Your 12 Week 5k Training Program, Week 4
By the end of last week, you had accomplished several things. (Did you miss week one? Click here.) You were able to run five minutes at one time. You were also running about 18 minutes during a single workout, with very little walking. Is everything feeling good? Any aches and pains? Take a body check from time to time. Even though we’re taking things slow, you are still adding a great deal of exercise into your life. Be smart, if you’re feeling sore or tired, it is okay to take an extra rest day now and then. Your body talks to you. You just have to listen.
This week, we will be adding an optional extra running day into the mix. It will be shorter and easier than the others, but still it will be an extra day. Because of that addition, we’re not going to make a huge change in the length of your running intervals, but we will cut down a little on your rest intervals. If you have any shin or knee pain, do not add this extra day (and you should probably take an extra day off). Remember, each workout starts with an 8-10 minute brisk walk and ends with a 5 minute slower walk, stretching, and icing.
Day One: Repeat last week’s day six workout: After your warmup, run for four minutes. Walk for one minute. Run for five minutes. Walk for one minute. Repeat both intervals.
Day Two: The point of this workout is to decrease your walking rest periods while maintaining your running intervals. Warm up, then run for four minutes. Walk for 30 seconds. Repeat two more times. This is a little less total running than we’ve been doing, but because we’re adding on another running day tomorrow, we don’t want to overdo it.
Day Three: (Optional) You may be feeling tired this morning, but unless you are hurting, try to push through it. It will be a pretty easy workout. After your warm up, run for three minutes. Walk for 30 seconds. Run for four minutes. Walk for one minute. Run for five minutes. Cool down.
Day Four: Rest Day. Strength, Yoga, Pilates, etc. are okay.
Day Five: This is your key workout of the week. Hopefully, you are feeling strong after your rest day. Warm up. Run five minutes. Walk for 30 seconds. Repeat three more times. Cool down.
Day Six: Repeat day five, with only three intervals.
Day Seven: Rest Day. You can take it completely off if you’d like, or do some weights, etc.
Congratulations! You’ve been running for a month! Great job! Next week we will lengthen the intervals, and one of the workouts will be all running (except the warm up/cool down).
Running Faster
Refer back to this post for information on whether you’re ready to add speed to your workout, how to find your goal pace, reasons for each workout as well as the first week of workouts to add to your training.
The Workouts
The Long Run: This week add one-half mile to your run on one day of the week.
The Interval Workout: We’re still on the track for this workout. Warm up for about a mile. This is a ladder workout. Each interval will be a little longer than the previous. You will be running each interval at about the same pace, about 90-95% of your max effort, though, so be careful not to go all out on some of the shorter intervals then not be able to keep the pace on the longer ones.
Interval 1: 200 meters (halfway around the track)
Interval 2: 400 meters
Interval 3: 600 meters
Interval 4: 800 meters
Interval 5: 1000 meters
Interval 6: 800 meters
Interval 7: 600 meters
Interval 8: 400 meters
Interval 9: 200 meters
Finish with a cool down and a good stretch.
The Lactate Threshold Workout: We are back on the road for this workout. After your warm up, increase your pace to about 85-90% of your maximum effort. Maintain this pace for one mile. Drop the speed and jog for about 3-5 minutes. Repeat one to three more times, depending on your current mileage (don’t exceed the distance of your long run). Finish with your cool down and stretch.
Remember, in addition to these workouts, you can run another one-three days during the week, nice easy, shorter runs (recovery runs). A sample schedule can be found in this post.
Week four is in the bag! Great job! Click here for week five!
I love this series Debbie. I am right in the middle of training for Boston, but generally the 5K is my favorite distance. I would really love to get my husband to run one this year- I am showing him this as I type.
This is such a fantastic program, Debbie! The 5k grew on me last year. In a weird way I kind of liked it. I’m hoping to do more this year to better my time.
Love that you have this online!
I can imagine this would be so incredibly helpful to readers, thanks for sharing Debbie. You are so thoughtful, and its just wonderful to see how while you are training for SLO, you are helping others with their dreams. Keep up the good work, and yes, those interval workouts are critical!
This is SO cool! I will have to share this with my readers on how to train for a 5K! Have a great weekend!