Thursday 21st August Speed Session

18 August 2025 - By Graham Eyre

This Thursday’s session is a 4 x 5 minute 5K pace workout with 2m 30s resting recovery between each block. Sounds pretty standard yea? The challenge though, if you are prepared to accept it is this:

For each 5 minute block, you run at a pace, which if maintained for 5K would give you a 30s quicker PB than your current 5K time. That’s 6 seconds per 1K quicker. Possibly a bit of a tall order for a full 5K but a very achievable pace increase for 5 minute intervals.

To help with this I have included a chart showing what your 1K pace would be based on your 5k times. and what speed and distance you would be expected to achieve at your ‘new’ 6 seconds quicker pace. The chart shows 5k times from 16 to 40 minutes. Round up or down depending on your own PB as I have only indicated full minute times.

There will be a 2m 30s recovery between each set and we suggest a walk back to the start point for each 5 minute block. That way your finish position after each block should be very similar.

This is a very structured session and will take discipline to execute but will help with building consistent pace and increased speed over shorter distances. You can of course aim for quicker than 6 seconds per 1K but you would have to work out your own distances to be covered for each 5 minute block.

If you want more flexibility and/or are returning from injury please pick your own pace somewhere between your 5 and 10k pace but still aim for consistency with the distance covered in each 5 minute block.

We will meet at 7:30pm at Witham Sauls Bridge Sports Ground (W3W: ///grub.frail.popped). (the field behind the park) and Sasha and I look forward to seeing lots of you there.

Please complete a warm up prior to the session, 1-2 miles or 10-15 minutes. Please also bring your water and apply the usual bug spray if you are sweet meat and prone to being bitten.

 

5k PB Time (min)	PB Pace	Target 5k Time (PB – 0:30)	Target Pace (30s quicker)	Distance in 5 minutes at Target Pace (m)	Distance (rounded to nearest 10 m)
16	3:12/km	15:30	3:06/km	1613	1610
17	3:24/km	16:30	3:18/km	1515	1520
18	3:36/km	17:30	3:30/km	1429	1430
19	3:48/km	18:30	3:42/km	1351	1350
20	4:00/km	19:30	3:54/km	1282	1280
21	4:12/km	20:30	4:06/km	1220	1220
22	4:24/km	21:30	4:18/km	1163	1160
23	4:36/km	22:30	4:30/km	1111	1110
24	4:48/km	23:30	4:42/km	1064	1060
25	5:00/km	24:30:00	4:54/km	1020	1020
26	5:12/km	25:30:00	5:06/km	980	980
27	5:24/km	26:30:00	5:18/km	943	940
28	5:36/km	27:30:00	5:30/km	909	910
29	5:48/km	28:30:00	5:42/km	877	880
30	6:00/km	29:30:00	5:54/km	847	850
31	6:12/km	30:30:00	6:06/km	820	820
32	6:24/km	31:30:00	6:18/km	794	790
33	6:36/km	32:30:00	6:30/km	769	770
34	6:48/km	33:30:00	6:42/km	746	750
35	7:00/km	34:30:00	6:54/km	725	720
36	7:12/km	35:30:00	7:06/km	704	700
37	7:24/km	36:30:00	7:18/km	685	680
38	7:36/km	37:30:00	7:30/km	667	670
39	7:48/km	38:30:00	7:42/km	649	650
40	8:00/km	39:30:00	7:54/km	633	630