Discussion: 5k's

anybody run them in the summer?

yeha about 2-3 times a week

i think that i am going to be doing a 5 km test run every 2 weeks or so this summer to see my improvments in training...they will all be on the same course to keep things exact.

Yes I do. Plan to race Tim Good at some point. The DC area has so many races that you can find at least one local 5K each week.

I don't go overboard on them, but I think throwing in a road run every month or so over the summer helps keep you focused on your fitness. It's pretty easy to kid yourself about that in orienteering because so much depends on technique. A road race will certainly expose any weakness in the area of footspeed.

The danger is that you get so wrapped up in turning in good road times that you start neglecting terrain training. Running through the woods is fundamentally different from running on roads. Doing a lot of training in the terrain will not help your road times as much as training targeted specifically towards speed on hard surfaces.

If you can live with getting beat by people you might othewise be even with, the road races can have some motiviational value. If they distract you from training terrain speed, you might be better off skipping them.

just did one yesterday as a benchmark of my current fitness...I like to mix things up with different events....running a good 5K is an interesting challenge in itself...and as I get older I think running short and fast helps me maintain some speed....

Yes. Usually run as many races in the DCRRC summer series as I can make. 8 races and a few are 5k, some are 8k, and various distances 5-10k. This is my speed work. Woods here are hot, skicky, overgrown, and spidery in the summer so even if I did much terrain work, I would still cut back in the summer.
Apparently I have a match race against Pat Zerfas, hope my natural speed and ability can hold up against her vastly superior training.

Yep - aiming to run the Bushy Park Time Trial every Saturday morning. Any London-based APers want to join me?

I usually run some summer races (3k or 5k) on the track, for fun and as a fitness gauge, motivator and workout. Sometimes I don't push very hard (so as not to deplete myself and interrupt my training too much) and other times I try to run my best. Enabling my track habit is Club Northwest--one of the two local running clubs I belong to--which organizes a cheap, low-key series of all-comers track meets.