Achieve A Sub 20 Minute 5K
Ticked off in January 2016
Five kilometres in under twenty minutes, and suddenly your Saturday morning parkrun feels like a proper race.
The adventure
Breaking 20 minutes for 5K is the first big speed milestone for most runners. It means 4:00 per kilometre from the start, and because the race is so short there is no time to settle in. Your lungs are burning by the end of the first kilometre, and the middle section is all about refusing to let the pace slip.
The best place to chase it is parkrun, the free timed 5K that started with 13 runners in Bushy Park in 2004 and now takes place every Saturday morning in parks across the UK and around the world. You line up with hundreds of others, a volunteer shouts go, and a little later a results email tells you whether you have done it. When it says 19-something, the walk home feels very different.
Why it’s epic
- The target pace is 4:00 per kilometre, or about 6:26 per mile.
- That is 12.5 laps of a 400-metre track at 96 seconds a lap.
- parkrun began with 13 runners at Bushy Park in Teddington on 2 October 2004.
- Every parkrun is free, timed and run by volunteers, so you can go for the time every week.
What it is
A sub-20-minute 5K means running at an average of under 4 minutes per kilometre.
How to do it
Add interval training and tempo runs, and test yourself at parkrun.
Top tip
Pacing evenly is key.
Need to know
- Most UK parkruns start at 9am on Saturdays; register once and bring your barcode.
- Courses vary a lot, so pick a flat, firm one if you are chasing a time.
- Interval sessions such as 5 x 1 km at target pace are a classic way to build towards it.
How I ticked it off
5 Kilometres. Not a big distance, but it is where my fitness journey started. When I first stated running, i could not run 5KM without being terribly out of breathe and stopping to rest.
Sub 20 minutes appeared to be a totally unrealistic goal, but the more i trained, and the more I ran, the more I edged towards this illusive goal!
A fantastic resource for building up to your first 5K in just 9 weeks is Couch To 5K (C25K) – Check it out and give it a go
Parkrun is a fantastic way to get into running if you are interested in giving it a go, all abilities welcome, and best of all its totally free!
Find your nearest parkrun here.
If you would like to find a 5K event near you check out Find A Race
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