Not improving

[Traustitj]

Hi all,

I amazed myself as I finished my 5k training. I quickly jumped to around 7 km and this is just my wall. I finish with 7 minutes and 5-13 seconds. This seems to be my wall I need to break through.

I got my siblings into running and now they speed past me, what am I doing wrong here ? I have once been under 7 minutes per km, but my brother who is both taller and heavier than I am is under 6 minutes.

If this is just my genetic wall, I will just have to suffer through the speed issue, but it seems impossible to increase my run length also.

I hope this is just some imposter syndrome, but it was just so amazing to just speed through 5k training, first blizz was when I managed to run 3 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 5 k all the way. Now I am not getting this good feeling

[Bazza1234 Graduate10]

It is said that we can't increase distance and pace at the same time - I accept this. To be able to run 10K at a "fast for you" pace , you firstly need to have the endurance to run it slowly and easily and at the drop of a hat. For you sounds like maybe 8:00 mins+ per k. After you can easily do that ( and even further) , then you can start to train to do it at a certain goal pace maybe 7:00 mins per k ( this is stamina training, not endurance training)

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to Bazza1234]

Second thing to do is to stop comparing yourself with anybody else - your brother?? - I guess you don't compare your pace with Mo Farrah?? , so why do you compare with what your brother does??

[Traustitj in reply to Bazza1234]

I guess this is just having a younger brother for 41 years, one compares

[ancientrunner Graduate10]

Agree with Bazza's posts above. I don't think you can work on both at the same time and probably better to slow down and work on endurance/distance for a bit. Important not to let it become a big issue in your head - so just do your own thing. Good luck.

[IannodaTruffe Graduate10]

Are you running 7k on every run?

Most people use the 10% rule to increase one run per week while the others stay at shorter duration. You should be doing 70-80% of your running at an easy conversational pace, with only the remainder pushing for pace.

It is laid out in this post healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

[Traustitj in reply to IannodaTruffe]

I run 6.2 km - 6.5 km pretty much every run as there are quite steep hills on both ends. So just once a week to run faster, run at a slower pace rest of the runs. Got it. After the initial blizz of going through 5k with relative ease and surprising myself with every run, I just got hooked on the progress