it, don't just breathe regularly while you run and huff and puff as your heart demands it, huff and puff as much air as soon as you hit your first running step and develop a breathing pattern for example, you take deep gulp of air for every 4 steps and exhale, last but not least, warm up and I don't mean stretching your leg joints and muscles. Do some light jogging to get your heart going while breathing and when your heart rate is elevated, rest a little to bring it down and then start your real jogging, I find this to be alot better than just starting my run cold ( no warm up).
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    edited June 2018
    You identify that you're not training consistently, so you need to up your consistency to 3x with perhaps a bit more distance which will help improve your time at 5k. You could do c210k app and start where c25k ends. It will help you build up your time past where c25k ends.
  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,449 Member
    You get faster by running more. Are you really only running once a week?

    You need to increase your miles per week and you need to do a longer run each week (6+ miles). You should do this gradually - too much too soon will lead to injury. Do all of this training slowly (you should be able to sing when you are running). Later when you are used to running more you can add in some speed sessions.

    I suggest finding a beginners plan.
  • MeteoraTitanium
    MeteoraTitanium Posts: 102 Member
    Thanks, I do HIIT training and strength training 5 days a week. I thought this would help with endurance. I've only had time to run once a week but I need to switch things around.
  • ejg1010
    ejg1010 Posts: 48 Member
    You need to run at least 3 x per week to find any improvement.
    I found for me the best way to improve my time was to do speed work (running as quickly as I could for as long as I could and then jogging to catch my breath: repeat a few times up to about 30 mins) and hill runs (finding a hill and literally just shuttling up and down it). I found that it increased my stamina and without even noticing it my times started to decrease.
    Good luck for your race!
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,386 Member
    edited June 2018
    MeteoraTitanium wrote: »
    Hi
    I've been doing 5k on average once a week for about 9 months and my time is roughly 29 minutes sometimes more or less. I'm at a plateaux with it, I'm not getting any better and I'm quite tired by the end of it.
    I have a race to do in a month and I've not been running consistently enough.
    Are there any training apps I could use?

    Just a consideration here.

    Are you struggling in any certain area when you do your runs? As in muscles don't have much more to give, you yo-yo up and down in your pace, your breathing is struggling, your heart rate is excessive, etc?

    I don't run much and never really did except for having to do it in the military more often. But when I was a lightweight was reasonably quick. As I got heavier over the years, still reasonably quick. But the less I ran, the more I had problems with pace. When I do run, I tend to not keep a steady pace, and that causes issues. The yo-yo pace knocks my breathing off, as well as my heart rate, as well as stride rate. I have no doubt that over a 5K distance I could easily shave off a couple minutes by simply running alongside a more trained and disciplined runner who could keep a steady "X" minutes pace that is quicker than my usual.

    I have inquired on this here in the forums, and found a couple apps with beep tones for pace, apps that give pace notes more frequently, and or suggestions of using music beat rates to help me. Though my running is still limited, it has helped some. It sounds like you are running more than me, so it would probably help you more if you could find whatever your "weakness" is.

    I generally agree that more running and/or weight can be big factors, but if you are have other issues like I tend to, they are not always the whole answer. I have generally kept a decent cardio base though other forms of exercise, but for running I actually was at my quickest at 5K or above distances when I was a little older, ran a bit less, and had put on muscle weight. In my case learning how to better deal with my weaknesses on pace and consistency overcame the physics of the physical part of the run.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    If you are doing HIIT five times a week and running once I think you need greater cardio capacity which will be got with slightly longer, slower runs. (3-5 times a week). If it IS cardio capacity you should notice an improvement in a couple weeks.

    Don’t increase by more than 10% a week.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,190 Member
    If you really want an app, run double is great. It has a few programs included like 5k improver, 5-10 k training, half marathon training etc.

    But I agree with others, you need to run more often than once a week, and hills are fantastic for improving your running. I did a few months on a short course (around 3-4k) with a huge hill that I struggled to get up - still only done it once - and when I went back to my usual long course (5k)I had drastically improved my time and it was so much easier.
  • maryvalekingz602
    maryvalekingz602 Posts: 19 Member
    From personal experience, it would take me 18 minutes to run 2 miles. I needed to shed 2minutes off my run time in order to continue with my job. What I did, I ran 3 miles a day, 5 times a week, at 5.5mph on treadmill. Once a week I gradually increased the distance while maintaining the same speed.

    In 4 months, I ran 2miles in 13:15. Everybody was telling me I needed to do sprints or increase my speed. No. It all comes down to controlling your breathing and building up endurance. When you learn to control your breathing, the speed will come. I did a few 5k fun runs and ran around 21 minutes mainly because There were people in my way.

    Train longer and consistently.
  • Jill_ONeill
    Jill_ONeill Posts: 1 Member
    Google and print off a Hal Higdon 5k training plan. It will give you instructions for daily runs/workouts to improve race times.
  • tirowow12385
    tirowow12385 Posts: 698 Member
    maryvalekingz602 wrote: »
    From personal experience, it would take me 18 minutes to run 2 miles. I needed to shed 2minutes off my run time in order to continue with my job. What I did, I ran 3 miles a day, 5 times a week, at 5.5mph on treadmill. Once a week I gradually increased the distance while maintaining the same speed.

    In 4 months, I ran 2miles in 13:15. Everybody was telling me I needed to do sprints or increase my speed. No. It all comes down to controlling your breathing and building up endurance. When you learn to control your breathing, the speed will come. I did a few 5k fun runs and ran around 21 minutes mainly because There were people in my way.

    Train longer and consistently.

    Exactly, after you trained up your body and your muscles can handle the pounding of running, you find that the muscle that needs the most conditioning is the heart, learning how to breathe will help you cover a longer distance efficiently and faster.
  • ronocnikral
    ronocnikral Posts: 176 Member
    tirowow12385 wrote: »
    maryvalekingz602 wrote: »
    From personal experience, it would take me 18 minutes to run 2 miles. I needed to shed 2minutes off my run time in order to continue with my job. What I did, I ran 3 miles a day, 5 times a week, at 5.5mph on treadmill. Once a week I gradually increased the distance while maintaining the same speed.

    In 4 months, I ran 2miles in 13:15. Everybody was telling me I needed to do sprints or increase my speed. No. It all comes down to controlling your breathing and building up endurance. When you learn to control your breathing, the speed will come. I did a few 5k fun runs and ran around 21 minutes mainly because There were people in my way.

    Train longer and consistently.

    Exactly, after you trained up your body and your muscles can handle the pounding of running, you find that the muscle that needs the most conditioning is the heart, learning how to breathe will help you cover a longer distance efficiently and faster.

    If you're truly training aerobically, it has little to do with "conditioning the heart." It has mostly to do with training muscle fibers appropriately. What you wrote above with respect to the heart is a misnomer.

  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,449 Member
    tirowow12385 wrote: »
    maryvalekingz602 wrote: »
    From personal experience, it would take me 18 minutes to run 2 miles. I needed to shed 2minutes off my run time in order to continue with my job. What I did, I ran 3 miles a day, 5 times a week, at 5.5mph on treadmill. Once a week I gradually increased the distance while maintaining the same speed.

    In 4 months, I ran 2miles in 13:15. Everybody was telling me I needed to do sprints or increase my speed. No. It all comes down to controlling your breathing and building up endurance. When you learn to control your breathing, the speed will come. I did a few 5k fun runs and ran around 21 minutes mainly because There were people in my way.

    Train longer and consistently.

    Exactly, after you trained up your body and your muscles can handle the pounding of running, you find that the muscle that needs the most conditioning is the heart, learning how to breathe will help you cover a longer distance efficiently and faster.

    You're heart and lungs will respond first. It is the tendons, muscles, and bones in the legs that have to adapt. Learning 'how to breathe' may help with very long runs and short all out efforts, but it will do nothing for your legs.
  • MeteoraTitanium
    MeteoraTitanium Posts: 102 Member
    Thank you for all of your replies, I do appreciate the advice. Tomorrow I'm doing a quick toning session in the gym, nothing too strenuous and then I will try the 5k. I will concentrate on pace and breathing. My problem is my breathing gets heavier once I'm getting tired. My legs are fine, it's my lungs telling me to slow down. I think Ive been starting off too fast and then run out of energy 3/4 way through.
  • brightresolve
    brightresolve Posts: 1,024 Member
    MeteoraTitanium wrote: »
    ...My problem is my breathing gets heavier once I'm getting tired. My legs are fine, it's my lungs telling me to slow down. I think Ive been starting off too fast and then run out of energy 3/4 way through.

    Those above are right - running is the only real training for running. If your breathing is the sticking point, your aerobic capacity is the issue and as I understand it, that's heart, lungs, and the mitochondria in the muscles that can do that slow-twitch aerobic oxygen uptake for a long time (layman's terms, runner not biologist). HHIT and strength workouts (although stellar) don't build the aerobic capacity for longer steady state cardio. Running 3-4 times a week should do it.

    Could not agree MORE with those above who said that your weekly long run has to increase - 10K is good - in order to best support your improvements at 5K. But don't try to just run once a week and increase to 6 mile long... recipe for injury.

    Focus on running at a pace you can sustain without so much struggle (running's not easy but it shouldn't be agony either). If you want to work on breathing, focus on spending more time on a smooth inhale, then puff that used air out in a faster exhale -- rather than gasping in and then controlling the out. That way you spend more time with nice O2 in your lungs. When I do this I see my heart rate drop 3-5 beats at the same pace.

    Which reminds me, if you feel like making an investment, a heart rate monitor is a runner's best friend.

    Good luck! And mostly, run more. If any of that made sense friend me and we'll talk.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    If you do Reddit (much of which is good, though there are a lot of cesspools too), go to http://www.reddit.com/r/running and check out the sidebar on the right, which has Mike Kessler's excellent "Running Order of Operations" on how to progress as a runner. You first gradually work up to being able to run 5K three times a week, then add additional days, then introduce a weekly long run, and so forth. The virtue of that subreddit is that most of its participants are regular runners, many of whom have a lot of knowledge about the sport, though of course as with most things on the Internet there are losers and trolls, too.

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