Thr mental aspect sounds familiar. I struggled with even 400s because I’d start thinking about pace and crap. While in a 200 I just pretended a lion was chasing me.
Atlas, i with you. I could go out and run a 25 minute 5k most days (without vomiting) as long as I’m doing some form of training.
Beerisgoodforyou, I find swimming to be very effective. I’m a big believer in GPP. I can get a great high-intensity and joint-friendly workout in 15 minutes of sprint 50s. Plus I’m shirtless, so everyone wins.
Well, a 25:01 would be worse. So would a 25:02, a 25:03, and a 25:04. A 25:05 would be better because it shows the restraint to run 5:01 for each km. But 25:06-25:59 are all worse then 25:00.
I don’t know if 26:00 and higher are worse than 25:00 though. I haven’t gotten to that chapter of the trigonometry book yet. Please don’t spoil it for me.
I missed this thread when you first posted, but we appear to have fairly similar backgrounds and goals (read my log’s first post for more detail, I won’t clutter this thread further).
I second the idea that you should train for strength first, endurance second if the “endurance” piece of that puzzle is only a 5K (advice would be different if it were a marathon). Running a really great 5K requires a lot of mileage, but running a good-for-the-average-Joe 5K can be done with residual fitness from another pursuit and one or two weekly running sessions, if only to keep yourself used to the act of running.
My best 5K was 18:20 about five years ago, in a time when I was all-running, no-lifting. In the last three years I’ve been mostly-lifting, a-little-running (one or two days a week) and I’m fairly sure that I could still run in the low-20’s if I had a few weeks to prepare. So I think you should devote most of your energy to lifting but make sure to keep at least one weekly run, as you’ve already outlined in your training program. Swimming is fine for cross-training, too.
One other thing that caught my eye…
Alex Viada’s name comes up every so often in threads about training for both strength and endurance, and I always have the same response. Viada’s training content may be fine (I’ve never read in detail), but his running claims are drastically exaggerated, or at least they were the last time I looked into them. A lot of his supposed running PR’s are “I ran this on my trail with my GPS watch” rather than actually performed in competition; the handful of races actually documented online are very mediocre. So it always chaps me a little bit when Viada’s name is invoked as “if you want to do both, look at this guy who squats 700 and runs ultramarathons” - his running claims are basically fantasies.
Yes, the guy is very strong and he probably has better aerobic fitness than most lifters. He’s not nearly the freak that he’s made out to be in magazine interviews and websites that have glorified him as an elite lifter and elite runner.
How close are you to your PRs? If you’re 5 lbs away any day of the week on your lifts then you might not have to focus on those as much as if you’re 50 lbs away.
Same goes with the 5k time. If you asked me to run a 5k at 7 min mile pace and deadlift 500 lbs then I’d have to punish myself for a long time with running workouts but I’d only need to maintain and plan to peak for my deadlift.
Both would be PRs. Deadlift by 5 lbs but the 5K would be several minutes faster than something I did in high school.