Coopah How To: Get a 5k PB
In this series of ‘HOW TO’ blogs, we are going to share our tips for the most common questions we get asked by our community of runners, and this blog is all about How To Get A 5k PB!
Here at Coopah we know that there is so much more to running than what your pace is, or how far you can run, how fast you are… but we do know that for a lot of you this is a huge motivation and one of the reasons you run! So in this blog we are going to share our Top 5 Tips on how anyone can get faster and get their 5k PB!
Follow a training plan
Now this may sound obvious, but we truly believe that one of the best ways to improve in running is by following a training plan & being consistent with your training - its one of the main reasons why we built this app! Our plans are designed to help anyone achieve their goal and every session is tailored to every individuals needs and ability. Our plans our flexible, varied and also have sessions that are really going to push you out of your comfort zone!
Be consistent
We mentioned this in the point above, but this is a really important one so we wanted to go into more detail for you. Now being consistent doesn’t mean that you have to run every single day - for 99.9% of us that is just not sustainable (and will probably lead to burn out and injury!) instead it means being consistent with your own training. If you know you can only commit to running 3 times a week, there is no point in trying to fit in more than that as you will just end up feeling disappointed in yourself and demotivated. Instead, focus on what you can do, and make those training days really count! And just remember, running for 3 times a week consistently over a 3 month period is going to get you better results than running 5 times one week, and then having to have a two week break!
Interval training
If you are thinking, what is interval training?! Then we would suggest clicking here and reading our blog all about it. But if you are familiar with it already, then you know about the benefits to adding this type of training to your running schedule.
Intervals are a great way to mix up your training, help to increase your fitness, endurance and it can also be really fun too!
Here is one of our Coopah Coach favourite sessions to help you get a 5k PB - The Birmingham (5 x 1k efforts)
The aim of this session is to run the 1km efforts at a pace around your 5k pace, but don’t panic you do get 3 minutes recovery in between each rep! This way it gives you a great idea of what your goal pace will feel like, you will have to work hard, but you also get the chance to recovery too. Also, always make sure you add at least a 10 minute easy run as your warm up & cool down.
Get used to being comfortably uncomfortable!
We will be completely honest with you, running a 5k PB is never going to be easy, and nor should it be! Just think, even when you watch Olympians racing you can tell they are having to dig deep and push through that uncomfortable feeling, and thats the same for every runner, no matter what pace you run at! If you can get used to that feeling of pushing through when it feels hard and you want to stop, we promise you, you are already one step closer to that 5k PB! Use your harder training runs as a way to practice this, and we also find that a banging music playlist can help too!
Trust the process
Like we said in the point above, running a 5k PB is hard, and that might mean that on some occasions, you fail to hit your goal. But instead of thinking of it as a failure, just think of it as being one step closer to getting your goal. Remember, you worked hard during your training block, you were consistent and you pushed through the uncomfortable feeling during your race - these are all things that you can learn from and build on for next time before you try again! Progress in running doesn’t happen overnight, and we are not going to PB at every race we ever do, but as long as we are willing to learn from it and perhaps change a few things up for next time, we can never really fail!
Here at Coopah, our aim is to support every runner on their journey, so if you are wanting to start yours today, then download our app to get started!
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