Parkrun Thread



As someone who has lofty aspirations of getting somewhere near the 25 minute mark in a Parkrun, how do folk get sub 20 minutes? Seems superhuman. Not like I'm particularly fat or anything.
 
S.S.R.. said:
As someone who has lofty aspirations of getting somewhere near the 25 minute mark in a Parkrun, how do folk get sub 20 minutes? Seems superhuman. Not like I'm particularly fat or anything.
Click to expand...

Time and consistent effort pal, unless you have natural ability.

I’ve taken 2 and a half minutes off my Parkrun PB this year to take me to 23:29. A lad at my running club was almost identical to me pace wise this time last year and he’s on the verge of breaking 20 minutes now.

If you’d said to me a year ago I’d be where I am now I’d have laughed at you, once you get to a certain level of fitness it’s about how much you’re willing to suffer to make a time.
 
S.S.R.. said:
As someone who has lofty aspirations of getting somewhere near the 25 minute mark in a Parkrun, how do folk get sub 20 minutes? Seems superhuman. Not like I'm particularly fat or anything.
Click to expand...
Just put the miles in, I took off 4 and half mins of my PB within 7 months. I'm down in the mid 20's now, next aim is a sub 20 which i'm finding harder.
 
As said above there’s no rocket science with running. To get better you need to run more and include interval training in your regime. You’d be much better off running four times a week and doing two interval sessions and a longer run within that rather than just running the same distance/pace everyday.

There’s loads on the web about interval training. A local running club would help also.

An example, my training this week includes one day where I do 2 sets of 6x600m, one day with a 5 mile tempo run and one day where I’ll do 8 minutes then 8x1 minute. The rest of my running will be fairly steady.

Good luck
 
Last edited:
Was already doing intervals, albeit 30secs sprint, 30 secs rest x10 as part of my general get fit thing.

Found a plan so doing x8 one minute hard run followed by a minute walking, with easy jogging before and after.

Everywhere I've read echoes what you've all said about mixing it up, so will do a run (at easy pace) starting at 5k and increasing the distance maybe every other week.

Also, my pre parkrun 'warmup' was skipping breakfast and doing a few lunges about two minutes from the start. :lol: Also I'll not just run as fast as I can from the off and end up blowing up at the top of the first hill.
 
Last edited:
Hill sessions
Speed sessions (intervals / tempo / fartlek) (warm up thoroughly and take it easy to begin with)
Long runs slower than race pace to build up endurance and too much of the above and you'll get an injury
Look into warm up drills before your parkrun
Don't pressure yourself to PB every week
Join a running club
 
Only recently started on this myself, dragged my park run time down to 25:30 or so, which I'm fairly happy with for four months of (half-hearted) effort. What I've found hard is pacing myself for easy runs - I tend to go balls out and then fall over in a heap after covering far less distance than I wanted. Best solution I've found so far is to join up with a running group - the run together website has plenty who you could get in touch with, and a lot of them are free - so it's more a social thing. Managed to do about 7 miles on trails last night, very slow (11+ mins per mile) but far and away the longest distance I've ever run. Hopefully that can boost my stamina and help me get more out of intervals, and thus drive my speed up a bit.

Mind, my long term aim is more about distance than speed. If I can crack 25 for a 5k I'll be fairly happy with that. I want to be able to get a respectable 10k time together and then look at pushing towards half-marathon length, if I've got that in me.
 
pride of the north said:
Only recently started on this myself, dragged my park run time down to 25:30 or so, which I'm fairly happy with for four months of (half-hearted) effort. What I've found hard is pacing myself for easy runs - I tend to go balls out and then fall over in a heap after covering far less distance than I wanted. Best solution I've found so far is to join up with a running group - the run together website has plenty who you could get in touch with, and a lot of them are free - so it's more a social thing. Managed to do about 7 miles on trails last night, very slow (11+ mins per mile) but far and away the longest distance I've ever run. Hopefully that can boost my stamina and help me get more out of intervals, and thus drive my speed up a bit.

Mind, my long term aim is more about distance than speed. If I can crack 25 for a 5k I'll be fairly happy with that. I want to be able to get a respectable 10k time together and then look at pushing towards half-marathon length, if I've got that in me.
Click to expand...

You’re not too far from where I was fitness wise around 3 months ago and my level has improved drastically since then.

My longer runs are typically around the 10-10.30min mile pace, stride length is big for me when I set off for a slower run, the second I go to stretch my legs I pick the pace up and I find it very hard to slow down!
 

Back
Top