How to Break 17 Minutes in the 5K

Do you want to break 17 minutes for 5k?
Marathon Handbook's Paul Freary has a lifetime mile PR of 3:56 and recently ran a 2:40 at the 2023 Berlin Marathon at the age of 55.
Here he shares some training tips for how break the 17:00 barrier in a 5K race.
00:05 - Introduction/Why set a goal in the 5K?
01:25 - Paul's Speed Tip #1
02:20 - Paul's Speed Tip #2
04:28 - Paul's Speed Tip #3
06:50 - Paul's Speed Tip #4
07:55 - Paul's Speed Tip #5
11:12 - Paul's Speed Tip #6
12:37 - Outro
Check out some of Marathon Handbook's other training videos:
How to Break 5 Minutes in the Mile:
• How to Break 5 Minutes...
How to Run a Sub-3 Hour Marathon
• How to Run a Sub-3 Hou...
The Top 8 Marathon Race Day Tips
• The Top 8 Marathon Rac...

[@arnabganguly4962]

Brilliant video. Any inputs for running it in under 20.

[@franciscotoro9454]

Interval training is the secret ingredient to improving times in 5000m and 10000m. Having speed is essential to run under 17 minutes. Endurance training allows for efficient cardiovascular function and endurance, but without speed honed by intervals and developed muscle memory through repetitions, reduced times cannot be achieved.

[@marathonhandbook]

Absolutely - the interval can be whatever distance you like, my ideas are not definitive, just ideas to help you, the same way as they helped my hit a 13:55 5km

[@natjohnstone1689]

Why are we using mile pacing for a metric distance event, best to at least include both surely

[@shenko73]

Thanks Paul. Very clear and useful, as always. Would you say you could use what you have described (with perhaps an exception to a slightly longer long run) similar training for an equivalent 10k goal?

[@marathonhandbook]

Yes absolutely - I try to make these videos more about the training principles and ideas rather than very specific sessions. (Same with the Mile and marathon videos) depending on the times / distances quoted simply make the appropriate adjustments. Thanks for watching.

[@andreasmaher8749]

Back in the day breaking 17 wasnt that big of a deal but 20 years on from my PR days breaking 21 in the 5k is my humble goal. LOL Still doing the speedwork just a lot slower. ;)

[@marathonhandbook]

This is very true, the older we get, the faster we were!! 😂

[@okayyy8423]

thanks paul.i want to ask something,how about threshold or tempo run? it's important or not?

[@marathonhandbook]

For sure, as I always say, this isn’t a definitive method, just a few ideas that you can incorporate into your training. If you are running daily (and I’d assume you are if close to 17min) then perhaps one ‘speed’ or interval session a week as well as one threshold/tempo session. Good luck.

[@okayyy8423]

@@marathonhandbook thanks