5km Training plan
Notes about the schedule:
Mondays and Fridays:Mondays and Fridays arerest days. Rest is critical to your recovery andinjury preventionefforts, so don't ignore rest days. Your muscles actually build and repair themselves during your rest days. So if you run every day without taking days off, you won’t see much improvement.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays:Afteryou warm up, run at a comfortable pace for the designated mileage. Make sure youcool downand stretch after your run.
Each week, you'll increase your runs by a quarter mile, which is a lap on most outdoor tracks. If most of your runs are on the road and you’re not sure how far you run, you can figure out the mileage by using sites such asMapMyRun.com. Or, you can always look at a GPS watch such as the Soleus watch. These start from 125 euro: www.irishfit.eu
Wednesdays:Do across-training (CT) activity(biking, swimming, elliptical trainer) at easy to moderate effort for 30 to 40 minutes. If you're feeling very sluggish or sore, take a rest day.
Sundays:This is an active recovery day. Your run should be at an easy (EZ), comfortable pace, which helps loosen up your muscles. Or, you can do arun/walk combination.
Note:
You can switch days to accommodate your schedule. So if you're busy on another day and prefer to workout on a Monday or Friday, it's fine to swap a rest day for a run day.
5K Training Schedule for Beginners
Week / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday1 / Rest / 1.5 m run / CT or Rest / 1.5 m run / Rest / 1.5 m run / 20-30 min EZ
2 / Rest / 1.75 m run / CT or Rest / 1.5 m run / Rest / 1.75 m run / 20-30 min EZ
3 / Rest / 2 mi run / CT or Rest / 1.5 m run / Rest / 2 m run / 20-30 min EZ
4 / Rest / 2.25 m run / CT or Rest / 1.5 m run / Rest / 2.25 m run / 25-35 min EZ
5 / Rest / 2.5 m run / CT or Rest / 2 m run / Rest / 2.5 m run / 25-35 min EZ
6 / Rest / 2.75 m run / CT / 2 m run / Rest / 2.75 m run / 35-40 min EZ
7 / Rest / 3 m run / CT / 2 m run / Rest / 3 m run / 40 min EZ
8 / Rest / 3 m run / CT or Rest / 2 m run / Rest / Rest / 5K Race!
5K Training Schedule for Intermediate Runners:
Notes about the schedule:
Crossing-training (CT):Cross-trainingactivities allow you to give your joints and running muscles a break, while still working on your cardio. When the schedule calls for CT, do a cardio activity other than running (e.g., biking, swimming, elliptical trainer) at moderate effort for 45-60 minutes.
Tempo Run:Tempo runs help you develop youranaerobic threshold, which is critical for fast 5K racing. Start your run with 5-10 minutes easy running, then continue with 15-20 minutes running near your 10K pace (but not at race pace), and finish with 5-10 minutes cooling down. If you're not sure what your 10K pace is, run at a pace that feels "comfortably hard."
Interval workouts (IW):After a warm-up, run 400 meters (one lap around most tracks) hard, and then recover by jogging or walking 400 meters. So 3 x 400 would be three hard 400s, with a 400 m recovery in between.
Rest:Rest is critical to your recovery andinjury preventionefforts, so don't ignore rest days. Your muscles actually build and repair themselves during your rest days. So if you run every day without taking days off, you won’t see much improvement. Fridays are a good day for rest because you just did a speed workout on Thursday and you have your longest run of the week tomorrow.
Saturday long runs:Afteryou warm up, run at a comfortable pace for the designated mileage. Make sure youcool downand stretch after your run. If most of your runs are on the road and you're not sure how far you run, you can figure out the mileage by using sites such asMapMyRun.com. Or, you can always look at a GPS watch such as the Soleus watch. These start from 125 euro: www.irishfit.eu
Sundays:This is an active recovery day. Your run should be at an easy (EZ), comfortable pace, which helps loosen up your muscles.
Note:
You can switch days to accommodate your schedule. Just make sure you don't do two intense speed workouts two days in a row.
5K Training Schedule for Intermediate Runners
Week / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday1 / CT or Rest / 3 x 400 IW / 2 m run / 30 min tempo / Rest / 5 m run / 30 min EZ
2 / CT or Rest / 4 x 400 IW / 2 m run / 30 min tempo / Rest / 5 m run / 35 min EZ
3 / CT or Rest / 4 x 400 IW / 3 m run / 30 min tempo / Rest / 6 m run / 35 min EZ
4 / CT or Rest / 5 x 400 IW / 3 m run / 35 min tempo / Rest / 6 m run / 40 min EZ
5 / CT or Rest / 5 x 400 IW / 3 m run / 35 min tempo / Rest / 7 m run / 35 min EZ
6 / CT or Rest / 6 x 400 IW / 3 m run / 40 min tempo / Rest / 6 m run / 40 min EZ
7 / CT or Rest / 6 x 400 IW / 3 m run / 40 min tempo / Rest / 7 m run / 45 min EZ
8 / CT or Rest / 3 m run / 30 min tempo run / 2 m run / Rest / Rest / 5K Race!
Merry Training!