How to use sub 5k intervals for faster results.
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Full Transcript
So to get fast, you need to run fast. It’s no secret there, but there are specific workouts that will help you go into that pain cave and come out the other side.
Alright, so today we’re going to talk about how to prepare for a race between five K and 10 K those race distances that really puts you in that lactic acid takeover. I’m going to show you workouts that will help you prepare. To take on that lactic feeling. Well, also improving your mental toughness and your physical preparedness for those events.
But first hit me with a thumbs up and subscribe right down below. So if you’ve ever run these type of races, you know that feeling I’m talking about where it’s almost like you’re underwater, where you’re trying to run and there’s burning happening through your arms and your legs. And this is the byproduct of lactate and lactate is a fuel source for us, for when we are working at such a high rate.
That the oxygen that we breathe in can’t quite keep up with the demands of the energy. So it produced Slack to keep us moving, but the byproduct is that acid feeling. And we also, oftentimes, it’s called lactic acid, and that’s just what happens when we can’t buffer and clear the lactate by-product fast enough.
But you can train this so that when you’re in those environments, you’re able to withstand that type of awful feeling for longer. And you can get rid of it so you can sustain a faster pace without having that type of response happen during your race or your training. But that is the good news here because we can simulate that feeling in training.
You just need to do specific workouts and hit them exactly on the nose so that you are getting into that area where it’s so uncomfortable that you must. Release that lactate, and then you must buffer that out of there. So as you might imagine, these workouts are not fun, but they are effective and they will make you so much faster.
So here’s what these workouts look like. So here in my training peaks, this is a look at what a progression would look like for what many would consider a call VO, two max intervals or lactic tolerance intervals, or just like straight up intervals. And this is built out within the week. When you put this in your own training, we should do it once a week with recovery after at least one to two days of recovery after and something easy before the actual workout itself.
So I just wrote this in a linear fashion on the week just so we can get a good idea of what it looks like and we’re just going to go over it together here. But really they should be spread out once a week. So this can be considered some sort of like a mezzo cycle and a six or seven week cycle to prepare you for an upcoming race, whether that is your goal race or if it is.
A race along the way to something a little bit longer, or even something a little bit shorter, but you could put these in for six, seven weeks in a row. And the best way to start, you need to have a specific zone and specific paces to aim for. So, you know. That when you’re doing these workouts, you’re going to get that response that we talked about before.
So really the first thing you need to do is some sort of baseline test. So you can see over here on Monday, I have just a three-mile baseline. It could be 5k, but you need to go out and hit something really hard. Take that pace from there. And then you’re going to take about 10 seconds off of the average pace per mile within your baseline test.
And then that’s going to be your target pacing for all of these VO two max intervals. And so what’s important to keep in mind about these intervals is that it takes about two minutes, two and a half minutes to get that response of that lactate coming as a fuel source. So what the real measurement is here, it’s not the total volume.
It should be the total time spent. Beyond those two minutes of of running where you are getting that lactate so you can buffer it out of there and create this tolerance so that in the late stages of the race you’re able to, to take on and know that you can push through that feeling. So it’s important to keep in mind that these are not race specific intervals.
These are faster than your five K race pace. And we do that so we can run the shorter bouts and we can get that response. Because typically in a five K you’re not going to really feel that until the last last mile or so. And we don’t want to spend that much time during our training doing two and a half miles to create this response.
So we up the pace so we can get that response faster. But therefore, the pace that you’re running in intervals, it doesn’t necessarily translate to your 5k. So this is just to get that response physiologically. So that you can take it and. Apply it to race day itself. And the reason we do that in these shorter intervals is that so we can do more volume.
And if we were to do longer intervals, something in that two to three mile range to really give a specific response to the race, we would really kind of burn ourselves out. And it would be hard to amass enough volume here when we want to create more than just what we would get in that last mile of a five K.
When we segment them out in 800 thousands 12 hundreds of miles, we’re able to spend more time in that lactic zone than if we were to just do a 20 minute interval as fast as we could, and then after the 20 minutes we would be spent. And it’s also important to really hit these paces on the nose. In this case, faster is not better.
These paces will already be fast enough to get you to where you need to go. Going any faster will just create exhaustion and it will just screw up the workout. So doing one harder and then dying later in the workout. Doesn’t do you anything. It’s not about volume for the sake of volume, it’s, it’s the specific volume that we need.
After that two to two and a half minutes is where you’re going to get the big pale. So when we start this progression, we just want to do eight hundreds and in this 800 meter workout, it’s going to be about two a 800 meter. I will going to click in here. This is set up on my specific pieces. So my sub five K pace is right around four 44 41 and.
In this instance, I would only really get about a minute and a half of cumulative work at that sub 5k zone where I would get that lactic response. But really this is just a way to kind of prime yourself for the pacing and getting your muscular skeletal system ready to take on this type of speed with this type of volume.
So we want to start off short because it is a long progression and once you can kind of wrap your head around what the speed is going to be like. On these intervals, then you’ll be better suited when we get into those thousands and 12 hundreds which is really what’s going to move the needle the most for you when it comes to race day.
And one thing that you must keep in mind is the recovery here. So the recovery is going to be almost one-to-one, but, um, so that you are able to hit these recoveries hard, uh, able to hit these intervals hard, I should say. And so. For 800 meters. It would take about two, a little less than two and a half minutes, but you want to take that full recovery and in those 800 so you can take two to two and a half minutes here with a light jog.
Um, and again, it’s important that you take the recovery seriously and you take it nice and easy so you can hit the. Pace every single time. So then we’re going to move on to thousands and in the thousands. This is an awesome distance. I love this distance. It’s long enough to get that response. If we’re doing five of them, we’re going to get about four and a half minutes, which is about a month.
As much time as you will feel it in the last part of a 5k. So this is five by thousand six 5,000 it’s a really great spot. To aim for. And if you were to do one of these workouts and not necessarily do a progression, thousands are the place to be, um, there long enough, like I said, to stretch you, but short enough where you can mentally handle it all and you want, again, keep that recovery.
Moving up. This one, I just move it to keep it at two 30, and that is just the best way to, again, get that. To every single time. And then we’re going to move on to 12 hundreds when the four of them and then five of them on the third and fourth week. And this is really, so with these 12 hundreds we’re going to get about six minutes when we do four by 1200 and then all of that when we’re in that zone, and we’re going to get almost seven and a half minutes of.
Hard running in that lactate zone in on that Friday workout for me in particular, and this is really going to be mentally taxing to be super physically hard and it’s really going to be important. They take the recovery, so as the volume goes up. On the specific reps. So does the recovery here, and that’s something that you could play around with, but in this case, we’re going to make it linear as the, as the distance goes up, we’re going to take that recovery up as well.
Same goes for the miles and in the miles. We’re going to get a huge. Dose each time, so he’s going to be really difficult. So I would say three to four in that mile range and bumping up the recovery to about four minutes, which will be a really difficult workout. So you can either bump this up to six by 1200 or be three to four by mile, depending on how you want to do it.
And then the last piece of the progression is going to be either another baseline tests like we did to start things out. Or you can do some sort of race SIM. A classic race SIM for a five K would be five by 1000 at race pace, and then it would be one minute of recovery. So this kind of changes the entire progression where we were going sub five K pace.
In the thousands itself, we’re going to be at about five K pace and resting one minute, and with that short rest, a short jog for about a minute, that is really going to help help keep that pace in mind and allow you to get the full amount of volume in. And really kind of simulate what it’s gonna feel like for that five cat.
So this is a real classic example of how to make a linear progression when it comes to your five K or 10 K prep for both distances. I would really keep that pace at sub five K pace for anything. Five K eight K 10 K. You’re going to be put into that lactic tick over zone. So these pieces are not, again, they’re not raised specific.
They are dialed into help you avoid that lactic takeover and to improve your tolerance at that. Fast pace. So from anything from , this is really where you want to be. You can even dip down into things if you’re preparing for a two mile, but then we’re going to have to associate some leg turnover because that also can be a limiting factor when it comes to your mile time.
If that is something you’re into. So there you have it. This is an awesome way to get faster than that. 5k to 10 K. If you are interested in learning more about how to get yourself faster, grab a free ebook in the notes below that will take you through progressions, not only through interval progressions, but.
Do threshold, uh, tempo and for your mileage progressions that you can put together all yourself. Also, hit me with a light that subscribe. Hit that little bell next to the subscribe button so you get all the latest videos pumped directly to you when we drop them out. And there you have it. We’ll talk to you soon.
