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welcome back to the channel if you're
new around here i'm ben and this is my
youtube channel where i share all things
running
if you are new consider leaving a like
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journey
in this video i'm going to share with
you how i progressed in the 5k
after running a 22 minute 5k
in early 2019 to a sub 16 minute 5k
in 2021
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so i'll split this video into five
sections and the first
is consistency now unfortunately i'd
like to sit here and tell you a secret
that will knock you two minutes off your
pb
but in the last two years of my running
journey if you like i've not found that
secret yet
however the beauty of the 5k is that as
you become a more consistent runner
so somebody who runs two or three times
a week a week in week out you will
slowly see
an improvement in your 5k time so one of
the big takeaways from my training over
the last two years is there's no
one session there's no one run that will
make or break you
it's the string of weeks and weeks of
consistent training
that will make you a better runner so
it's getting out there week after week
putting your shoes on getting out the
door and
putting the miles in and consistently
consistently building weeks of running
that will slowly improve you over time
and you'll become a much better runner
so that is first point consistency
so my next point is to build your
mileage slowly increase the amount of
time
you spend running a week and the
distance you run a week so when i first
set the goal of running a faster 5k
the thought of running further than 5k
in training seemed a little bit strange
but this is all part of building the
mileage now when building your mileage
there's a 10 rule that you may or may
not have heard of which basically means
say if you run 20 kilometers one week
your body should be able to handle a 10
increase in the next week so running 22
kilometers
without getting injured um now this is
something i tried to follow
throughout my training but in hindsight
i was a little bit
uh overconfident in the sort of distance
i could run and i
increased my running um a bit too
quickly so i wish i'd
listened more to the 10 rule because i
got shin splints
and it meant i couldn't run for about a
month or two months without pain
um so it took me a little while to
recover whereas had i slowly increased
my mileage i may not have got injured so
my
top tip to building your mileage which
is something you will need to do if you
want to get faster over the 5k
from my experience is to do it slowly
and to follow that 10 rule
so to give you an example of how i built
my mileage when i was running
22 minutes for the 5k i was running
around
that 20 kilometers a week maybe two runs
a week
two or three runs a week whereas when i
ran 15 minutes 46 i had slowly built my
mileage up over the over the years over
two years
to that 140 kilometers mark which became
the peak
of my mileage during my training around
about 100 to 120
was where i was hitting on a weekly
basis but it peaked at 140
before two or three weeks before i ran
that 15 minute 5k
and then i came down to around
i think 60 kilometers in the week when i
ran 15 46
the key with building mileage is to do
it slowly um
and to listen to your body that would be
my main
tips for building your mileage and just
don't try and do it too quickly it takes
time for your body to get used to it
if you have weeks where your body's
really tired the next week considering
reducing the amount of mileage
for them to then be able to to build it
up the next week now these lock down
periods in the uk have been a really
good
opportunity for me to build my mileage
so i know
for everyone it may not be um easy to
run
i think i've been running around eight
to ten hours a week so there's a lot of
time to put into running
and i understand a lot of people have um
other commitments in their lives so it
may not be
um feasible to run those sort of
distances this sort of time each week so
my advice would be if you
haven't got the time to be running 100
kilometers a week
and then just to prioritize your quality
runs which brings
me which brings me on to my next point
which is speed work
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so after you've built up your mileage
you've started to run more you start to
feel fitter it can
um there can be a plateau and you're
running now this happened for me
around 20 minutes before the 5k i think
i
probably spent around five or six weeks
trying to break
sub 20 minutes i would run 20 minutes 10
one week
20 minutes 30 the next then 20 minutes
so nine
so i sort of plateaued around that 20
minute mark and this is when i suggest
introducing speed work into your
training a good way of doing this
is through interval training some of my
favorite intervals for the 5k
are like kilometer repeats so you run
for you run a kilometer at your desired
5k
race pace so if it's for 20 minute 5k
then you want to be running at four
minute kilometers
and then after that kilometer you rest
for one minute 30 you can either do a
standing rest
or you can do a jog recovery rest i
recommend
around that two minute mark when you're
starting when you've not done intervals
before
and then as you get fitter and more used
to the speed work try and reduce that
um recovery period uh down to around a
minute mark
so a good workout for me for the 5k is
six times a kilometer
with a minute rest and now i try and hit
these kilometers at my target race pace
or just below um in training you're not
as super fresh as you would be on race
day because
if you if you haven't tapered for
example or your legs are a bit tired
from the previous run you did another
day
so around that 5k race pace yeah so
speed work
it gets your body used to running at
faster speed
in your training so when it comes to
your race day your legs are used to it
your body's become
more efficient and yeah it shouldn't be
too much of a shock
to run at that pace having run it in
training so i'd recommend
doing a sort of speed training workout
once a week
to start with and then slowly building
up to two
possibly even three speed works a week
in order to stay consistent to build
your mileage
and to incorporate speed work into your
training
you need to stay injury-free and this is
where
recovery techniques come in so the
recovery techniques i use
is foam rolling and stretching which i
do after my runs
after hard workouts i have ice buffs
um i fill up the dustbin with water put
loads of ice in it
and just stand in it for around that two
three minute mark
or i just take a regular hot bath after
my hard runs
um i try to eat well so diet with
protein and a good amount of
carbohydrate to replenish
and the calories that you burn on the
run probably the most important part of
the recovery is making sure you get that
sleep
so i find getting that seven eight nine
hours of sleep
the more you sleep the longer the longer
your
body has has time to recover um
and you wake up a lot fresher than if
you've had three or four hours sleep so
try and prioritize
getting a good amount of sleep which i
know could be hard now i'm sure i could
make a whole separate video on recovery
um but just to say if you don't start
prioritizing recovery then don't expect
to say injury-free
sounds a bit dramatic but um
running is a quite a high impact sport
it can be quite
um demanding on the body so you need to
start prioritizing your recovery
just as much as you prioritize the speed
work building the mileage the
consistency
in order to stay injury-free and to keep
you running basically
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[Applause]
so the last point point number five is
hard work now this is a bit of a cheesy
point
um but it's definitely something that i
would say
has it helped improve me as a 5k runner
over the last two years it's constantly
getting out there when you're knackered
when you've had a hard day at work when
it's chuckling down with rain and you
really don't want to go
outside and do your run it's when these
are the times where you've got to put
the hard work in
get out there get it done um if you want
to see the results and trust me when you
run a pb on race day
you look back at all the hard work you
put in it really is worth it
and finally if you're still here and
watching the video i presume
you are looking to pb in the 5k this
year on your next race
so all the best with that i hope you've
got something from this video
um some of my top tips over the last two
years of running
and yeah just use a combination of the
five tips i've talked about so
consistency
build your mileage try some speed work
prioritize recovery and finally
put in the hard work on the days where
it's chugging it down with rain
you're knackered those are the days when
it really counts um
thanks for watching if you've liked the
video please leave a like
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i'll see you with another video soon
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goodbye
