When I signed up for the Carlsbad 5000 at the Tinker Bell Half expo I swore it was my first 5K. My first race ever was a 10K from there I jumped straight to half marathons and fell in love with lucky number 13 (point one).
But, it turns out I ran a 5K on Fourth of July two years ago! The thing is, it was a last minute run with a friend so I didn’t pre-register or train or really consider it anything but a time to hang out with Susan. 
I completely forgot until today! My brain doesn’t work sometimes, good thing I have the blog to remember stuff for me.
Well, let’s still call this my first 5K since that race wasn’t timed so I have no idea how I did!
I have 6 weeks until my first 5K. I don’t plan on this becoming a reoccurring distance so I want to have a good race and leave it at that.
After way too much time researching plans (I get off on this in a sick way) I decided to combine a few and mostly center it around the Hal Higdon 5k and Half Marathon training programs. I have a 10 miler and a few halfs coming up after this so I need to keep the distance on the higher side.
If we’re being honest I really haven’t stuck to a training program since my first half marathon, so the goal is to stay on track.
(I switch the days because I’m mostly a LR on Saturday girl.)
As I have no idea at all what pace I should be running for this short distance I used the McMillan Running Calculator to help. It said my 5K pace should be about 7:23. Apparently it thinks I’m part cheetah because there is no way my orange ass can go that fast. 
(image source)
I suspect I’m more slow twitch than fast twitch muscle, so I’m going to have to mess around with the paces to find my happy pace.
Get it? Happy Pace?
The race is April 1st, so we’ll see if the joke’s on me.
In food news, I ate a pita pizza for dinner after my favorite dinner question got too many of us talking about it. I love pizzzzzzaaa!
Now there’s watermelon on my computer and Ben just got home from work.
Shrek ya later.
I’ve run a handful of 5K’s and think they’re a blast! Although, I haven’t really ever trained for one becuase I haven’t run them competitively, rather I’ve run them with girlfriends and think it’s a great way to combine friend and fitness time 🙂
I love the Carlsbad 5000 and I’m so sad I’m not doing it this year. 🙁 It’s the day after my first full marathon. Oh well. I’ve done it the last two years. Good luck!
5km is pretty much my favourite race distance! I love 3km races as well but they are few and far between. I’m definitely more of a fast-twich girl (which doesn’t necessarily mean I’m fast!)
I run with a group that’s mainly half marathoners and marathoners, and I find that the training is actually really good for 5km – you still need a fair bit of endurance to run for 20 or more minutes!
I would suggest adding some strides to the end of a few of the easy runs to get accustomed to the fast leg turnover, without interfering too much with the rest of your schedule. Otherwise that plan looks fairly good!
5K’s are fun, I really have never “trained” for one though. I just signed up for my first half marathon in June – now that I will need to train for! Is there an intermediate training schedule like the advanced one you posted? I’ve seen soooo many different training schedules for the half.
I’m training for my first 5k right now! I’m using it as an excuse to get into some shape other than round. I love reading your blog everyday! Someday i will be able to run a half marathon, but for now i’m gonna stick to 3.1 miles, lol!
5ks are super fun. so fast, and a lot of them give you a beer at the end! BONUS!
5K’s are fun! They are stress free and just a good time. You don’t waste the rest of the day acting like a zombie! have fun with it!
YAY FOR YOUR FIRST 5k! I think as long as you throw in some speedwork you’ll do great (assuming you want to go speedily!). I’m also a low-twitch kind of girl, my half marathon time predicts a 5k a good 2 minutes faster than my PR (that’s a lot in a 5k!). My legs just don’t want to turn over very fast!
I signed up for this yesterday actually. I didn’t get a chance to get back to the Tink expo in time to register for it after I saw your post about the discount/shirt they were offering. But lo and behold yesterday I got an e-mail with a $5 off code and the free shirt deal.
I jumped on it… and then I remembered I am climbing 1,300 stairs the day before. Oy!
I usually don’t do 5ks that I have to travel that far too (because I am really lazy about getting up so early on the weekend), but since my division doesn’t take off until 11:30 – oh yeah I’m in.
I love your blog so much. It inspires me in a BIG way. I haven’t run in many years. My last 10K was a decade ago. I look forward to my first 5k in March of this year.
I use your blog as my guide/tips for running!!
I never knew that people disliked 5ks so much! I’m not a very good long distance runner, so I actually like 5ks and working on improving my times. But I have started to add in 10ks!
I always think 5ks blow because I’m a slow(ish) and steady kind of girl. I’ve only done two — and one I raced dressed up with some friends (so not a race) and I really didn’t like the distance!
I get hurt a lot when I train for halfs, so I guess my happy distance is 10k! Fast but not too fast, long but not too long. 🙂
5Ks are absolute torture if you run them to do your best. They hurt and you want to puke…but at least they’re over quickly.
I bet the calculator isn’t too far off for you – you’re speedy!
5ks are fun, I can’t wait to hear how you do
Yeah, I love 5Ks!
But I would not pay $60 for a 21-22 minute (for me) race that’s just insane. Luckily here you pay 10 Euros or less for a small 5K race.
(And these races are pretty awesome.)
Holy crap!! Is that 5k really $60?!? That’s expensive!!! I do hope that was a banner for something else!
No, the 5k is at $40 right now and their are $5 off codes floating around too.
The $60 must either be for the all day 25k they do or its an advertisement for something else that snuck in that screen shot.
I was going to write the EXACT same thing! I’d never pay more than $40 for a 5K. It’s just such a short distance and you’d be paying for 1, maybe 2 aid stations… The 5K the day before the Boston Marathon is $45 and my friends and I all think it’s a little excessive.
Not so fun fact: 5ks suck. I mean, 5ks are awesome, you’ll totally fall in love and never want to stop running short distances that murder you in under 30 minutes.