Afternoon! 
My day has been filled with work, errands, and moving activities.
If you’re moving and want cheap boxes – hit up the liquor store!
We’re trying to spend as little as possible during the move. In fact, I’m anticipating that we’ll only be spending $150 $20 (just sold our bed frame and patio set!) because we’re selling off all of our furniture and renting a trailer, not a truck. And I haven’t bought a single box to date – I’ve been to the liquor store three times, though!
Want some other money-saving tips for moving? I actually just wrote a freelance article on the subject – check it out!
Lunch was eaten en route to the Honda dealership (my airbags are under recall… not cool). I had a Naturally Nutty Cherry Cinnamon Peanut Butter sammie with 1/2 a banana:
And when we got back, I made a Green Monster. I swear the GMs are the only thing getting me through the craziness. I can always rely on GMs for a dose or two of vegetables and fruit!
- 1 cup rice milk
- 1/2 a banana
- 2 cups raw spinach
- 15 frozen cherries
Alright… time for what you’ve been waiting for!
Speedy 5K/No More Trouble Zones Challenge Training Plan
Although my life is really hectic right now, I’ve missed having direction with my workouts. I’ve done 27 races and am accustomed to always training for something! I really miss the motivation an impending race gives me.
Since I don’t have a lot of time, I can’t train for any long-distance events. But that’s alright with me because you all helped me identify a new goal that is challenging, but more manageable time-wise. Not going to lie, though – reaching a sub-23:00 5K is going to KICK MY BOOTAY.
My 5K record is 23:42, which I achieved in December 2008 (AKA – a long time ago). I don’t know WHAT happened to me the day of that race, but I actually WON the entire female division (it was a small race, only about 80 people). It was the fastest I had ever ran 3.1 miles. I hate to downplay my own success but the course was flat and fast.
Can I shave 43 seconds off my personal record? We’ll see!
My training plan (which you can view HERE and on the left side of the blog under “training plan”) incorporates:
- One “speedwork day” that includes sprints of 400 meters (0.25 mile) or 800 meters (0.5 miles) over the course of 2.0 to 4.0 miles. I’m aiming to run the sprints at a pace of 7:45 to 8:00 miles.
- One “long run day” that varies from 5.0 to 7.5 miles.
- One “recovery run day” of 3.0 slow and easy miles.
- One “tempo run day” when I plan to do 5.0 miles with the 3.0 middle miles at a 8:45 pace.
- The other three days will be “active rest” or total rest, depending on my mood and schedule. Active rest includes walking, yoga, or a slow bike ride.
Some weeks are really busy with personal activities so I’m actually running on a rest day or resting on a run day. Gotta be flexible!
Additionally, I’ll be squeezing in 2 to 3 days of the No More Trouble Zones DVD by Jillian Michaels. It’s a great strength training DVD! Since this DVD is very, very hard for me, I might only do half (20 minutes) on some days. The DVD is not my priority so I’m just going to try to squeeze it in when I can… no pressure.
My training plan (which, I’ll admit right now is going to be VERY hard for me) incorporates not one… not two… but THREE AWESOME races! The first race is a 5K on August 7. It will be my first Charlotte race and my goal will be to get a sub-25:00. I figure this will give me a heads up onto whether I’m close to achieving my sub-23:00 goal. The second race will be a “for fun” 10K Trail Race on August 22. I love trail races! This will help keep me accountable for longer distances.
And last, but not least, will be the BIG race! The 23:00-goal 5k is on September 4. The coolest thing about this race? I can WALK to the start from my new apartment!
Can I shave 7 minutes off my current 5K time in 11 weeks? Um… I’m not entirely sure, but I sure as hell am going to try!
Race on!
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{ 79 comments… read them below or add one }
You can do it!!! I loooooove your attitude about training and racing and I think it’s so important to adjust your goals to what you have going on. You clearly have a lot, so I love the idea of doing hardcore training for shorter events. Good luck!
YEAH you can!! If you put your mind to it, you can do anything! You did a marathon, you did a 100mile bike ride – it’ll be a piece of cake
That’s an awesome plan! I love the idea of including other races in the build up to see how you are doing. Good for accountability too!
if anyone can accomplish it-you can! you are a rockstar girl
That is so exciting! I love having goals to work toward.
Of course you can do it!
i have faith in you!! you’re a beast, caitlin!
Good Luck. You’ve inspired me to start a little challenge for myself recently!
Good luck! I’m running my first 5 mile race in September and set up an 8 week training plan with Hal Higdon thanks to your recommendation last week. (But first I have to get another 5k under my belt on the 4th of July!)
I think I am going to be in Florida right as you are leaving!I would have loved to have been able to grab coffee with a blogger celebrity like you
but I know this weekend is going to be so crazy for you.
Good luck with the move!
aww boo! yes this weekend is going to be insane – we pack up on saturday and leave sunday morning. i hope you enjoy the sunshine state though!
I’m making my training plan for my first half-marathon (it will be this fall) this weekend and I’m totally gonna “borrow” some of your speedwork!!
If anyone can do it, it’s YOU Caitlin!
You can definitely do it!!!
I love that Kristien is working off a box in the background. You guys really are roughing it on the furniture, haha
I think that is an awesome goal! I have faith in you.
You are the most dedicated person I “know”. I’m sure you’ll do it
23 min .. damn, that’s fasT!
Caitlin,
Just wondering…….:-)
I am just beginnng a running program. I am horribly out of shape and it is very difficult for me. I have read your For Runners page (and love it) but I was wondering if you have anymore posts about how you became such a excellent runner. Was it hard for you? How long did it take beofre you could “comfortably” run a mile? How often did you run when you first started?
If you don’t have any posts for me to read, would you consider writing one?
Sure! That would be fun. I’ve kind of talked about it before but it’s pretty scattered all over the blog. I’ll write something tonight or tomorrow!
Wonderful!! Thank you!!
I’m excited to read it.
L.O.V.E. the moving tips. I’m getting ready to move soon, and I can always use some tips to improve (though I should be a pro by now…haha). Relocating is stressful enough without having to worry about the move itself going smoothly!
Good luck with your speed plan.
i think that your goal is a great one and you have a good shot! one thing might be to add a little variability to your speed workouts with some ladders (200-400-600-400-200) and mixes of intervals. one trick is to use the mcmillan calculator and enter goal race pace and distance to get estimates for goal speeds for intervals. gives you something to shoot for/work up to!
i miss having a training plan, too! i might do that 5K too (the sept one) unless i’m, uhh, pregnant. =D
I…many moons ago…raced sub-23 races, I clearly couldn’t do that now if my life depended on it, but my biggest help was practicing race pace. I would drop 2 or 3 minutes in the first few weeks of cross-country season just from doing races and no different training at all so I think it’s great you have some races in there! I think you can do it! you’re a champ
Good luck!
Awesome goal! And you have a great plan for accomplishing it!
That’s great that you’ll be able to keep spending down on your move. I usually spend thousands of dollars. Ugh.
This sounds like a fabulous plan! I am sure you are going to have a kick ass 5k, whether you beat your old time or not!
Here you are in the midst of moving craziness and you’re still able to focus on improving your running speed. Colour me impressed!
That is an amazing training plan, and right in the middle of a big move!! Good luck!
I will also be racing in the BluePoints 5k, although this will be my first race, so I’ll probably be the one in the BACK of the pack. Haha!
Welcome to Charlotte, by the way. It’s a great city
yay maybe we can do lunch afterwards!
Sure!
Good luck with your new races! How AWESOME that you can walk to that last one?! Thanks for sharing the link to your training plan! I function so much better with structure, and I bet making something like that will help me a lot!
GOOD LUCK, CAITLIN! Love reading your blog! I just ran my fastest 5K to date on Saturday (32:08) — and I didn’t plan on it!
Awesome!! Isn’t it so much fun to PR?
Totally! I can’t wait to do it again (hopefully).
You can do it girl! Maybe all the craziness will give you the extra [aggression] push in your running
yay for your new running plan! I think that it is entirely possible for you.
I hear you on the moving! We just got all packed out today, and our boxes were shipped as well! I’m glad you are doing everything you can to make it less stressful. I really think we waited until the last minute to do a lot of stuff, and it was too much!
I hope you PR!! The plan sounds good, but if I may offer some unsolicited advice, you might want to make your goal paces a bit faster if you intend to break 23! You can use the McMillan calculator to find out what your paces should be (just enter in your goal distance and pace). http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
Since a 23:00 5K is average pace of under 7:30 pace, you’ll want to do some of the speed workouts at an even faster pace than race pace, and a tempo pace that’s a little slower than race pace, but not over a minute slower.
Just my two cents worth–i SWEAR by that mcmillan calculator though. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of it!
I’m just so nervous that I won’t be able to run that fast under non-race conditions!!! Thoughts?
You DEF can do it!. I used McMillan for my most recent marathon (and PR-ed by 30+ minutes!) and I felt the same way at the beginning. As cheesy as it sounds, I feel like pumping yourself up and telling yourself you CAN do it helps a tonnn (is this the opposite of fat talk!?) Plus, you feel SO GOOD when you finish. Conversely, if you actually can’t do it, start w/ smaller intervals at the target paces and work your way up
The other thing that helped me a lot, which I know tons of people judge it, is running on the treadmill. There’s less panic involved, and you don’t have to worry about going out too fast or slowing down too much at the end, etc. Put it on a .5-1.0 incline to make up for the fact that its a little “easier” and its a GREAT way to ease into faster stuff.
I wouldnt reccommend it for like 100 meter repeats at like 4:00/mile pace or something b/c you’ll go flying off, but for 7-8 mintues per mile, the treadmill can really be an asset, especially the first few times you do a workout.
Just wanted to back up Megan’s excellent advice. I train for a lot of shorter races, and for the most part, my shorter intervals (200-800 meters) are at 5K pace or a bit faster. It’s scary, but once you get used to running at a little faster pace, your 5K pace will feel much more comfortable.
ok girls, i’m going to try to go as fast as possible (ahh, i’m scared). Can someone explain the mcmillian calculator to me? I’m confused.
The McMillan Calculator is awesome!! It’s useful for two main reasons. First, it tells you what certain race times “translate to” for other distances. I.e. If you can run a 1:39 half marathon, you should be able to run a 3:30 marathon (w/ the appropriate training, of course). These are just estimates, however. The MUCH cooler feature is that it tells you what your training paces should be for a given race pace. So click here: http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
Halfway down the page, you can select a race distance (in your case, select 5K) and then put in your goal time (minutes and seconds). It spits out a list of paces for events from the 100m to the marathon with times for each. Below that, it has the pace per mile you should shoot for on everything from sprint workouts to recovery jogs. When I trained for my last marathon, I kept everything in these target zones–recovery jogs sometimes felt a little slow and tempo runs sometimes felt a little fast, but it was AWESOME to know what paces you should be shooting for. (plus he gives you a range of paces, so it’s not like you have to hit 7:47 for each mile, its more like a range of 15 seconds to a minute.
Feel free to email me if this is confusing! Also–LOVE “Relentless forward motion”
thank you ladies!
I third this. You are going to need to push those 400s and 800s at or faster than race pace. It is not bad when the distance is short like that. Doing it in training will mean you can do it in a race. No fear! My mantra during quick hard repeats is “Relentless forward motion”. Maybe it will help you too!
That is seriously the most hardcore mantra ever. I love it.
You go to the site and plug in your goal 5K time. Then it gives you paces for speed workouts. So if you were doing 400 meter repeats, you would do them between 6:40 and 7:00 pace.
I LOVE THIS!!! I can’t wait for you to release the SPEED DEMON!!! muhauha. well more so than usual obviously. I have been working on my speed a lot over the past month and I love the change. It is such a fun way to ‘flip around’ running workouts. Distance is great and all, but it also has its drawbacks.
Your workout plan looks fab, I really admire your motivation and wish I had enough time to train to my hearts content. Good luck with your speedy 5k, I did it in 29.31 at the weekend and that was tough! It was a hilly course though. Also congrats for signing up to those races, they are great goals!
I totally believe that you can do this!!
And remember that giving it your absolute best shot is what matters the most.
What a great training plan, by the way!!
I know you’ll reach your goal (kinda just rhymed – awesome)
you’re a rock star! I cannot IMAGINE running 3.1 miles so quickly!
You may be doing this already, but are you planning to do a “before” and “after” photo documentation deal with NMTZ like you did with the Shred? It might be interesting to see if your muscles get biggah! haha
yup! but i’m going to take the pictures and measurements next week since i already packed my measuring tape LOL
” Can I shave 7 minutes off my current 5K time in 11 weeks? Um… I’m not entirely sure, but I sure as hell am going to try!”
I love your attitude, Caitlin
You do your best, and it is so inpsiring for those who know you.
I hope that the two four-legged beauties accept their new home by the way
You can totally do this!! It’s a challenge, but a reachable one, and you always know how to push yourself without overdoing it. You’re one of my biggest fitness inspirations, actually
Good luck with the rest of your packing!
um, heck yes you can! it’s a challenge, but just remember: mind over matter!
I just printed off your workout log! I’m going to try and break a 25 minute 5K first, then work towards YOUR goal
Go get ‘em!!
sounds like a great plan!! Good luck, and I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress!
(and good luck with all the moving craziness too!)
You can definitely knock off the minutes in weeks lady! I went from 23 to 18 within 2 years and that was only during the fall seasons. It definitely gets harder as you get speedier, but your plan seems great! Core work is so key!
You can do it! The best part about a challenge is finishing it
This is such a perfect idea for someone crunched for time! I really think you can reach this goal too because if you think about it, previously you weren’t really trying to get faster with your 5k but rather add to your distances…
YOU CAN DO IT!
Good luck! My fastest 5K was 22:45 (actually I had a 22:06 once but the course was .1 short) and it kicked my butt! I totally believe you can do it though, and if not … oh wells. I’m sure you’ll have fun in the process.
Yay you! Give it all you’ve got in the training, and then just enjoy the outcome –my new motto. Just ran the Ragnar Relay “Wasatch Back” and trained my heart out. I got an unexpected injury, but still completed it, and I’m proud of myself anyway. Goals are just for pushing yourself to a new level, and I definitely accomplished that. You will too!
You are such an inspiration! I have no doubt you’ll tear it up!
great goal, you can do it! in august it will be 100 degrees here so i wont run again until mid september at the earliest. good luck!
I think this is an awesome goal! And I just KNOW that you are going to run sub 23!
I am so lucky my mom had boxes from a book fair (she’s a librarian) when I had to move. Costco has free boxes too but they’re exclusive to members only. I use Trader Joes boxes a lot, too.
great goal-setting and plan getting together!
sounds like a great training plan. I bet the strenght training aspect will also make you stronger therfore faster too!
does buying your book from one particular store or another benefit you in any way?
Awesome! Can’t wait to hear about your progress and props to you for going for it – it’s a great goal
I am going to start working on my speed too and I actually just picked up the book “Run Less, Run Faster”. So far I really like what I am reading, you may want to pick it up or do some research on the method because it seems to work for people.
Looks like an amazing plan and I know youll rock it! Speedy Gonzales style!
You can definitely do it! And we’re all here to cheer you on along the way.
I’m excited to follow your progress! Operation Homefront is near and dear to my heart – not just because we’re a military family but also because my first 5k was also one done by Operation Homefront!
You can do it! And hey, even if you don’t, you are working your heart and reaping numerous other benefits from your training.
Of course you can!!!!
Good luck with your training plan! I really believe you can do anything as long as you believe you can do it. Your mind is your biggest obstacle.
And, a note about moving boxes. If anyone lives in a city with roach problems (like I do) you may want to skip the liquor and grocery stores and splurge on store-bought boxes. Flattened boxes in stores are perfect roach homes!!! Definitely got a bunch of huge ones when my roommate was moving years back–I’ve been a Container Store girl ever since (I re-use though!).
Yesssss of course you can! If you can’t, who can?! I think it’s smart to put NMTZ second to the speedy 5k – I hope you won’t be too sore
I’m excited to read about your progress! I’m thinking about making up a training plan for myself, involving the 30 Day Shred plus Couch-to-5k. Wish me luck! 
Wei-Wei
Wow! That’s quite a record! My 5K time is around 28 minutes. I hope to break that next year though by a lot!
Love the new plan – can’t wait to see it unfold!
Hey there! One of my friends reads your blog and sent a link my way because The Freedom 5k in Charlotte is actually my FIRST 5k! I started training today. Never been much of a runner – i’m more of a group fitness kinda gal, so i’m excited about the challenge. You will love Charlotte. I’ve been here for about 10 years – and if you can walk to Freedom park from your new place, you will LOVE the area! So great!
Anyway – best of luck with the new plan
-Dre
That’s awesome, Dre! We’ll be running it together – so much fun.
Good luck on your first 5k!
Hi Caitlin – really enjoy your blog and am commenting for the first time. Thanks for sharing the great moving tips! I am wondering – where do you find opportunities for your freelance articles?
Through professional connections I’ve formed by working in the blogging industry mostly.
thanks for reading!
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