GAPrunning

What's a 5K?

At a distance of only 5 kilometers (3.1 miles), a 5K is the shortest common road-running distance. It's my personal favorite race, because just as it starts to feel hard, it's over! Perfect for us sprinters.

All hills and intervals are at a 5k or 10k pace (preferrably 5k)

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	Off	3 miles	3 miles	3 miles	Off	2 miles	4 miles
2	Off	3 miles	Fartlek (4 miles)	2 miles	Off	2 miles	5 miles
3	Off	3 miles	Fartlek (4 miles)	3 miles	Off	3 miles	4 miles
4	Off	3 miles	4-5 hills	4 miles	Off	3 miles	6 miles
5	Off	4 miles	4x400s	3 miles	Off	3 miles	5 miles
6	Off	4 miles	3-4 long hills	3 miles	Off	4 miles	6 miles
7	Off	4 miles	4x800s	3 miles	Off	4 miles	5 miles
8	Off	4 miles	3-4 long hills	3 miles	Off	4 miles	6 miles
9	Off	4 miles	5x800s	4 miles	Off	4 miles	5 miles
10	Off	4 miles	5x400s	3 miles	Off	4 miles	6 miles
11	Off	4 miles	5x800s	3 miles	Off	3 miles	5 miles
12	Off	Fartlek (4 miles)	3 miles	Off	Off	2 miles	RACE

Schedules for more serious runners available here at Cool Running.

Fartlek

To run a fartlek means to intersperse sections of higher speed running into your normal training pace. The length of the speed run can vary, but you should run at a steady speed once you've accelerated, and make the recovery runs between speed bursts shorter than the bursts themselves.

Hills

No, we don't have any hills in South Florida, unfortunately. Substitute interval runs, stairs, or an inclined treadmill for those days. But if you DO have hills, short hills should be around 100 - 200 meters, with long hills around 400 meters.

5K Pace

Your average time in a 5K over the interval you're interested in. Remember, a 5k is 5000 meters. So if I run a 5K in 24:00, my 5k pace for an 800 is 24 / (5000 / 800), or 3 minutes, 50 seconds.

10K Pace

Your average pace for a 10K.

400

400 meters, or once around a track. 1 mile is about 1600 meters, or 4 laps around a track.