“I wonder if I could run a 15 minute 5k?” was the thought that popped into my mind. I was 30kms deep into a long mountain run and entertaining delusions of grandeur. The initial thought train involved me wondering how fit I could get if I took a year off work and dedicated myself to running full time. This made me consider what I would be capable of with optimal training. Then the idea of running a 15 minute 5k came to mind. Ever since that day I have not been able to shake the desire to chase this goal. I have mentioned it to a few people and now I am putting it in writing on the internet. In this post I’ll elaborate on the goal, the journey so far and how I plan to achieve this painful aspiration.

🎯 The Goal

See how fast I can run with specific dedicated training. Focus on training for a 5k race with the long term goal of running a 15 minute 5k.

❓ Why?

• Curiosity: I am interested in finding the upper limits of my potential. I would like to see if I can find my physiological ceiling.
• A challenge: I know this will be difficult if not impossible, I like to set hard goals
• The journey: I love training and working towards long term goals
• It scares and excites me: This goal frightens me and the best goals are big, scary and exciting

📈 My 5km Progression

My recreational running career began in late 2017. It wasn’t a structured start – no plan, no consistency. I’d just try to squeeze in a run or two a week. At that stage of my life every run felt hard and I was always completely puffed out. I didn’t really know what I was doing.

Things changed in early 2019. After a 7-day hike in the Southern Ranges, I’d shed some weight and felt fitter. Capitalising on this newfound fitness and motivation, I started running more consistently. My first race was the Tolosa Half in mid-2019, and later that year, I did my first ever Parkrun. This was my first official 5k attempt, excluding solo laps around an oval.

At my first Parkrun I didn’t realise how well I had done because I was 8 minutes late and finished amongst a swath of people. But I went again the following week and was surprised to come third with a time of 19:22. This was a revelation. I hadn’t considered myself fast, yet I achieved a time many Parkrunners strive for.

Fueled by newfound enthusiasm, I ambitiously signed up for the UTA 50 in early 2020. Although the pandemic forced its cancellation, the lockdown period presented an unexpected training opportunity. I downloaded a Hanny Alston training plan specifically for the UTA 50. I followed the plan religiously and was blown away by the results of consistent training.

The plan incorporated regular 5k time trials to track progress. My first attempt yielded an impressive 18:25, but it came with significant pain, making me dread the next one. A month later, I reluctantly did another, promising myself an easier effort. Without a watch (sent for repairs), I ran by feel, using my phone to track the activity. Stopping Strava on my phone revealed a shocking 17:31. This highlighted how much could be achieved with a month of solid training.

For a few years my focus shifted and I went down the ultra running rabbit hole. I would still occasionally do a parkrun but didn’t make any great improvements on my time. However, last year’s high-volume training for a 100-miler paid off with a PB at a Cairns Parkrun. Then last weekend I went to Montrose Parkrun and ran a time of 16:48. I’ve graphed the progression of my 5k PB over time below. I still have a long way to go to get to 15, but progress is being made!!

Plan of Attack

At this stage I don't really have a plan on how I am going to achieve this ambitious goal. But I am thinking about it a lot and trying to devise a strategy. I have many ideas percolating and am doing a lot of research. In lieu of a formal plan I am going to present what I am thinking so far. This will develop into a blog post of it's own once I have a better idea of my way forward.

📖 Read Fast 5k

🥅 Set Realistic Interim Goals

Key 1 in Fast 5k is to set a reasonable goal. I have already broken the first rule. Instead of heading out trying to smash a 15 minute 5k I am going to aim to whittle down my 5k time over a period of months. I ran 16:48 last weekend. My interim goal is to get my time down to 16:30.

Once I achieve the interim goal I will reassess and set another goal time. The progression of interim goals will depend on how rapidly I am able to improve. I suspect that shaving off time at the pointy end is going to increase the difficulty on an exponential scale.

👟 Specific Training

I attend a speedwork session every Tuesday afternoon at the Domain in Hobart. I have been going along for a few years now on and off. Speed intervals and uphill intervals are my focus at the moment. After a few weeks I am going to do a block of tempo runs. I am not sure if block periodisation is best for improving 5k times but I know that this focus is going to help more than my typical endurance run focus when training for ultras.

The plan is to include more of the following workouts. I just need to work out how to best program them.

• Goal pace repetitions
• VO2 max workouts
• Tempo runs

👮‍♂️Get a Coach

As I mentioned above, I know many of the workouts I should be doing but I have no idea how to program them and what is a suitable progression to prevent injury or burnout. There are a lot of high intensity, high impact workouts that need to be done and the risk of injury is high if done incorrectly.

I've been seriously considering getting a coach to help me with this goal. I have had a coach in the past and I find that the accountability is incredibly valuable. Additionally it takes away the decision fatigue of working out what workouts to do and when. It's easy to bail out on a hard workout if I am the one that prescribed it to myself and I am more likely to to take it easy on myself and not include hard workouts when I should.

I recently discovered Pulse Running coaching. They offer coaching for $145 per month which is a fairly reasonable price and their coaches are all elite or former elite runner that all have well under 15 minute 5k times. It sounds like a good offering and I am seriously contemplating it. If I get properly serious about this goal I think that getting a coach will give me the best chance of getting it done.

🏁 Enter a Race

I have to admit that I have never done a proper 5k race, I've only ever done Parkrun. An obvious first step would be to enter and run a 5k. I strongly believe that races bring out the best performances. So I am currently looking for a 5k to enter, possibly the Launceston Running Festival 5k in June. This could be a good opportunity to tick off an interim time goal. And it will be nice to have fellow runners around me to pace, race and slip stream to the finish.

Summing Up

I have now publicly stated my ridiculous goal. So I am accountable to the three people that read this blog. I know that failure is likely and I am ok with that, I just want to see if I can get there because it is super interesting testing the abilities of this body I am residing within.

This is only the beginning of the journey. I will be working on a more refined plan of attack in the coming weeks. Once I have something more robust I will do a follow up post. I am hoping to do a series of blog posts documenting the journey towards the goal. I hope you enjoyed reading and are interesting in following the progress.

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