Ok, so I did my first marathon last October. I’ve always been a strong runner, but I’ve mainly always stuck to 10K through half-marathon distances. However, since the marathon in October, I’ve lost a lot of my short distance speed. I have a sprint-distance triathlon in 2 days, and then a 5K a week from tomorrow. I’m really frustrated that I’m not as fast I was at this time last year. Has anyone else had this problem after marathons?
Yes. Marathons and 5k PRs are generally not compatable. Speed vs endurace is generally the sacrifice you need to make. People who have been running for many years at both distances can do well. It takes a special effort and honestly I don’t know someone who can do both. It is one or the other per training cycle.
Perhaps a coach can pop on and enlighten us. Is it possible to do both at the same time? I’ve always thought the answer was no and operated under those assumptions.
Think about the differences in training you were doing for those distances. How can you expect to run a fast 5k from marathon training? Specificity… training to run long is not the same as training to run fast
the Force is strong in this one
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October was a long time ago. What kind of training have you been doing since? You should be able to get back into 5 and 10k shape in 6 to 8 weeks after marathon training - well most of it anyway.
Yes, October has been awhile ago! That’s why I’m very frustrated. My boyfriend suggested that maybe I haven’t been running hard enough during my speed workouts. I do quite a bit of interval training, but I usually base my speed intervals on HR and not on the actual speed itself. But he said during the fast part I should do about a 6 minute mile.
As far as workouts go, I’ve been trying to keep my runs specific to short distance. However, I’ve had a strained soleus now for about 2 months which has really been limited the amount of running I can do, so maybe that’s also been a factor.
Well obviously with your short races are here now, so there isn’t much you can do in terms of getting some speed back.
For 5k training, you still run a lot and do long runs - heck even elite mile runners are doing 100 mile weeks or more.
As a general plan in the future, I would do 3 main workouts per week. First one is a longer hr based effort in the 83 to 93% (of max hr range (20-40 minutes). When I say in that range, I mean different weeks targeting say 83 to 85%, then another week target 84 to 87% and so on. This way you are working different zones of hard effort (not too hard though).
For the second workout, I’d suggest an interval type of session. Don’t bother with hr on this one, but instead do intervals as a percentage of current 5k pace. Some a little faster than 5k pace (shorter than 1k repeats), and some a little slower (10k type pace for 5-8 minutes). To get a good idea of your current 5k fitness, try 5-6 x 1,000m with 1:30 rest between (jogging really slow). If you can complete this workout not feeling TOO bad, then you 5k pace shouldn’t be too far off. If you couldn’t complete another set if asked, you may have to alter the pace slightly slower.
The third workout would be a long run - 75 to 100 minutes depending on the phase you are in - ie. build up, rest week, build up again.
This is just general info, but the magic is the zones you are hitting, length of work session, length of rest periods, proper paced easy runs the remainder of the week, and of course proper recovery.
“I usually base my speed intervals on HR and not on the actual speed itself.”
How do you do speed intervals with a HR monitor? To get faster at shorter races, you should be doing intervals of 3-5 minutes pretty much as hard as you can do them and keep the pace for all the intervals, a HR monitor isn’t going to be much help there. A watch and a track are what you need.
Also, the phrases “I do quite a bit of interval training” and “I’ve had a strained soleus now for about 2 months” don’t go well together.
the Force is strong in this one
over my cute little blonde head. explain?
I couldn’t agree with you more on this. Both statements.
I noticed that my first marathon wiped me out quite a bit more than subsequent ones. Also, the less mileage I do in marathon buildup, the more wiped out I am afterwards.
Once you are able to get back to the training you were doing last year, your speed will come back.
for me post any long stuff (tri or running or just post base season) it seems it always seems to take me one short race (sprint tri or 5k) to wake my speed back up and then subsequently I seem to get faster again as the season goes on so I usually try to plan something short early in the season that I don’t care about the finish…that said if you can do a fair amountof quality speedwork it should do the same thing, with me it is alwas the balance between enough speedwork and injury so it usually takes a race effort to fully wake up…
Sorry, I guess I didn’t really explain very well. I do my intervals either as time-based or distance based, but I use my HR as just kind of a guideline for when my speed is good. Like when my HR is in the 190’s, I figure I’m going fast enough. But maybe I should pretty much ignore that and just go as hard as I can for a certain time/distance.
As for the soleus thing, I keep re-injuring it because just when I think it’s back to normal, I go for a run and it’s painful all over again. Probably needs more rest time. Thanks for the advice.
a little off topic but i think relevent to the OP and mightanswer some questions,
her injury aside, shouldnt the increased milage for the marathon on its own make the shorter races faster? unless everything was run VERY slow, i would think that simply running more would help everything down to the mile?
Kara Goucher recently won the mile at the Millrose Games and will run Boston in a few weeks. Alberto Salazar is her coach I believe. He has always believed that his marathon performance suffered when did less work at the track. I know few of us are at that level, but everyones program should include some work at 5K and 10K pace.
no i totally agree with you, and think some speed/tempo work should be in there for anyone running over 20mpw, i was more thinking, even without that just the increase in milage alone for most of us would drop the times in a 5k. not the ideal way to go about it, but simply running more on its own should help right?
The best way to race a 5K is to train for a 5K, but there are gains in running efficiency/economy and even weight loss that are beneficial effects of increased mileage. After my marathon in a few weeks and after some rest, I plan to refocus on 5K/10K speed as it is critical for success at 1/2M/M and even long course triathlon. I can always slow down. That has never been a problem. (We agree newbz.)