After a 12 week training program, I ran a 18:54 (sub 19) 5k for the first time in my life. Bonus: I weighed 186lbs, it was 80F+ degrees outside, and I had been multitasking by listening to nonfiction audiobooks for almost all of the training program. Now my resting heart rate is under 50!
If you want a 5k training program that makes you faster, your cardio significantly better, without wasting time, this is the program for you.
The thing I’m most proud of, I didn’t change my lifestyle for it, I worked it into my regular workout schedule.
At the start of 2025 I made a New Year’s Resolution to do 30 minutes of combined cardio + (nonfiction) audiobook per day. Health benefits, energy benefits, and more knowledge.
I didn’t need to run fast. One of the purposes of the combined 30 minute audiobook + cardio was to not care about speed, as I tend to have more willpower than physical ability… and I seem to injure myself.
By the start of summer, I decided I wanted to further improve my cardio for health reasons. Enter: The Speed Day.
Attached is the routine in a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LbSnZhED202-CJIyUAzuSnFcc8o0y5dkZyJydMCAbpE/edit?usp=sharing
To determine your times use this website: https://vdoto2.com/calculator
More details and tips below.
I cannot make claims this is the most pure Efficient 5k running plan, there is science missing here. This is no Pi= C/D perfection here. However the running coach who made this routine combined their college athlete level experience with my requirements of 30 minutes of cardio per day. The engineer in me says: If it meets spec, good enough.
To make this as Efficient as possible, I did the following:
Only 1 speed day per week meant only sacrificing ~15-20 minutes of audiobook time. Distance days were longer than the desired 30 minutes, but I still listened to audiobooks, and once you get into running, having 1 distance day per week is normal.
These are the important days. The rest of the week, you can casually mess around and not care about your times.
If possible, I’d wait until the weather was nice. This is the only workout that matters, so I would typically look for the best day between Tuesday and Thursday(and rarely Monday or Friday). The rest of the days get filled in with easy days.
If the weather was too hot and sunny, I’d do my 1 mile warmup to the shady part of my route. Even if you have to run under hot conditions, your workout is going to push your cardio. You are always winning on speed days, even if you can’t quite hit the time due to weather.
I hesitate to tell you the following because I didn’t know I was allowed to fail on speed days. There were 8 x 600m repeats that I would successfully do 5, then the last 3 were painful struggles that I would fail on. Not even the shame of failure could get me to move faster. I thought I had 0 chance of completing my goal. But… Apparently it didn’t matter. Pushing myself hard was the workout.
I broke tradition and would alternate fast and slightly less fast. While conventional wisdom says to have a consistent speed, I break tradition here. My reasoning is that doing the same form means lactic acid is going to build up for the entire workout. If you alternate between two forms, it gives your muscles a break. Admittedly these were both fast, but one was super fast, and the other was a recovery fast. Coach disagrees with me here.
A constant fight me and my running coach had was over food.
A 185lb person is going to use more energy than a 135lb runner. I insisted that I needed to lose 15lbs. Coach insisted I needed to fuel.
I relented and ate.
My compromise was after the 12 week plan, I’d cut 10-15lbs and retry when the weather was 20 degrees colder. To my shock, I still hit my goal.
As a fun fact, this whole thing has me inventing a new type of competition. Momentum race. Whoever has the highest weight * average speed wins. More details Here.
Easy days are super fun. There are basically no expectations. I was running at 9 or 10 minute mile pace (my 5k pace was under 6:06).
3-5 days a week, you will be running easy. This means you could take a day off cardio. I personally didn’t due to my 30min/day goal, and I think this helps with habits for psychological reasons.
I would listen to my audiobook and take voice to text notes while running.
At least 1+ easy day per week, I’d stationary bike. This is important to mention. You should be giving your body time to repair. Do not run 7 days a week.
A tip on these easy days: Feel good, get blood flowing to your legs. After a speed day, my legs would feel wrecked. There is something that feels good about running with different forms. While most of my easy days would be mindless, I’d occasionally feel good changing up my form:
These were typically easy, but I have a caveat.
After the middle of the routine, the coach gave me 2 different distance days to alternate. Easy and progressively difficult. Easy is just like the easy days above.
Progressive distance days started at 9 minute mile pace and would reduce down to 7:30 pace by the last mile. For 9 miles, this means reducing by 10 seconds per mile.
Less running and more rest. This means more stationary bike days(or whatever cardio). You can eliminate distance days if necessary.
At one point, I took 1 week off speed days to recover.
I nearly always run the day after a speed day or distance day. I’m a believer in getting blood flowing.
Hot tubs or hot showers with stretching may help as well.
Admittedly as the race day was approaching, my knees were not 100%. However I knew I had less than 10 days left, the last week was easy, and after the race, I could take it easy.
Other people like to sign up for races. I like picking the best day, time, and location for me. In this case, I waited until the sun went down and I was feeling good.
Of course eat good/carbs. Maybe some caffeine before the run.
Here is the big tip: Go for your goal.
If you had the goal, do it. Know your pace and keep to it. I accidentally ran faster on my first mile, and was happy to know I had a little bit of wiggle room. If I compromised on the run, I would have ran a slow first mile and had 0 chance of recovery.
The training plan you have been working on for 12 weeks and struggling was built for you to struggle. You are likely capable of hitting your goal. This was all built in.
Don’t compromise.
Do not go into the run thinking you will fail, or you definitely will.
Go into the run and grit out the pace for as long as you can.
You can do this.
Race day adrenaline is legit.
I had 2-3 shoes to cycle between. An old pair, a new pair, and speed shoes.
My speedy shoes force you on the front of your feet and would feel weird running on the back. This is your race day shoes. They were purple and sparkly, forcing me to run fast or be embarrassed haha.
My new shoes were typically worn most of the easy runs and most of the distance runs. Especially when going to social running events. They looked nice.
My old shoes were a nice change. You can imagine slightly different angles mean different muscle use and different muscle wear and tear. I’d wear these ~1 time per week if I remembered.
On sunny speed days days: white shirts. It reflects the sun. I specifically cut a tshirt from sleeve to waist to allow breathing. It looked silly, but it does reflect the heat, and it does allow breathing.
Nothing special on shorts or socks.
Tight underwear, to prevent chafing.
In the winter, before starting this routine I’d wear the following: Shirt, Hoodie, neck gater, sunglasses, one tight underwear, one loose underwear, sweatpants. I’d also run on trails when the road froze over.
Cheap Garmin.
Halfway through I got the Strava app.
This program can work for you too.
You will improve your cardio health. You will have some vanity numbers to show off to friends. You will be faster!