thats the concept of critical power. there is a very specific workrate that constitutes the precise upper limit of work that can be sustained through aerobic metabolism in a steady state. anything higher than that causes rapid and substantial fatigue, along with cessation of physical activity, and the rate of decline in performance increases as the difference between CP and workrate increases. you need to improve your critical power/vo2max proportion and then improve your vo2max. the person who wins a mid distance race is the person who has the highest CP, who can pace themselves specifically at that work rate, and then time their sprint to the line perfectly

It's not complicated. If you run hill sprints 2-3x/wk and do a few longer runs to keep your cardio up each week, your 5km time will improve. You want to get a leg day or two in each week BUT you want to get sprints in and it's really hard to do both unless you're already a well-conditioned athlete. What you can do is to phase from lifting to sprinting and back and forth every few weeks. You want to recruit fast-twitch muscle, increase power, and improve strength. If you have a hill you can help improve stride length too just by using it.

It takes less than you think. I know plenty of runners who suck at running. I mean, they have great cardio/VO2 max but crap speed and yet they race 5-10-20ks and none of them had a chance in hell of beating me in a 5k and most can't catch up in a 10k. Speed kills. Basketball, lifting and hill sprints is all I did in my mid-late 30s to kill runners in their 20s-50s. Literally not even close races, and I trained 0 hours to prep to run with them. I just trained to be a healthy athlete/basketball player.

Don't overcomplicate it. Do stuff strong people do to get stronger. Do stuff fast people do to get faster. Keep your cardio at the level of your competition if you race, but otherwise just crush it with what other people are not willing to try or do.

Think differently, train differently, and beat the sh*t out of PRs and the competition

This post was edited by RewtheBrave on Feb 1 2018 11:59am

That's why I suggested the track for interval days.

I live very close to a high school which has a track, so during the summer I would use the run to the track, along with a couple of laps as my warm up.

Then I would do this: 1 lap around the track at an easy pace, 1 all out sprint from the soccer goal post to the opposite goal post and I would repeat this 10 times

Then I would run a few more laps to cooldown and go home.

By your numbers, it doesn't seem like you're in poor running shape by any means but if you're really looking to push speed, time and distance then I think the best thing to do is mixing up your runs in terms of distance and goals and add in maximum effort interval days.

I would not consider myself an expert by any means, I'm a soccer player who tore his ACL and turned to running and its my favourite thing to do for exercise and in general. But I would say the effort of the intervals is more important than the exact distance and or time- all out sprint from one post to the other, straight into a lap around the track at an easy pace, rinse and repeat for 10-12 times and it doesn't matter what kind of shape you're in, you'll be gassed

If you're running 5 days a week I would do something like:
M- Interval
T- Moderate Distance
W- Interval
Th- Interval
F- Max Distance [if you're running 40 minutes for your moderate distance day for pace, make this one a 45-50 minute run and aim to increase it week over week, really focus on the back end of your run]

Then the next week you can even do 2 interval days instead of 3.

I like to keep it as simple as possible to be honest and I've never trained specifically for a race, I just like to run and see improvements

Basically this. i am not reading through everything. I briefly skimmed some posts... I will simplify it...

You will not get faster by 'running' -- you get faster by sprinting or 'running faster'

Running 5 miles a day is good for building a baseline and developing the endurance. You have to supplement that with sprint / hill / interval training for the speed.

solid feedback gents

read that article on the marathon runner and adopted some of his work (not 60-90 minute runs though) and have been doing 2 miles in about 13 minutes as a base and then running sprints after once my muscles are tired to help build them up

will keep this up for interval days for the next few weeks and then try a timed 5k again to see where i land

creatine. if you don't already supp with it you may wish to consider it. it helps endurance athletes but it will also help contractile tissue and gains.

haha nah, i'm never gonna put that crap into my body

i stick to mainly vegan and organic protein bars (freaking love RX bars) for my protein and then mainly each chicken and vegetables anyway so i'm not worried about supplementing. not trying to look like a manlet anytime soon (i'm only 5'10 lol)

lmao you have such a simple understanding of how the human body works

It's a personal choice. I'm good with creatine (some studies show it may help prevent senility), but there really are no existing true long-term studies on it. I tend to think it's probably safe, and if it's not safe, it's a step up from a lot of endocrine-crushing (or worse) supplements on the market.

If your approach is basically 100% food-based, consider a small carb snack before runs (energy boost, may top of glycogen stores for a little while), and possibly something like beets to help open up blood vessels, which may improve oxygen delivery. Tea of coffee can provide mental stimulation, get your heart going, and provide a bit of thermogenesis. You may already do some of this or understand why these things might be helpful but I mention them anyway in case they help

The biggest boost I usually take in before workouts of any kind is listening to motivational tracks. I do it for the mindset, and mindset is a big deal in sports performance

LOL, you eat vegan and organic protein bars but also chicken, and are afraid of creatine? jesus christ youre just one big walking meme