The marathon season has about six more weeks before the summer 5K and 10K races start to fill the weekends. The runners that compete in marathons will need a few weeks to rest up after that last marathon before trying for a fast 5K. After running long runs of 20 miles for training runs for the marathons the legs are tired. The hard part of this is that runners don’t realize how tired the muscles of the legs are after a series of long runs. I have seen slides of muscle tissue after a runner finished a marathon and the muscle fibers look like they were shot with a scatter gun. The fiber was literally shredded. It takes several weeks for the muscles to heal. If the muscles are not allowed to heal it will lead to an injury later in the summer.
For runners that have stayed away from the marathon can start training for the summer “sprints” that marathon runners tend to think of 5K and 10K races. It is always good to try for a new PR with the new race season. Runners that say “I only run for fun,” may feel that way but almost every runner, jogger, or walker, wants to know their time at the finish. It may be a slow time in the race, but for that individual participant it is a new PR. Even if it takes you an hour to finish a 5K, finishing in 58 minutes in a race is a new faster PR. That is all it takes to fire up the competitive juices to see if the next race can be in 57 minutes, or faster.
The best method to run a new PR is that your training has to include a series of “speed” workouts. Speed in this statement is taken in a sense that once a week, or at the most twice a week, are geared to moving slightly faster than the usual pace. The other point is that the increase in speed can be in small increments. A runner does not need to try faster runs that they are never going to use, or be able to sustain, in a race. Even a few seconds per mile can make a difference in the total time in a race.
I recommend training on a track to try for faster race times. Most tracks are a quarter mile in distance. A 10 minute mile pace takes two and half minutes to run one lap (2:30). A 9 minute per mile takes 2:15 minutes to complete. Fifteen seconds faster for a quarter mile is a big step and success will be easier to tolerate is the pace is closer to a 2:25 or 2:20 minute quarter. Looking at that five second per quarter pace in a 5K race becomes one minute faster time in a 5K. Think that 5 seconds per quarter is 20 seconds per mile faster, and three miles at that pace means one minute faster for a race.
It is recommended that you divide that quarter mile distance into four segments to learn pace. Trying to run a 2:30 pace versus a 2:25 pace and not knowing your time until you complete the quarter mile is difficult. Most tracks surround a football field. Start on the 50 yard line on one side of the track. The first end zone goal post is 110 yards away, the 50 yard line on the other side of the field is 220 yards away, and the far end zone goal post is 330 yards away, with the finish at the 50 yard line start is 440 yards. An example of using the four divisions of the quarter mile track for a nine minute pace, give or take a second or two in the example, is a follows: the first end zone goal posts should be in 34 seconds; at the far side 50 yard mark the time should be around 1:08 minutes; the far end zone goal posts will be in 1:42 minutes; and the finish at the first 50 yard mark will be close to 2:12 minutes. It is easier to make adjustment every 110 yards to learn the pace than to hope you get close at the end of the quarter mile lap. An example is when you run to the first goal post and the time is 32 seconds. That is too fast and you need to back off a little. It will take a few laps before you learn what it feels like to run a nine minute pace in a race. It will not be long before you are hitting the four marks on the track within a second or two on a regular basis.
When the new faster pace becomes comfortable you repeat the process and decrease the quarter mile time another 5 seconds. When you become used to doing these intervals it may be fun to try one workout where you decrease that quarter mile time by 10 seconds for six to eight laps around the track. Between laps you need to take a slow lap – even walking is permitted. The theory behind this faster pace, one that you will probably never use in a race, is that by running a much faster pace for one workout every couple of weeks, when you go back to a slower 5 seconds pace increase it will almost feel slow.
When the difference in increasing speed is only a few seconds time think that a 9 minute pace, and the 2:15 quarter time is 34 seconds at the marks, an 8 minute pace is only 30 seconds per mark and a 2:00 minute quarter mile lap. Four seconds doesn’t seem like a lot but when you add that four seconds it makes 16 seconds per quarter; and over a minute faster per mile. That is big jump in speed. It is easier to take those increases in a few seconds at a time to see if you can get a new PR. The summer racing season is several months long and by taking a few seconds in short intervals every couple of weeks, it can mean a good increase in speed.
