Why exactly this guide to a sub 30 minute 5k? in the last few days I went through a lot of posts on social media and quite a lot of you out there are chasing this goal. That’s why I decided to give you my insights of achieving it.
If you want to run a sub 30 minute 5k you need to run 5 times 1 kilometer at 5.59 min/km or 9.34 min/mile. In order to achieve that goal you need a bit of fitness, some endurance and there’s nothing wrong if you can already run further than 5 kilometers. If not, we should get you there with this plan.
In order to run 5 kilometers in less than 30 minutes, your training plan needs a little structure. Down below you will find a basic training plan, that should work for you. It worked for quite some runners I coached to this goal over the last 6 months and I’m pretty sure it will also work for you.
Could be, that you are also interested in 10k running. If you are you just click on this link to get the
How to start your training
Before you start with the training you should do a 3k time trail to determine your starting point.
Warm up for 10 to 15 minutes, after that run for 3 kilometers. This should be a hard but controlled effort, the best you can do on the day. Don’t go out too fast, it should comfortable hard but at a pace you can sustain for the whole 3 kilometers. And after the time trail run 5 to 10 minutes easy to cool down.
The average pace of this time trail is your reference point for interval sessions. All you need to do is to adjust your pace accordingly.
As for the Sunday long run: in the first week of training you will find a long run of 40 to 50 minutes easy in the training plan. If your longest run up to this day was 30 minutes, start from there and take a few weeks to build up the time gradually.
I recorded and published an episode in The Happy Runner podcast with more information. Feel free to listen to it. You can find the episode on:
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Training plan
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
| week 1 | rest day | 25 min easy | 3x 1k at time trail pace | rest day | strength or cross training | 20 min easy | 40 – 45min easy |
| week 2 | rest day | 25 min easy | 6x 500m 5-10% faster than time trail pace | rest day | strength or cross training | 20 min easy | 45 – 50min easy |
| week 3 | rest day | 30 min easy | 8x 500m 10-20% faster than time trail pace | rest day | strength or cross training | 25 min easy | 50 – 60min easy |
| week 4 | rest day | 25 min easy | 3k time trail | rest day | strength or cross training | 20 min easy | 45 – 50min easy |
| week 5 | rest day | 30 min easy | 4x 1k at time trail pace | rest day | strength or cross training | 25 min easy | 15 min easy15 min goal pace15 min easy |
| week 6 | rest day | 30 min easy | 8x 500m 5-10% faster than time trail pace | rest day | strength or cross training | 25 min easy | 15 min easy15 min medium15 min goal pace 5 min easy |
| week 7 | rest day | 35 min easy | 4x 1k at goal pace | rest day | strength or cross training | 30 min easy | 45 – 50min easy |
| week 8 | rest day | 30 min easy | 4x 500m at goal pace | 20 min easy | rest day | 15 min easy | 5k race |
It’s not a tailor made training plan just for you. If you want such a training plan and the support from me along the way, feel free to reach out to me over the contact form
Depending on your start point it might take some time to reach your goal. Be patient, trust the training and you will get there.
