5 Must Do 5k Workouts for Speed and Endurance

Racing a fast 5k requires a careful blend of speed and endurance. Which 5k workouts are ideal? And which workouts best prepare you for the 5,000m distance?

In this video, Jason talks about fundamental workouts and more race-specific workouts to help you run the fastest 5k possible.

Jason Fitzgerald is a USATF running coach, 2:39 marathoner, and the founder of Strength Running (one of the web's most popular running blogs and coaching businesses). A member of the Greatist Expert Network, he's also the 2017 Men's Running Magazine's Influencer of the Year and a contributor to Competitor Magazine, Active, Runner's World, Lifehacker, and other major media.

[jamesongaertner]

My favorite workouts are 6x800, 5x1k, and 4x 1mi. Also just tried a 5k fartlek with my “on” pace being right about 5k goal pace.

[justinbrown]

By far one of the best 5k training videos on YouTube. Thank you!

[casf]

Our coach used to have us start the season with workouts that exceeded the race distance but not at goal pace. And we would go the other way and work down towards both race distance and pace. So if we were racing the 5k, start of the season would often be 16 x 400 m at just faster than tempo pace. Or maybe 6 x 1k. This was all based on a summer of volume building. Who knows if this was a good method or not but worked for us

[wag-on]

I've recently introduced the half-marathon as my long run (only once per month) really drains all that glycogen.
Trimmed down and for the first time in about 20 years within my green BMI range, weight can have a dramatic effect on running efficiency.
It is really reassuring on race day to have done the ground work - makes the 5K enjoyable - always a challenge when pushing hard.

[NTC_LuNcH]

When I was running 16 minute 5ks I always did it with a max of 30 miles per week, and my these 16 minute times came after training for a 2:05 half mile so do speed folks, take your easy days easy and do tempo work, even on the easy days add strides to keep that pop in your stride

[mpgrewal]

5K has become very popular these days. Thanks for these tips.

[maximkravchenko]

My favourite workout is 10*1k at 5k race pace with 5 min rest at easy pace. It works for 10k race as well.

[anupparmar]

Thanks Jason. Really well explained as always. Definitely one of my favourite running channels!

[Mike-csjr]

One tough workout rarely seen these days but a great lactate threshold workout is 3 x 2K. It's definitely more advanced than other workouts but it will really help your mental game. Running mile repeats is hard enough but knowing you have an extra lap to run can be mentally draining but after you are finished you feel like you did something worthwhile.

Add more when training for longer distance races.

[akaye]

This is the best video I’ve seen so far! Very helpful and well structured! You’re a great teacher! Thank you for your hard work!

[Skiskiski]

In the US Army, in JRMC Hohenfels, our two platoons, scouts and infantry, we would participate in twice a week long run. As long as we did not run together with the rest of the company or battalion, our NCO's would get us out of sight and practice either wind sprints or hill repeats with us.

[erickoenig]

Favorite (but tough) multi-race indicator workout --> Yasso 800s (8-12 x 800m) @ Roughly current 5km race pace (Goal Marathon time translated as an 800m split) w/ equal jog rest recovery between each interval. E.g., 10 x 800m @ 2:40 - 2:42 w/ 2:42 jog recovery between each interval. However, this type of workout should only be done once or twice in an 8 week training cycle since it requires generally more recovery time than an interval workout like 4-6 x 1km. Also, think about the total volume of intervals in the workout at about 8-10% of current weekly mileage (e.g., for 50 miles per week, do 4-5 miles of Interval pace work) per Daniels' Distance Running Formula. Another tough 5km workout is a gear-shifting ladder (2 miles @ Threshold pace (10km - ~ 12 mile race pace) w/ 2 minutes easy jog recovery after + 2-4 x 1km @ 5km goal race pace w/ 2:30 - 3:00 recovery between intervals, followed by 4-8 x 200m @ Repetition (mile race) pace w/ 200m jog rest between. Repetition work should only be about 5% of current weekly mileage in a single workout. Fast-finish workouts are great for boosting confidence and working on speed mechanics when your body is already fatigued to simulate the circumstances of a 5km race.

[snakey]

Its cross country season again! ( at least one is going to start)
These videos sure help young/new runners

[closmasmas]

I am saving this video, and will refer to this again when my XC season is set to start in January

[bjarkenielsen]

01:00 Tie your shoes
02:33 Look out for trafic
05:12 Be patient with pedestrians
07:46 Breathe deeply
09:03 Kick dogs and sprint for tempo

[lachlanmclane]

Great content very simple easy to digest.

[JohnBrown-qkyz]

I like the progressive run start slow and finish mad fast. Thank you for the time you put into your videos, I'm going to try these out.

[aribenjamin]

Thanks for the helpful video. My team often uses a pyramid fartlek workout. Something along the lines of 1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1. Those are the amount of minutes at threshold pace and the recovery is the time of the previous pickup. And you can fit that into any type of distance run depending on what shape you’re in and what your weekly mileage is looking like

[joseneto]

Thank you Jason, for sharing your expertise! 👏👏👏👏👏👏

[pandanitas]

Awesome set of tips & really like the sound of that final workout to really get a good gauge on things. Hope to be in a position to try it out one day in prep for a 5k