Cadence!! This in my eyes is the key to you getting faster. I completely transformed my running when I started training with a metronome. I notice for your Strava 5K PB your cadence was at 170. If we can train this and get you up to 180, you could be running 60-90 seconds faster for a 5k.

So how to do we do this? Well if 170 is your current cadence at 5k pace we start training at a quicker cadence for any reps at 5k pace or shorter. So you might start at 172 for the 5k paced reps and 174 for the 3k reps. As the training plan progresses we slowly increase that until eventually 180 feels achievable.

Like with anything, practice makes perfect. At first you might find it irritating, but it’s such a powerful training tool I think we would mad not to introduce it, at least once a week.

This plan is very much focused on improving your 5k time. We’ve got two 5k Hastings Runners races, the 5 Miler, and 4 parkruns, all of which should be pacers day to help if you are chasing a specific time.

2 speed sessions a week going forward and two easy runs, one which is the weekend long run to ensure we continue to build your endurance as well. Speaking of which I have included the Pier to Pier on the race list. You mentioned you’d like to go over half marathon distance, at 16 miles, that would be the perfect opportunity to do that, and we have plenty of time to get there.

The S&C we just need to be consistent with and I’ve also introduced some stretches as I know you mentioned your flexibility was poor. So this was worth adding and going forward it’s definitely something we can add more of if you start to enjoy it and make it a habit.

But I really do feel the metronome is the key. It took me from a 23 minute 5k runner to a sub 20 5k runner. That was about 6 years ago and I still use it, and plan to use it more in my own training going forward. That’s how good it is.

The app you want is metrotimer on your phone, or your watch may also have a metronome as well you can use. Any questions just ask.