We see them every Saturday morning, wearing an assortment of gear ranging from all types of footwear to state-of-the-art technical running gear. These are the 5km parkrunners, a new breed of runner that has swept the world. But elite runners also use parkruns or 5km time trials to work on speed, gauge their progress and to sharpen up for races.
Parkrun was introduced into South Africa in 2011 by Comrades maestro Bruce Fordyce, and no single similar initiative has had such a positive impact on healthy lifestyles. Those doing a parkrun range from serious runners to families taking their pooch for a morning stroll.
For sedentary people, a 5km run is usually the first step towards bigger things and it is a great goal to aim for, as it is very achievable. While some road races include 5km fun runs, the success of the parkrun format is that they are held in quiet areas with minimal traffic, ensuring a relaxed outing for the whole family.
Parkruns also start quite late on Saturday mornings, making them more appealing for families juggling work and kids. An added benefit is that they are absolutely free of charge, and organised and manned by dedicated volunteers.
5km parkruns as speed work
But what does a 5km parkrun have to do with hardcore runners reading this? The answer is plenty! I use parkruns or 5km time trials as speed work for my runners, since a hard 5km is run at your VO2 max threshold pace, making it the ultimate speed endurance session. It is also great for using to gauge a runner’s progress, as well as for sharpening up before a race.
A hard 5km will also help improve running economy, so that you become more efficient, using less energy.
It helps to use the same route each time if you want to measure your improvement, as routes vary. This is where paths diverge, as many runners enjoy doing different parkruns each week, and that is also fine.
Gauge, predict, sharpen
Incorporate parkruns into your training in these three ways:
- Gauge your fitness and improvement by your times and how you feel.
- Predict your time over 10km, 21km, and 42km using the VDOT system (provided long distance training has been done, and factoring in the difficulty of the particular parkrun course and the planned race).
- Sharpen up a week (or two weeks) before an important race.
Unlike those who will never miss a parkrun, those I coach only do it about once every three to four weeks (once a month works well). But they will then race the 5km hard. It is important to first do a good warm up, as a 5km at race pace is at a high intensity.
For runners that use heart rate, a hard 5km will be mostly in zones 3 and 4, and perhaps reach zone 5 in the last 400m.
On a three or four-week cycle, many of my runners will do two quality sessions a week, normally on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But in the weeks that they do a parkrun, I drop one of the quality sessions during the week as the parkrun replaces one of the speed sessions.
These 5km quality sessions are used by all my runners training for races up to the marathon distance. An advantage in using 5km as speed sessions is that a runner recovers quickly from a 5km, so that it doesn’t impact the next week’s training.
Benefits of 5km parkruns
QUICK RECOVERY
Recovery from a 5km session is also very quick and runners can still do a long run the following day.
VDOT PREDICTION
Racing 5km enables a runner to use the VDOT system created by Jack Daniels, who is I consider to be the world’s foremost coach. This VDOT system not only allows a runner to predict her times over longer distances, but also provides the ideal training speeds for runners based on their 5km times.
LOW RISK
Some of the runners I coach have little experience of racing at such high intensities, where a small mistake can mean a bad run. A parkrun is the perfect opportunity to practice race tactics in a relaxed environment.
Instead of making a mistake on an important 10km or 21km race, rather hone your tactics on these, and your pacing and tactics will improve.
- Start too fast and end up walking? No problem.
- Start too slow and get stuck behind the walkers? No problem.
TACTICAL RACING
With experience comes racing savvy and better pacing. A 5km is run on a fine line as pacing has to be spot on, and a runner soon learns to listen to her body. A runner that has good 5km race tactics is sure to have great tactics over the longer, less intense distances.
If you want to improve fast, learn race tactics and have loads of fun at the same time, then try a parkrun
