A 20min 5k is still an achievement for me, even though I can do it, it still hurts (strangely I will often do a sub 20min 5k when I run a HM). My 5k PB is 19:20, but feel confident that I could run sub 19 now
Does anyone else feel that max effort short distances are much harder than Long Distance runs?
Definitely.
Sounds a lot like weāre in a similar place wrt running.
My 5k pb is 19:40 but I reckon I could go a bit quicker nowā¦ just havenāt got the motivation to go out and suffer for it at present.
Iām enjoying my longer runs againā¦ and my daily ākeep it ticking over runā is about 10 or 11k, which seems easier than a hard 5k anyday!
Tempo run day, 5k at 4:45 pace plus about 10 mins easy running before and after. Pretty good effort for me, and not a stretch either. 23:45 would be a PB for me outdoors.
Itās the other way round for me. I can usually hustle my way round to a sub 20 on a few weeksā consistent training and enjoy it. The longer runs for me a harder and tend to end up with me being injured.
You kids have it easy. For us older runners, the benchmark was always 6min/ml 
I wish!
True !
But that was a loooonnnngggg time ago !
I did say was
Now Iām pleasantly surprised when I see a number <7.
For someone in their 50ās, iām having to work really hard to convert to kmāsā¦ distance less of an issue, but I still struggle with pace, where I naturally think of mins/mileā¦ iām getting there though, and each attempt to switch over is a bit better!
haha true - but i do actually use 3.40ās (6ās on old money) as my next step on the āhow well am i doingā ladder.
Just doing mostly Z2 stuff at the minute, just slowly building up
80 mins on treadmill this morining
80-90 mins planned for the turbo tonight
Need to find something good to watch
Thereās a funny vet at our club and we were chatting about how he used to train back in the day and he said something like āI used to do about 80 miles a week, and the Thursday club temp sessions were 8 miles at 6min/mile. Mind you since I got my GPS watch all our routes seem to have got a mile longer than they used to beā
My Bloody Garmin 935 measures the 400m track as 415mā¦ The track is being used for an international athletics tournament this summer, so I hope it is measured right
Tracks and gps are a complete no-no. Use the watch as a stopwatch and ignore pace. GPS will continuously cut the curves, and it plays havoc with trying to evenly pace a track session whether thatās 200s, 400s, 800s or whatever.
Iām loving the long low Z2 runs, plodding along (@5:15/km) with an HR of 135, listening to music and mulling on life
In which case I was running faster than 3:40/km
I always pre convert my target pace into 400m time, and then go from there. itās easy enough to halve or quarter the time to get an idea of your pacing as you go around the track. I (try to) use the lap function at the end of each rep to record the actual, correct time which you can then convert to pace when you review it on the laptop or whatever.
Gets a bit trickier on the longer reps like 1200s or 1600s as you have to do a bit more maths unless you are really consistent at hitting the lap button every 400 (i always end up missing a few!)
Or just donāt run on a track and do your intervals like a real boy out on the road - with undulations and the shiz.
Keeping that 3:40/km up and down aināt so easy is it now, track boi!
OK, 19min 5k target not on the track. Iāll have to think about it
Do they parkrun in Switzerland?