Episode 17: The 5K Training Guide, Part 2

So when you have an idea of how much hard work fits your week, the next question is what that week should actually look like.

Because it is one thing to talk about easy running, threshold, intervals, hills and long runs.

It is another thing to put them together in a way that gives you progress instead of just a calendar full of different sessions.

The first thing I would say is that a good 5K week does not need every type of workout in it.

You don't need all kinds of speed work and a long run fight for attention in the same few days.

You are better off choosing one main quality session that gives the body the clear signal of that week, and then letting the rest of the running support it.

That makes the training easier to recover from, but it also makes it easier to understand what is actually working.

If running fits twice into your week, you can still train meaningful for a 5K.

One of those runs can include control quality, and the other can be a calm endurance run that gradually gives you more strength underneath.

The quality run does not need to be the same each week, One week it could be 3x8 minutes at threshold, where you build the pace you can control for longer.

Another week it could be 5x3 minutes, closer to 5k effort, where you practice staying with the kind of pace you want in a race.

And on the calmer run, you can sometimes add a few relaxed strides at the end, just to keep a small touch of speed in the legs without making it another hard day.

With three runs in a week, you have more room to let each run do its own job.

One run can be your focus session, one can stay genuinely easy, and one can be a longer easy run where the purpose is to keep building endurance without turning it into another test.

So you might do threshold early in the week, an easy run a couple days later, and then a longer calm run at the weekend.

The following week, you could change that focus session to 5K intervals or control hills, while the easy running and the longer run keep giving the week a steady shape.

You are still building toward the same goal, but the body gets a different reason to adapt.

And when you run four days or more per week, that does not automatically mean you should add hard sessions everywhere there is space.

It usually means you have more easy running available to support the important work.

Depending on your experience and how well you recover, there may be room for two quality touches in some weeks, but they do not both have to be heavy.

You could have one proper threshold or 5k specific session and then later in the week add something lighter like short hills or a few strides after an easy run.

That way you keep some speed and strength in the body without making the whole week revolve around recovery from hard training.

And when I say threshold, I mean a session like 3 times 8 minutes at a strong control effort with 2 minutes of very easy jogging between.

You're working, the breathing is serious, but you should still feel like you can hold the effort together.

That type of workout builds the speed you can control over time.