Running Aims : Faster 5km

So that’s me.

I was going to run a race, you know one of those big event’s with thousands of people and me?

I’m the one who’s colour co-ordinated my outfit, who’s trying to look calm but worrying inside and spending too long thinking if the ‘Hilly’ on my compression sleeves look’s like ‘willy’.

In all honesty, all of the above is 100% true.

I love running, I adore the freedom, I like occasionally being out of breath, moving a tad faster to a song I like and catching up with people. I like trainers, I love making new playlists, I don’t mind sweating and I’m in amour with the idea of a personal best.

What’s also true is sometimes I hate being out of breath, my trainers hurt my feet and I want to stop and walk constantly..

For some people running fast comes naturally, for other’s it’s mind over matter with training, effort and time. I have very little time, I love training and I need to convince my mind that I can cope with being seriously out of breath, it’s not yet time to stop and it will get easier.

I like challenges, aim’s, goals…a plan!

So I made a mini plan, as I’m short on time and keen to maintain running fitness I have decided to work on a fast 5km time over the next few month’s. I loved training for and running a half marathon and I will definitely complete another towards the end of the year but right now a fast 5km would be splendid thank you very much.

Sure I could write up my training plan, talk about nutrition and so on but it all comes down to one thing.

“To run faster, you actually have to physically run faster” 

I eat a pretty good diet so I won’t change that, right I’m not operating on the ‘tempo run’, ‘hills‘ & ‘long run‘ weekly schedule so I need to change that and new trainers? Well, I’m always thinking about shopping.

How ‘fast’ is my present 5km time?

Well it depends if I’m running downhill or not..

Okay I’ll be serious, at present I’d say I was in the 26 minute zone on a reasonable day and 27 minute zone on a average day. But my record’s show that around this time last year I was running late 25’s on a good day and 26 minutes on a average day, therefore my first aim is to get back to that and feel comfortable/happy.

The fastest I’ve ever ran 5km was 24.58 when I ran MK Run Fest 10km last year and sadly I completely burnt out after that speedy start and it completely ruined the remainder of the race. Not a successful strategy my friends, I now very much work negative splits as I nearly always speed up once I’m warmed up.

Which leads me to my next objective which is a 24 minute 5km and the absolute ideal would be 23 minutes, alas that feel’s and seem’s like a huge objective I know by typing this and sharing it on the internet I’ve got that extra push!

I’ll make a point to keep the blog updated once a month with a honest account of how I’m getting on, I’ve been guilty of only sharing the good run’s and skimming over the days when a 29 minute 5km feel’s like torture.

If you have any advice I’d love to hear? Tell me, what are you working on training wise right now?

Katie

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