100% agree with that. A couple of summers ago we had a great group working together on our weekly interval sessions. Makes such a difference chasing someone down in front of you, or holding someone off that’s on your shoulder.
Good progress though. Those reps are significantly below 4s. I’d say you were well on your way there. Maybe try 5 x 1km @ 60sec rest and see how you fare.
exactly why I joined a club!
Nice to see real people in the flesh, too.
But mainly because reps/intervals/hard work just feels easier.
I think I need to work on the long run and consistent running as well, my legs still don’t feel like they’re in the groove yet. The best they ever were was when I did a midweek run to the office (22k) and a weekend long run with lunch runs on top. That volume really does make a difference compared to where I am right now.
For 5x1k - should I run them at bang on 4m/km, or try to get under?
Personally I’d run them just a tad under. That session isn’t designed to improve your speed, but ability to hold that page for longer periods of time. If you can get mega comfy running a single 4 min km, then work towards that being 2 etc etc.
The genuine coaches on here may have more insight than me though!
Maybe I could do this. After my swim today, I ran 8k, and in the middle did 2km hard 3:50 & 3:41, and that was mainly on a false flat into a headwind.
^^^ plus I wasn’t wearing ‘super shoes’ 
buy the shoes, don’t bother running the 5km. It’ll be implicit that you would’ve done it then.
I don’t even own the super shoes. Maybe I should buy some and not bother training for this nonsense.
I do have an 84km-old pair of 4% stored away, for whenever I actually do another running race.
I can’t even…
I’ve run around that lake many times in the Lydney Tri. It’s actually quite a small lake and quite rutted in places. Plus the odd swan or goose to avoid.
Yeah some of his other clips have the geese in the way. I really like how the FOD Runner and Welsh Runner support each other.
So, one of my 2021 goals was sub-19 for 5 km if my Achilles is okay. I did something like 19:38 a while back but picked up an Achilles injury getting carried away running over hills in Wales on our summer holiday. Yesterday I finally did about 1 km without any issue; currently mileage is therefore about 2 km/week !!! My body is past it’s best so I’m staying cautious. Any thoughts about when and how to balance increased distance and increased intensity (those little recent jogs have been 5-6 min/km). Anything else that might help; strength-only-type stuff like squats, stretching, new shoes…?
Oh - should say sub-20 seems like a good staging post and might be my limit anyway, hence picking up this thread.
From my experience of almost a decade of achilles issues - I’d nail that base mileage.
I did far too much speed work far too often. So after that base 80/20 is definitely something I’d recommend.
I also found lower leg weakness could cause the Achilles to flare, or the Achilles could get the calves to have issues - so was advised to do seated calf raises to really put load on lower legs.
Thanks. Do you mean like this - lifting heels with some weight on the legs? 
Why seated and not standing? I’d need to do a lot of reps, or have a big weight on my knees to feel it, I think, but maybe it’s meant to be very low key. I used to do shoulder exrecises when I was climbing a lot, to sort out the small stabilising muscles, and they always felt pretty low key.
Yes.
I can’t remember why seated… But when I questioned it I was told seated was far better.
Fortunately I had access to a smith machine… but he was all for building up. 1.5x body weight… I’ll try and find the details
This was at his clinic… I had lots wrong with me 
Blimey, 1.5x body weight is heavy. That sounds more like working on max strength then.
Yeah I think it was on the basis when you run how much load you are putting through the Achilles and everything else.
I proudly went from what 30kg in that video… Up to 100.
Then he turns around telling me to start again but single leg 