Your 12 Week 5k Training Program, Week 6
You’re going to love this week. After five hard weeks of gradually increasing your running time, we going to take a little break this week. Oh, yes, you will be doing some running, but we will cut back a bit on some of the effort. This will serve to give your body a rest, which will help you get stronger when we resume training next week.
By the end of last week, you were running 20 minutes with just one short break. This week, you will be cutting back on the time and taking an extra day off. Strength training, etc., is still okay on your rest days, but I’d suggest one day of complete rest during this week. (Did you miss week one? Click here.)
Remember, all workouts begin with an 8-10 minute brisk walk, and finish with about a five-minute walk, stretching, and icing.
Day One: After your warm up, run for five minutes. Walk for 30 seconds. Repeat two more times.
Day Two: Warm up, run for seven minutes. Walk for a minute. Repeat.
Day Three: Rest.
Day Four: Run for six minutes. Walk for 30 seconds. Repeat two more time.
Day Five: Rest. Completely.
Day Six: Warm up, run for eight minutes. Walk for a minute. Repeat.
Day Seven: Rest.
Ah, recovery. Feel rejuvenated after your light week. Take care of yourself and get ready for week seven.
Getting 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: After your cutback last week, you are going to add that half mile back in to your long run.
The Interval Workout: We’re climbing the ladder this week, one of my favorite workouts. We are on the track. After your warm up, run 200 meters at your goal pace. Jog or walk 200 meters (that will be your cool down between each interval). Run 400 meters. Recover for 200 meters. Run 800 meters. Recover for 200 meters. Run 1600 meters. Recover for 200 meters. Run 800 meters. Recover for 200 meters. Run 400 meters. Recover. Run 200 meters. Cool Down. Remember since your goal is to run at about your 5k pace, or around 95% of your maximal effort, you should plan to run each interval at the same pace. So don’t blow yourself out on the 200, then have nothing left when you get to the 800.
The Lactate Threshold Workout: Back on the road for this workout. After the warm-up, run one mile at 85-90% of your maximum effort. Jog for four minutes. Repeat two more times. Cool down.
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 six is complete! Halfway to your goal. See you next week. Click here for week seven.
This is great Debbie, I love how you are breaking it down, and I love the explanations of the various aspects so people know they they are doing it! Seems like things are going well for SLO, and I am excited for you!