Who doesn’t love a PB? The feeling of shaving off a few seconds from your set distance or route is a great feeling and gives you that gratification that all those miles put in are paying off. We also know how frustrating it can be trying to beat your time and not quite managing it. I will give you a few strategies and known training techniques that I have used in the past to get my 5km time down and gained a new PB.
- Use track sessions
A 5km PB is completely different to other distances such as a 10km or a half marathon. A 5km is all about speed and working at near your 100% to get you the best possible time. Not only do you have to have strong legs and cardiac output, but you will have to dig deep mentally and keep pushing to the end.
Using track sessions will improve speed, strength, anaerobic threshold, mental toughness and turnover in your legs. Running faster than your goal pace with shorter distances will help the speed feel easier over time.
Track session example: 8-12 x 600m at faster than your target 5km race pace
2. Run with someone faster than you
Running with a partner has many benefits. But for hitting a PB, using a partner who is faster than you can push you out of your comfort zone and help you hit paces you wouldn’t normally do on your own. Using them for your PB attempt is a great visual marker as they can set the pace you want to hit and you just have to keep up rather than focusing on your running watch.
3. Slow down!
I cant stress this enough and I have been saying it for years to friends. Slowing down on your easy/recovery runs. This helps you recover correctly and increases blood circulation to flush out waste product. Lots of people run to fast on their recover runs or don’t do them at all which is asking to increase risk of injury. Running to fast on your recovery runs means you sit in a grey area in your paces where you aren’t running fast enough to become stronger/faster, and you aren’t running slow enough to aid correct recovery.
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