Starting out Running 5k Races

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I ran my second 5k today. Finished 17th overall and 3rd in my age bracket with a sub 24 minute finish. I've been running for a few years but now I'm trying to get out there and see what I can do. I'm hoping going out and running gets me out of my shell a little bit. There aren't many social situations I'd feel comfortable in so this feels like a good start.

Are there any exercises I should focus on to help my time? Has exercise been a healthy social outlet for anyone of our ilk? I'm nowhere near as motivated for strength training but I would like to be doing it more. My target time for a 5k is 22:31 since that's the average for my bracket but I don't know how the hell that's true if only a dozen or so people hit that time this morning.

Congratulations! It sounds like a great outlet and a good way to stay fit.

I don't know about specific exercises, but increasing your VO2 max should be beneficial.

I've seen VO2Max stats on my watch but never looked up what it was for. I've no idea how to increase this but it seems good for running longer distances! Thanks a bunch.

YW.
It's something I need to work on for ball hockey. There's nothing more embarrassing than pulling off something impressive only to get winded and not be able to seal the deal.

I used to run quite a bit, and hope to again in the near future. I found it extremely beneficial mentally. Being physically fit just feels better. Everything gets easier.

A sub 24 was the fastest I ever managed to do a 5k, so you're already well ahead of me if you're just starting out. You can do strides to improve your speed. That's when, on a training run, you put in these fast bursts of speed - as fast as you can possibly go - for a set distance or time, then drop back to your casual running speed to recover, then hit the gas again. Keep doing that. Gradually your normal running speed will increase.

The other thing I found surprisingly beneficial was core exercise. I got a planking app on my phone and did that for a month and I was so much stronger at the end of it. But maybe that was more consistent speed over medium/long distance, not so much faster over shorter distances. I was mainly interested in distance rather than speed.

HIIT training is good for Vo2 max I think. There's guided workouts on youtube.

Good work on the 5k

Thank you! I've zero way to gauge what my performance is and it probably shouldn't matter, but I appreciate the encouragement.

Also that's good advice on the strides and core training. I had been told planks were dumb but remember feeling benefits from them? I'll go back to them.

Congrats on your finish! I used to do races quite a bit when I was younger and even had two sub 20 minute 5k finishes! Those days are over, unfortunately, and with some knee issues I will probably never run again.

Try doing some hill workouts if you can find suitable hills to run up, that will built strength and increase your VO2 max as well.

Another alternative to that, if you have a treadmill, is to run 1 mile on the treadmill to warm up. Then run 1 minute at 2% incline, 1 minute at 4% incline, and 1 minute at 6% incline. Then run 3 minutes at no incline to recover before doing to incline cycle again. Those inclines don't sound like much but that will give you a better workout than it sounds!

Wow sub 20? That's crazy. I feel like I need to hit those times to get near any of these arbitrary awards they give out at races. But I don't know that I'm getting to that pace anytime soon.

HAH. Hills. I live in Florida where it's flat as justice. It's funny seeing my watch have a stat for elevation that changes rough- let me check... 7 meters. Funny enough there is a run group around these parts that run up what they call "The Hill" and as someone from Colorado I just can't really respect it.


I like doing inclines on treadmills! I don't have one but a gym near me does. I usually keep it at 3° for the run but the machine doesn't like it when I go above 6°. But changing it over time might help versus just increasing speed.

It took me 4 1/2 years of running to get to a sub 20 minute 5k. Putting in lots of miles and doing lots of races. It was satisfying to do so because that is one goal I had, along with running a marathon-in fact I finished 2.