http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300,1-51-55-638,FF.html?site=RunnersWorld

Here's a training schedule from www.runnersworld.com that might help.

You certainly want to get new shoes.  Get them now and get them broke in
before the race.

Congratulations on deciding to do a 5K.  With your current times you should
do just fine.

Beverly

That's very approximate (-; You may do better on the race, but it's always
a good idea to try to start slow. It's easy to end up going faster than you
think, the race setting tends to make you run faster. So you'll need to use
a lot of restraint at the start.

That's not long at all, so don't do anything too radical.

Just keep doing what you've been doing. A big increase in volume is probably
counterproductive at this stage. If you had two months, doing one month at a
higher volume, followed by an easier month may help.

It's too late to start heavy interval work, but a little sharpening may help.
Your best bet would be to add some strides to the end of your runs. Do these as
follows: gradually accelerate, until you're running pretty quickly, and hold
the pace for 10 seconds or so.  You shouldn't be pushing hard, you want to
focus on a getting a good turnover rate, and they should feel light, fast, and
not too stressful.

Maybe the day before the race.

Yes, it would.

Cheers,

My thoughts would be that if you've only been running 1 or 2 times a week up
until now, you might want to increase your frequency slightly over the next
couple of weeks and then hold it there. If you've been running 3-5 times a
week (I assume that you run the same ~3 mile loop each time you run?) I'd
maintain that same volume. Most of your days should be "easy" days (9:30
min/mi or so, I'd think?--whatever pace you can maintain steadily without
getting out of breath, and not feel exhausted at the end/muscle sore the
next day). Ideally, you'd want one run a week that was a little longer (and
as slow as you need to go to finish comfortably) and one run a week that had
bursts of greater intensity interspersed with easy recovery periods.

Don't increase your volume by more than 10% a week, and don't increase it at
all in the last couple of weeks before the race (indeed, in the last week
before the race, taper off slightly). Finally, don't increase your volume in
the same week that you increase intensity (by adding some workouts
incorporating shorter stretches of faster running).

In other words, you don't really have a lot of time to improve for this
particular race, but if you are interested in continuing, those are thoughts
to keep in mind.

The general principal on building speed into your training is that you never
want to run as fast as you'll run a race, for the complete distance you'll
run the race.

Fresh comfy running shoes that are right for YOU will do more to save your
knees than just about anything else. And I know this is a concern of yours,
you bad, bad boy. No wonder you had knee problems when you ran before! 12
miles a week on crappy shoes was harder on my joints than 25 miles a week on
good shoes. "Good shoes" does not just mean "expensive," though. The wrong
expensive shoes will make you miserable. Go to a store that specializes in
running wear (not a mall store, not a big-box sporting goods store, but a
small running store.) Find one that offers gait analysis, and they will help
you sort through the zillions of models and find the ones that fit your
needs, and not just your feet.

The other things that will help keep you running happily for years and
reduce the chance of injury are to run most of your mileage in the "easy"
zone, don't increase mileage too quickly, and don't stupidly "run through"
any chronic pains.

Gotta run!

In alt.support.diet Ignoramus28400 <ignoramus28400@nospam.28400.invalid>
wrote:

First of all, nice times.  Sounds like you'll have a successful race.

Buying shoes that fit you well, regardless of price (though price can be
an indication of quality/durability), will make a difference.  If you go
to a running store (no Foot Locker or other mall store, usually), you can
have your stride/step analyzed and can have shoe recommendations based on
that.  Knowing your arch height and whether you pronate can help you find
the kind of shoe you need with respect to cushioning and stability.  This
will make things a lot easier on your feet, legs, knees, and back, which
can help you have much more comfortable, and therefore speedy, runs.  You
should also test them out before the race; what feels good walking around
inside, or on a treadmill, might feel different outside.  It took me a bit
of experimenting to find a pair of shoes I could run 12+ miles outside in
without having my toenails fall off or getting a backache.

Also, once you know the kind of shoe you need, you can sometimes find them
in discount stores like Marshalls/TJ Maxx/Ross so you won't always have to
pay big bucks for the good shoes.  Once I knew the styles of my favorite
brands (Saucony and Mizuno) to look for, I was able to find these $100
shoes for $10-$30 in the aforementioned stores.

Good luck,
Alison (a much slower runner)

I like this thread!

Wow. 25 minutes for a 5k.