6 Reasons Why Your 5K Time Isn't Improving - And How to Change It

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Want to run a faster 5k? Whether you’ve just done your first or you’re a serious athlete looking to shave a few seconds off your 5k PR, we’ll tell you what you need to do to run that 5k distance faster.

And to all you distance runners, we’re just gonna say it. Love me some distance, but you’d be best gettin’ your 5k time down. It’ll pay off in the longer runs – trust us.

Why a 5k?

Even experienced runners like the 5k because of the speed and challenge. It’s 75%, aerobic, 25% anaerobic, meaning you’ve got to do speed work and think intelligently to get a good time.

If you just run it and don’t prepare for it, you’re not going to do great. Because let’s be real – a 5k is going to hurt. It’s a distance where you have to push yourself the entire time and that’s lactate building up in your system.

We’ll show you how to prepare so you can do your best.

Faster 5k tip 1: Hit the gym for strength and conditioning

We’re big advocates of getting into the gym for some strength and conditioning work.

If you’re new to the gym, then get a coach because you can hurt yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing. And you’ve got to train all parts of your body:

Your core holds you together, and if it’s weak, you’re going to collapse in the middle.
Your upper body has to be strong, because your arms drive your legs. Make sure you’re doing pushups and tricep dips, maybe add in bench press and shoulder press.
Obviously, your lower legs are crucial. Even though you work them out running, give them a little love in the weight room, too.

Aim for getting to the gym 2 days a week minimum, 20 to 40 minutes. You want to feel a decent burn, but not like you can’t walk the next day. Because running is still more important!

And keep in mind that something’s better than nothing. So just get started.

Faster 5k tip 2: eat a healthy diet

Eating a healthy diet for a runner is about eating the nutrition that will power your body through your exercise routine. It doesn’t mean losing weight (unless you actually need to, keep reading) or being super-skinny.

Don’t you need to be super-skinny to be a fast runner? No. The Kenyans are amazing runners and super light. But you don’t have to look like them to be a great runner. Look at Christian Blumenfeld, who’s just won the Olympics in triathlon, he’s something like 88 kilos – he’s a total powerhouse. He’s got more muscles, but he’s got better oxygen carrying capacity and more power to stay the course.

If you’re too thin, you’re setting yourself up for problems later. Weak, brittle bones, lack of iron, women stop menstruating. That’s not healthy. A few extra pounds can be an asset.

How do I know if I’m carrying too much weight? Look down. If you’ve got a beer belly, that’s too much. There’s a healthy amount of fat to carry, about 12% for an amateur man and 24% for a woman. For elites, that percentage goes down a little.

Keep in mind that BMI includes muscle mass too, and muscle is useful weight.

And if you’re really not sure, go ahead and spring for a bone density scan, it’ll give you insight into how your bones are faring.

So, what do I eat? That’s a whole other blog post! Check out 8 science-backed foods for run recovery for our faves.

Remember, it’s all about having a lower stress level, and living a longer, healthier life!

Faster 5k tip 3: don’t run every day

Listen, if you love running every day, we’re not going to stop you. But running daily stresses the body, because you’re not allowing yourself enough time to recover (and recovery is tip 6!).

Let’s say an optimal schedule would be running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday morning and then Friday evening and then one on the weekend.

For your fastest 5k, do 3 aerobic runs. You need to develop your aerobic system to capacity, so that’s runs that are 60-90 minutes. Then, you need a short recovery run – something around 30 minutes is good. A lot of runners skip out here, they push it longer. Don’t. Then it isn’t a recovery run any more. Make your 5th run a 45-minute long VO₂ run.

Faster 5k tip 4: Get in some speed work

Running a 5k is about pushing hard, the entire run. In that way, it’s different from running a marathon – which sounds hard but ends up being a cruisy pace for most runners.

In a 5k, you have to cope with a large buildup of lactate in your bloodstream and still keep running. And you’ve gotta train to manage that with speed work.

Use your V0₂ max run to get in some speed work. Doing intervals gets you there. Listen to watch our episode on vo2 max and improving your vo2max here.

But don’t overdo it. A lot of runners training for a 5k PR want to get out and give it a whirl to see how they’re doing. Depending on a bunch of factors you can race often but I like to do one time trial (anywhere from 1 mile to 5k) about once a month. Mike likes to do a 5k every week. To each is their own.

Faster 5k tip 5: Cross-train

We said you should be only doing 5 runs a week, but lots of people want to exercise more. Great! Get on the bike and cycle. Go swimming. Do some yoga, it’s good for you. Use the rowing machine at the gym.

All of these things are great for building up your aerobic system (except the yoga) and that’ll help with your running.

The only way to run quicker, is to run fast. But you can actually make yourself stronger and develop the aerobic system cross-training. Swimming and cycling are great because they’re less stressful on the body.

Faster 5k tip 6: Get enough sleep

Let’s just be blunt. Your body needs to recover from exercise.

And a big part of that is sleep. When you get eight hours of sleep a night, you’re giving your body the time to recover so that you can perform your best the next day.

8 hours is a simplification – what you actually need is 7 hours plus one hour for every hour that you train. So if you train for 2 hours, you need 9 hours of sleep. If you haven’t got the time to get more sleep, then don’t do the training because you’re setting yourself up for long-term problems.

Think of sleep like debt. You can dip into your sleep allocation to celebrate a special occasion, but you need to pay it back. Keep it up, and you’re heading for disaster. Eventually, you’ll be like, “Why is this hurting? Why did I tear this? And why am I sick for three months straight? And why do I have this random illness that no one else has in this part of the world?” Well, your body’s just burned down.

Is the health and fitness internet too much sometimes? Yup, we hear you. That’s why we break down the important stuff so you can get real information that you can use to be a better runner. No crap.If you like it, follow us. And if you want to hear our tales from deep in the pain cave, hilarious sleep debt stories, get into a deep dive into acute vs. chronic training load and hear why in the heck Mike and I run.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

In this episode, Mike gives all of the tips and tricks on running a fast 5k race.

From – Strength and Conditioning Training
to Dieting
to How many and what types of runs you should do each week
to Time trialing
to Cross training
and even touching on the all-important sleep

Notable Quotables

“A poorly prepared runner isn’t ready for a 5k if they don’t feel the burn”
“Look at sleep as a positive instead of negative – It’s part training. When I get my 8 hours of sleep every night I know I’ll do well”
“If you can’t do the sleep and the recovery, you can’t do the training”
“The only way to run quicker at short distances is to run fast”

2 Lessons Learned

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[00:00:00] Daren: Gateway drugs are defined as a drug, which supposedly leads the user onto more addictive or dangerous drugs. I believe the 5k race serves a similar role in the running world, acting as the gateway to longer, more intense challenges like the 10k, half marathon, marathon, iron distance triathlons, and ultra marathons, but how does one improve their 5k time?

[00:00:22] Daren: Are you really racing the distance at your highest potential? How much do you need to suffer? And what does it take to race a 5k? At your peak effort and intelligence, stick around, don’t worry, because I’m going to answer all those questions and more by giving you my top 12, 12 tips on racing the 5k that I’ve learned from my experience, research, and talking with all of the experts on the 5k.

[00:00:45] Daren: This episode, content piece, the 1 percent better runner, all so that you can run and live your best one step at a time. Let’s get into it. What you will learn, how to structure your training for success by mastering the 80 20 rule. Use a well organized training plan that is 80 percent easy and 20 percent hard.

[00:01:05] Daren: The benefits of strength and conditioning and nutrition tips for optimal performance. All right, let’s get into the full episode and the 12 ways of how you can run. Your best 5k number one structure your training into periods and blocks while a 5k is fast. It’s not a sprint It’s anywhere from 75 to 90 percent aerobic aerobic means using oxygen and fat for fuel That means lots of slow and easy running Mike tree said more about that here on the episode where he coached me to run A 1647 on a 5K that I did a few years ago,

[00:01:38] Mike Trees: I would give you a six week block of a three K session for speed, uh, and a 5K session.

[00:01:47] Mike Trees: Uh, and then a 10 K session for stamina. Uh, and I would vary, you know, and I would probably push you the limit. I might even in the six week block, depending on how you respond, because you are a good aerobic. If I can get your anaerobic engine really ticked up, I might even put a bit of 1, 500 meter work in there, uh, 3, 000 meters and 5, 000 stuff and really focus on the short end and play to your strengths.

[00:02:07] Mike Trees: You said you came from 800, so play to your 8, 1, 500 strengths to get the 5k. Whereas, you know, you, you get a marathon runner. I think, well, they’ve got this big aerobic engine. Let’s just maximize the a hundred mile weeks that the 10 K sessions, the five K and aerobic capacity. But I, I think there’s, there’s two ways of 000 and you’re, you’re, you’re borderline that you could push in a little bit more speed work and really get out and get used to running some, some K’s in, you know, Three, three, 10 K’s and going quicker than race pace.

[00:02:38] Mike Trees: So when you get the start line, you’re getting through the first two couple of days thinking, well, this is easy. You’re sitting there and you’re, you’re waiting for the last two K when it kicks in, but you can cope with a lack.

[00:02:50] Daren: Number two, use the 80, 20 rule. Each week run 80 percent of your runs easy and 20 percent hard.

[00:02:57] Daren: Here’s Mike trees with more on that.

[00:02:59] Mike Trees (2): We need three aerobic runs. I’ve made it very simple. Uh, people understand a longer run to develop the aerobic system to capacity 60 to 90 minutes. You’ve got to get over 60 minutes, but if you’re getting over 90, that’s more sort of half marathon, marathon training area.

[00:03:18] Mike Trees (2): And I think you’ll knock the speed away. So somewhere sitting between 60 to 90 minutes is a nice. Pace, a nice time to run for. Then, you need a short recovery run. 30 minutes, I reckon. And I’ve, over the years, I’ve found that most people can do a nice 30 minutes recovery run. Over that, you’re not really recovering.

[00:03:43] Mike Trees (2): And you’ve got to remember what you’re going out for. People get carried away, and they go, Oh, I’ve done 30, that feels good. I can do 45, I can do 60, 65. And they, they get carried away. Just think what the purpose is. It’s a recovery run, Go out and just enjoy your 30 minutes easy running. Uh, And then one more run is a, it’s what I call an easy run, an aerobic run, uh, an aerobic pace of about 45 minutes.

[00:04:08] Daren: Number three, vary your speed work. Here’s Mike trees again, and he gave me so much valuable information and a specific six week training plan that helped me run a super speedy five. Okay,

[00:04:19] Mike Trees: so what you’ve got is you’ve got the threshold work for lactic where we work around the threshold, but you’ve got the lactic tolerance.

[00:04:27] Mike Trees: So towards the end, the last kilometer of 5k, it doesn’t matter how much lactic you build up if you can cope with it. And there’s some phenomenal stories of, you know, people like Sebastian Coe that could hold, I think it was 17, 18 millimoles. Of, of lactic, you know, per milliliter of, of per liter of blood in his body.

[00:04:45] Mike Trees: Whereas most people, you know, you, you struggle at four. So that’s where the threshold is considered. The four millimole level is, is a technical people use. They get past four and they can’t really run much. But if you can cope with its absolute tolerance, not the threshold, but the tolerance as well, that’s where you can maximize it.

[00:05:02] Mike Trees: So that tolerance. Might even get you something like 15, 20 seconds in the last one kilometer if you can cope with it. That’s huge over 5k. So I would say that what you’re doing is essentially right. But I would give you a six week block at the end where we tweak it and work to your strengths. Uh, and it might take a couple of blocks to work out exactly what that is.

[00:05:22] Mike Trees: Is it 1500 work? Is it 3000 meter work? Uh, but I would give you something quicker and you’re on the borderline at your age. I could cope with three hard sessions a week. So, uh, plus the long run. Oh yeah, you’re the one when I don’t come to the other session. That’s an easy, that’s, that’s, that’s separate.

[00:05:40] Daren: Number four, strength and conditioning. It has different names, strength, training, resistance, training, lifting weights, improving mobility, and doing uphill sprints all build your body to handle the demands of a faster 5k. Here’s Sam. Physiotherapist and founder of 10 weeks to strength running app and what she thinks about strength training and runners.

[00:05:59] Sam 10W2S: Uh, so strength training, if you are a distance runner is one of the most important things you can do for your training to minimize injury risk. It builds the capacity of your muscles, your tendons, and your bones to tolerate all the weekly kilometers miles you’re putting through it. And it can also improve performance.

[00:06:17] Sam 10W2S: So make sure you fit it in. And also strength loss is primarily due to disuse, not aging. So you have to keep it up. It’s often I find actually with the, um, older runners or older people, I should say, they often stop strength training because they get one niggle in their knee and they think, okay, it’s not safe for me to be doing this stuff.

[00:06:36] Sam 10W2S: I’m going to stop because my knee hurts. And that’s where things deteriorate. So it is so important as a lifelong activity to continue your strength training as we get older.

[00:06:47] Daren: Number five, nutrition and diet. Try to eat the right. Foods and right amounts for your training at the right time. This is personal to everybody.

[00:06:55] Daren: So talk with a specialist if you can. Here is my dietician, Jordan Cain on that.

[00:07:02] Jordan – Dietician: When we’re talking about fat loss, we don’t need to cut carbs. Like it’s a thing, like you can, but we need to cut calories. And I’m not saying calorie counts either. Like I’m saying, like what we need to do is get you into calorie deficit.

[00:07:14] Jordan – Dietician: And it doesn’t really matter what you eat. I would say yes, in terms of whole foods, like slow carb diets, plus those whole grains and plus fruit and stuff is what I would recommend, ideally. Keep the carbs in there, drop in the calories, drop the portions, drop the portions, drop like maybe one little meal in the day or one snack or whatever it is.

[00:07:33] Jordan – Dietician: As long as you’re feeling fueled and as long as you’re feeling like you are never training’s going well and you’re not like, Sponking at the end of training within the day. That is an ideal situation for fat loss and to maintain the balance.

[00:07:47] Daren: All right. A quick break because I know 5k as soon as possible.

[00:07:52] Daren: And to make it easier for you to just go out and do that, I created a free six week improve your 5k training plan, which is based around the whole 1 percent better runner consistency framework. Think a run training plan and personal therapist mixed together, be smart and use the QR code on the screen right here.

[00:08:09] Daren: Link below in the video description or podcast show notes to get your copy of it right now. Bonus, you’ll automatically sign up for our 1 percent better newsletter, which is not like other running newsletters because we don’t do quick motivational hacks. Instead, every week ish, you’ll get tools and tactics to transform you through small step by step daily habit improvements, all to help you train, race, and live exponentially better in your running life.

[00:08:35] Daren: Let’s get back into it number six cross training running is hard on your body Look to cross train to build aerobic base without overtaxing yourself Here’s Mike trees thought on all that get on the bike and cycle

[00:08:49] Mike Trees (2): go swimming The the stationary bike in the gym. You’ve got the cost train out of these days.

[00:08:55] Mike Trees (2): You’ve got the rowing machine You don’t just have to swim uh, and cycle for the aerobic exercise, but you can do more aerobic exercise. The only way to run quicker is to run fast, but you can actually get the benefits of what we call cross training by making yourself stronger, developing the aerobic system, doing other sports.

[00:09:17] Mike Trees (2): So I’m, I’m all for doing other sports that are less stressful on the body, such as swimming and cycling. Uh, to supplement the running and develop the aerobic system, but in order to run fast, you’ve got to do one run a week that’s fast. And it sounds simple, but a lot of people avoid it. They, they think, ah, Mike says do easy training.

[00:09:36] Mike Trees (2): So they’ll, they’ll run a week or maybe six weeks of easy running. And then miraculously think, I’m going to go. The crisis could be this on race day. It doesn’t happen.

[00:09:47] Daren: Number seven, run a monthly time trial, do a monthly one mile or three slash five K race, or even time trial to get your body firing on all cylinders.

[00:09:55] Daren: Here’s Mike trees on that. Get out and do

[00:09:58] Mike Trees (2): a papa run it. 5K. You know, specificity, it’s one of those words, you sounds easy. Backne day, the loss of specificity. You’ve gotta actually do what you do. So if you go out once a week and run a a, a solid 5K, you’ll get used to the pain of a 5K and how to run a 5K.

[00:10:13] Mike Trees (2): So, uh, and it’s a great distance to develop your VO two max, your aerobic capacities.

[00:10:20] Daren: Number 8, dial in your recovery. Work plus rest equals training. Prioritize sleep, rest, and recovery like you do your own training. It’s all a part of it. Here’s my hot take on why recovery is so important. I think the game of, you know, fitness and, and health and life is is actually more about who can recover well enough after stressing themselves completely to then come back, you know, at a hundred, 101 percent and then do it again and then do it again.

[00:10:47] Daren: Yeah. And it’s, it’s actually a game of, of recovery. Um, rather than being, you know, 50 percent because you demolish yourself from, you know, either working too late or smashing yourself from training or racing too much and then not being able to recover and not being able to do the workout to its fullest potential or.

[00:11:05] Daren: To its, to its extent, the workout, like put, you know, performing and actually executing the intervals you need to. If you need to do 10 intervals at three minutes, uh, if you only get to six because your legs are tired from the workout from three days ago, then you’re not going to get anything out of that workout.

[00:11:19] Daren: Absolutely. So recovery is key.

[00:11:21] Sam 10W2S: Yeah.

[00:11:22] Daren: Yeah. A hundred percent. Number nine, mental reframing, running my fastest 5k time to running my best 5k. Here I am with a conversation I had with Remy B. Real, who’s the sometimes co host of 1 percent Better Runner. And I just go a bit more in depth into the whole mentality around why you should shift your mindset around.

[00:11:45] Daren: Around the race and not go for that static time. All right. So I, after talking to marathon, Marcus, I ended up rephrasing my whole, I was like, yo, I’m gonna run my fastest 5k. Right. He started talking about his stuff and he was like, I’m trying to run my best marathon. What I took from that was if you just focus on whatever you have that day and you, that’s your spectrum, you know, that’s your bar, that’s your, uh, you know, bad to good.

[00:12:11] Daren: So if it’s raining, it’s And it’s cold and it’s windy. You’re not going to probably run your best time, but you could run, sorry, your fastest time, but you could run your best time that day. So life happens. As you say, you’re constantly, it’s a rollercoaster up and down. Why not think about it as running my best.

[00:12:25] Daren: And you know, the time might be, you know, my best time right now, 1647. So that might be my best ever. Uh, it might be 1559. It might be 1630, who knows, but I’m going to definitely make sure that I do the best I can. With what I have. So if I’m injured, I’m going to try to be my best, you know, that injury period, or if I’m tired, feeling good.

[00:12:44] Daren: And it’s, it’s a, it’s a more open way to frame training and, and life and racing. And it gives you a bit more slack when again, it’s windy and cold and raining and you decide to step up to that marathon. And you know, your kid was sick or you know, whatever happened. It’s like, yo, just do your best out there.

[00:13:02] Daren: And if doing, doing half of it is your best, then you did your best. And that’s obviously super subjective. It’s not a, you know, I got to go on the flip side. It’s not permission to, to just do half ass work, you know, like, cause that’s, you know, I’d say most, you still gotta push, you still gotta push. Number 10, follow the 1 percent Better Runners Virtuous Cycle while avoiding the 1 percent Better Runners Vicious Cycle.

[00:13:25] Daren: This is a fun visual. That I put together for you to remember that if you do one thing, it’s a domino effect for another. And that leads to great things slowly start anywhere, but let’s start with running more. This is a visual that I have if you’re watching it, obviously, but if you’re listening, please check the show notes or check the actual website and you could check this out or watch the video if you’re listening, because there’s a lot of visuals that really can help you.

[00:13:49] Daren: You can start anywhere on this framework, but let’s start with running more. You can then strength train more. You feel amazing. You get faster, you’re injury free, you’re a healthy runner, that continues forever. The opposite can also happen in the vicious cycle. You run less, you don’t strength train, you feel like poop, you get slower, you get injured, sick, burned out, and that cycle continues.

[00:14:12] Daren: This is why consistency is key. Super generic, but it’s so true. Number 11 physical do a race prediction time test. What is it? This is workout one. So there’s variations. The first one do 3 by 1600 meters. Pick a pace slash effort that you think you could run in your upcoming 5k and then walk recover 90 seconds.

[00:14:38] Daren: Workout number two. Six by one kilometer or 0. 61 miles for metrically allergic Americans. Pick a slightly faster pace slash effort that you can run for in your upcoming five K and recover with a 60 second walk. Why you should do it. The five K is kind of fast, but not too fast. Pacing is everything. Start out too fast and you blow up, start out too slow and you won’t have enough time to make up for it.

[00:15:02] Daren: For your turtle pace from the beginning. So you need to learn what the right pace is. And this workout will help, you know, if your selected pace or time is too fast or too slow, huge warning, you need to have a solid base of easy running six to eight weeks out before this with some interval and tempo speed work that you’ve done in a few weeks leading up to this.

[00:15:20] Daren: When should you do this anywhere from nine to 12 days before your main race? I’ve found to be adequate and your body gets the adaptations from this workout. Now that you have these 11 tips or steps, you could easily take those and run with it right now. You can go do whatever you want, but that is where most 5k guides will end at 1 percent better runner.

[00:15:42] Daren: We do the slow growth transition all the way through. We want to see you through. Here’s how you can actually implement these previous steps. 11 tip steps to transform yourself. For those that are listening, it’s best to see the video or check out the show notes for the link on how to actually do this.

[00:16:01] Daren: Additional tips, incorporate 50 meter strides on easy days to maintain leg speed. Sunset your strength training in the last two to three weeks from your race to avoid fatigue from the weight room. You don’t want to remove it all. So if you were lifting two days a week, you can go down to one week. If you’re lifting for 45 minutes with three sets per exercise, do two sets and maybe even drop the weight down a tiny bit.

[00:16:25] Daren: Ensure proper warm up and cool down for all the workouts. Crucial. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but your body will be so happy later. Listen to your body and adjust intensity as needed to avoid injury. In the last six weeks before your 5k race, focus on speed work and stamina. Do short, fast intervals on Tuesday.

[00:16:44] Daren: This is just, uh, a sample. Longer intervals on Thursday and a race paced 5k or 3k or 1 mile on Saturday. Keep long runs easy at 60 to 90 minutes on Sunday. Include strides on the easy days, even at the end of long runs. Drop strength training again to avoid fatigue just a little bit and listen to your body and stay injury free.

[00:17:06] Daren: Final thoughts. And those are our 12 tips to get your 5k times faster and possibly allow you a lifetime of chasing bigger highs and longer, more epic race adventures. What did I miss? What have you used from here? Let me know in the comments below or email me, talk at D late creates. com or hit me on Instagram in the DMS.

[00:17:26] Daren: Thanks for rocking with us. Train smart, race easy. If you want to learn more about this topic, we went into further detail. You should go and check that out right here.

6 Reasons Why Your 5K Time Isn’t Improving – And How to Change It