I took a few minutes to plan out my entire Faster 5K program. It's based solely on the Couch to 5K program. I started with much higher mileage than C25K did because at this point I have a pretty solid base and am running 3+ miles easily and regularly. For instance, week one jumped straight into at a total of 37.5 minutes per run. It works up to 40 minutes, and I let it stall out there because I don't see myself wanting to run for longer than 40 minutes on a regular basis and that's about all the time I have in the morning unless I start getting up even earlier. I just don't see that happening. Basically, it's a 6 week program. C25K is 9 weeks because you spend the last 3 building up to increased time and distance with each run. Since this is aimed at improving 5K times and not on increasing time and distance, I just left it at 6 weeks, at which point I hope to be running 10 minute miles regularly and finishing a 5K in 30ish minutes.
I've not done it, so I don't know how it is going to work out, but this is what I'm shooting for right now:
Week 1: 15 reps of: Run 10 minute pace for 1 minute, run 12 minute pace for 1:30
Week 2: 11 reps of: Run 10 minute pace for 1:30, run 12 minute pace for 2
Week 3: 4.5 reps of: Run 10 minute pace for 1:30, run 12 minute pace for 1:30 then run 10 minute pace for 3:00, run 12 minute pace for 3:00 (to keep this workout within 40 minutes this ends on the 5th rep of 1:30 runs)
Week 4: 3.25 reps of: Run 10 minute pace 3:00, run 12 minute pace 1:30, run 10 minute pace 5:00, run 12 minute pace 2:30. (to keep workout under 40 minutes, it ends on the 4th rep of 3:00 at 10:00/mile)
Week 5, Day 1: 5 reps of: Run 10 minute pace 5:00, run 12 minute pace 3:00
Week 5, Day 2: 3 reps of Run 10 minute pace 8:00, run 12 minute pace 5:00
Week 5, Day 3: Run 10 minute pace 40 minutes
Week 6, Day 1: 2 reps of: Run 10 minute pace 8:00, run 12 minute pace 3:00, Run 10 minute pace 5:00, run 12 minute pace 3:00
Week 6, Day 2: 3 reps of: Run 10 minute pace 10:00, run 12 minute pace 3:00
Week 6, Day 3: Run 10 minute pace 40 minutes
Theoretically, I believe I could replace the slow and fast run times with anything as long as they were reasonably close and ultimately improve my pace. Hopefully, if this works, I can use it again to get from 10 to 9. I'd be pretty excited to do a 5K in less than 30 minutes. From there, I don't know if I'll be looking to improve much more, but I am very competitive, especially with myself, so I'll just wait and see.
Are you thinking to do the Half with me in October? If so, you'd better be willing to start building mileage to 13.1 (Weekend Warrior style, since you don't want to get up any earlier on weekdays).
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