Want to know how to run a faster 5K time? Have you improved for a few months but then plateaued? How do you get a 5K PB when your legs are already going as fast as you can? The answers are simple and achieving your next 5K goal just depends on you knowing what to do in your training! Enjoy this guide on how to run a faster 5K and how to get faster.
- Understanding The 5K – It’s an endurance race with a bit of a sprint at the end
- How to train for a faster 5K
- How long does it take for the energy systems to adapt after training?
- Better running form will lead to running a faster 5K
- Recovery is important when training to run a faster 5K
- Consider a Running Coach
- A final word about Weight
Understanding The 5K – It’s an endurance race with a bit of a sprint at the end
Spend a few moments reading and understanding this section before moving on through the article, because it will greatly benefit the way you plan your training runs each week.
When we run, there are different energy systems we can draw on to keep the muscles moving. If you understand which types of energy systems are being used in your target race, in this case the 5K, then you can train the body accordingly to adapt to become better at producing and using energy. If you can produce and use energy more efficiently, you can end up running a faster 5K. Whilst you don’t need to know the details of how the energy systems work, it’s important to at least know HOW to train each type of energy system. Then you will understand WHY your training includes easy runs, and WHY your training includes faster runs like Tempo or Intervals. If you get the balance of these right, you’ll be training to run a faster 5K.
When we run 5000m (5K), it’s long enough, even for elites, that the majority of the energy needs in the race are met by what we call the aerobic energy system – fats and carbohydrates get broken down with Oxygen to release energy. This majority causes the 5K to classified as an “endurance race“. Training the aerobic system is simple: easy effort runs, be they short or long. A bit boring at first, but you grow to love them. If you want to know more about all the amazing things that change in your body when you do easy runs, read about Run Slow To Run Fast (opens in new tab).
Also in the 5K, there’s a smaller contribution from the anaerobic energy system (without Oxygen), using Lactate / Lactic Acid, to help you go faster when you can’t burn fat and carbs any quicker. Training the anaerobic system is slightly more complex, requiring a combination of harder specific effort runs to produce and use Lactate for energy quickly, and also easy effort runs to transport the waste products into the blood and back to the liver for recycling. If you don’t do enough easy effort runs, that burning feeling in the legs will come on more quickly because your body is great at producing and using Lactate but isn’t good at the transport and recycling bits.
There’s also a very tiny amount of anaerobic alactic energy system (without oxygen or Lactic Acid) contribution too throughout the run, but is used substantially more in your ten second sprint finish. This uses energy that is stored inside the muscle cells, almost ready to go, but it runs out really fast. You might be able to shave a few seconds off your time here, but that’s about it! Perhaps you’ll be able to stay just a fraction ahead of the other runner you’ve been shoulder to shoulder with the whole way round. To train this alactic energy system, you need to practice sprints, which kind of makes sense because that’s when it’s used the most.
The longer it takes you to finish a 5K race, the more your body uses the aerobic energy system and less of the anaerobic energy system, but whether you are running 5K in 15 minutes or 45 minutes, you’ll need to train both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems to run a faster 5K and get that PB. If you can work a bit on very short sprints, that’s an added bonus – it won’t have a big impact on your time, but will have other benefits to strength, coordination and running form.
How to train for a faster 5K
Running is supposed to be fun, and hopefully you are reading this because you love running and think it would be fun to do a faster 5K right? However, the training has to be fun too. What’s the most fun thing about running training: Not being injured. So any of the advice in this article has to be put into action with the respect it deserves. If you suddenly make lots of changes to what you are doing in your training, you increase your risk of injury, so here are the not-so-secret bits of wisdom you need, to figure out how to run a faster 5K:
- Patience – it takes time for your body to adapt and for energy systems to get better.
- Consistency beats rushing – if you try to do too much too soon, you’ll get injured.
- Build up Gradually – building without injury is one key to consistency.
- Discipline beats Mindset – getting out there regardless of changes in your mindset is another key to consistency.
- Recovery is the most important session – the final key to consistency is to take it easy when your legs or body feel they haven’t recovered enough. Don’t be a slave to your plan – change it whenever you want, even mid-run!
So promise yourself now that in your quest to run a faster 5K, you won’t push too hard too soon and will build up gradually!
Running Training can encompass a huge array of possible topics, including runs at lots of different efforts, hills, strength work, sprints, jumps, coordination work, running form work, recovery / sleep, nutrition. This can be overwhelming, especially for beginner runners and getting the right balance of all these can take years to master. Instead, let’s focus on the most important topics, which are: runs at aerobic effort, runs at anaerobic effort, running form and recovery.
A lot of newer runners looking to improve their 5K time make the mistake of thinking they need to do all their training runs faster to get faster at running 5K. As you’ve now learned, the most important energy system for being fast at 5K is actually trained by running at a slow, easy effort. So, look at your running plan – do you run too fast in most of your runs? If you aren’t sure, you can pop your recent 5K time into this Training Pace Calculator (opens in new tab) and it will estimate your current training paces for different types of runs, including the easy runs that most of your training should be comprised of.
Most of your minutes running each week should be at that easy effort. So for example, if you are running three times a week, then normally two of those runs should be easy effort. Even people running five times a week might find that they should only do one run a week at anything more than an easy effort! Although this all depends on the individual, considering age, how long they have been running, amount of sleep and many other factors.
Then you need to have a think about the other run (or runs) in the week, where you are allowed to go hard. I’m deliberately not using the word “fast” because one person’s fast is another person’s slow, but a “hard” effort is the same for everyone. The heart rate is elevated, breathing is faster and the ability to keep going as far is reduced. The body tries to adapt to hard stimulus until it gets used to work involved. This is one of the reasons there are so many different types of “hard” runs. You may have heard of them:
- Tempo / Threshold – sustained efforts around the level where the body can recycle Lactate, felt as not quite getting leg buuuurn!
- Fartlek – fun runs that boost into hard effort and drop back to low effort, then repeat.
- Progression – start easy and gradually build harder and harder effort throughout.
- Intervals – hard efforts of various duration with a stationary rest in between repetitions to get the heart rate back down and ensure running form is perfect in the next rep.
- Hills – might feel slow, but effort is high due to the gradient.
- VO2max – pretty much what it feels like in a 5K race.
- Long Run – your normal easy effort pace, but it becomes hard because you keep going for longer. Make it easier by slowing later in the run to keep the effort down
- Many more!
If you just stick to one type of hard run, pretty soon the body will adapt and the benefits will reduce, so keep the body on its toes by using a mixture of session types. Some are easier than others, with long intervals (800m+) being especially hard work, so Progression, Tempo and Fartlek might be the best places to start if you’ve never done sessions like these before. The important bit in any of them is to remember you aren’t training to push yourself to the limit – that’s what race day is for! You are training to nudge the body out of its comfort zone repeatedly and for as long as possible in a way that you can still recover from. If your legs feel tired for more than a couple of runs in a row, you probably went too hard in a session.
Note that you couldn’t do much running each week if you only did hard or moderate runs – it would be impossible to recover from quickly enough and would soon end in injury. This is another reason that most of your runs should be easy and aerobic: you can do more of this type of running without as much need for recovery, and for most newer runners, gradually doing more running is going to have the biggest impact, so this is a double-win!
If you want to include a few short sprints for speed development as part of your hard sessions, after warming up properly, then go for it. These might start as just a few fast steps, before gradually building up over a few weeks / months to 30 or 40 metre / 8 second sprints at not-quite max effort.
How long does it take for the energy systems to adapt after training?
Here we come back to the need for patience!
You’ll find your alactic sprints improve very quickly, probably noticing a difference weekly for a while.
It might take a couple of weeks for you to notice the difference from anaerobic Tempo and other hard efforts. So the good news is that, although hard efforts are hard, you’ll see small, quick gains regularly if you weren’t doing any before.
Easy and Long runs in the aerobic zone will take 4-6 weeks or even longer for you to notice the benefits to your faster 5K! For this you just have to trust the science and know that if you keep going consistently, week after week, that those easy efforts will pay off eventually. Imagine how much progress you’d make if you can run consistently without injury for another year – you’ll obviously get faster. You’ll get huge, slow gains from persisting with easy effort running. These are the runs that can take someone from a 40 minute 5K to a 15 minute 5K over a few years.
Better running form will lead to running a faster 5K.
Whilst looking at elite endurance athletes proves that, whilst there is no single running form that is better than others, there are aspects of running form that are fundamental to running faster with less effort. Additionally, having good running form early on makes it easier to move the limbs faster as you get fitter, because you don’t need to learn to run all over again. Many runners don’t ever learn to run, even though it’s a skill. Some get it right. Sadly, many get it wrong and learn bad habits from the start. Many runners run like they walk, kicking the leg out in front of them and waiting for it to land, in a shuffling motion. Many runners have poor posture. It’s easy to learn better running form and better running posture. That link opens in a new tab and has the details about the Run Like A Pro course which anyone can take to easily improve their running form. It has a money back guarantee of satisfaction. You’ll learn a lot, eliminate bad running habits and move towards looking like a relaxed, pro runner, and is part of figuring out how to run a faster 5K.
Recovery is important when training to run a faster 5K.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, recovery is super important. Constantly running on tired legs as you push harder and harder towards your goal of a 5K PB will result in injury. Please listen to your body. Here are some tips for speeding up your recovery:
- Sleep as much as you can – If you are a night owl, but have to wake early to get yourself or kids to school, walk the dog, get to work, then you’ll have to train yourself to go to bed a bit earlier as your training ramps up.
- Respect rest days – Don’t sneak in extra runs just because you are addicted to running.
- Be in control! Turn a hard session into an easier session or an easy run or even an extra rest day if your legs feel tired before you even get going.
- Include recovery weeks – for example every fourth week do less. Run less days. Run less minutes. Run less interval reps. Whatever you need to do to make the body ready to ramp up again the following few weeks.
- Include compete rest weeks – you can’t keep training forever. Both the body AND mind need a rest. I suggest every six months take a week or two off from all exercise. You’ll come back with fresh legs and gagging to get running again.
- Limit your alcohol intake. If you want to know more about this aspect you can read about alcohol and running here (opens in new tab)
Consider a Running Coach to get faster
If the advice in this article resonates with you, but you aren’t sure how to change what you are doing currently to get to where you want to end up, then the answer is always gradual change. Beyond that, a running coach will work with you as an individual, taking into account not just your running history and current running load, but also your current life stress and other factors to provide a bespoke plan that will get you there. At first the plan will seem only slightly different from your current running, since it’s the coach’s job to ensure gradual change, but after a few months of introducing new things, you’ll be excited about how much difference it’s making to your fitness and speed. For more information about Runningversity Running Coaching to help you run a faster 5K (or ultra!), press that link.
A final word about weight
To run a faster 5K, you need to be strong. You also need to consider weight. If you are overweight, losing a pound a week will make a big difference to your 5K time in a few short months – less body mass to keep cool makes for easier running. If you are underweight, gaining muscle and fat will make a difference – your cells will repair better after training if they have enough fat available and the muscle will keep you going longer and keep your running form in place as you get tired.
So weight is a delicate balance. A few runners end up losing weight till they simply can’t recover properly and get injured, either in muscles or bone. If you suspect you might be going in that direction, get help. If you think you are overweight, but all your friends ask if are too thin, this is a sign you may have a body self-image issue. And yes, it’s a real issue if you are training to be faster and one that might not be solved on your own or quickly. Seek help. Ask a friend or coach to check on you regularly. If you menstruate and your periods stop but you aren’t pregnant, check your nutrition immediately! Remember how much you love running? Imagine how rubbish you’ll feel if you can’t run for a while because you got a stress fracture and your 5K goals slip away from you.
How to Run a Faster 5K – summary of how to get faster
- Train using mostly easy runs.
- Do some hard runs.
- Learn better running form.
- Recover a lot.
