So the race number came today. I didn't know tapering was a thing for 5k. I'd heard of it for marathons and stuff but for 5k? Apparently so. I'm on the last week of an eight week training plan for the EMF 5k and it's less demanding than the first week! (Week 7 on the other hand ... but that's in the past.) My last run, before the race itself, should be on Wednesday.
'15 minutes very easy run'.
Wait - WHAT? Only 15 minutes and at a very easy pace? That's basically warm up and warm down with nothing in between. Why leave the house at all ....
So I looked back to where I was exactly a year ago. C25k week 3. I could only run for 9 minutes and that was with THREE walking breaks. Progressing to 16 minutes (with walking breaks) the next week was looking like a proper challenge.
And now I'm looking at a 15 minute continuous run and thinking it's too easy to lace my shoes for.
I think they call that progress. Note to self, stop moaning and be grateful.
Written by
ArthurJG
Graduate10
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Whoa, is that a 5k sprint you’ve entered Arthur? 😅😅 Hope you have a fantastic time - and please report back whether you do it in 15 minutes or not! 🏃🏃🏃🏃
Hey Arthur, tapering is about recovering from your training plan, avoiding injury the week before a race. The slower gentle runs are just to keep your legs moving. You dont have to taper for shorter distances but if you are after a PB on your 3miler then its advisable.
Enjoy the race. Which one are you doing btw? I love a good fast flat 5k race...
Yes I followed the tapering suggested by simplyhealth for the Bristol 10k. The last week consisted of a 30 min, 20 min and 10 min easy run. I didn’t make the 10 min run the day before but I considered the brisk walk to volunteer at parkrun was probably equivalent.
It seemed to work as I felt I had more fuel in the tank and achieved a PB (3 mins)
So go for it Arthur and enjoy the fact that you are finding the easy runs so blooming easy.
Yep I’ve been looking at the fitness and fatigue thing on Strava which is only a rough guide of course but the basic idea seems to be that fitness builds up slowly and is lost slowly whereas fatigue builds up quickly and is lost quickly. They explain it by presenting running performance as the difference between fitness and fatigue. The theory seems to be that by taking it easy for a week before the ‘goal event’ any reduction in fitness will be minimal but I’ll be much fresher, less tired, so should be able to run better.
Good luck with the race Arthur. You’ll smash it with your well rested legs! It is funny isn’t it? - I now think it’s not worth it if I do less than 5k, yet, as you say, just a year ago, it was all we could do to do a whole minute of very slow running 🏃♂️ 🏃♀️
Re the feeling that less than 5k is cheating, this training programme has largely cured me of that because the interval sessions and hill repeat sessions generally cover less than that but make a different kind of demand and I can tell they are making a difference. Turns out the best way to get better at running 5k isn’t necessarily just running 5k over and over again 😀 . I’ve really learned a lot over the eight weeks.
That’s a good point. I have started to mix things up a bit and did a JogRunSprint session, which was shorter and I’m taking advantage of being temporarily near a killer hill to start to learn how to run up (and down) them!
There have been hill repeats every week in this programme (except this last week). There is a very long hill in the EMF 5k but apparently that’s not the reason the hill repeats are recommended in the training programme - after all they are not long gradual climbs like in the race, but repeated short fast runs up the same hill and walking down to recover in between. Rather, it seems they have a positive effect on running firm and speed on the flat.
Good on you for entering and following the plan. Your post certainly illustrates the progress made, which is the fab part of the whole c25k thing. Have a lovely run.
I find it not so much complicated as surprising. A lot of the principles are dead simple once they’ve been explained. It’s just that they are sometimes counterintuitive. For example once I had it explained to me how 30 second uphill sprints could improve performance in a flat 5k it made perfect sense - it wasn’t complicated, exactly, but at the same time I’d never have guessed it myself.
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week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
