I finished my 1st 5K - question on improving time?

I can't believe it. I completed my first marathon  - a 5K this past Saturday.  I finished in 37:12 minutes which was my best time. I only started training and jogging about 4 weeks ago. I have been working really hard this past month to work up to this. There was a big hill close to the end that I was not prepared for and could only jog half way up it and then had to walk the rest of the way to the top of the hill and then I got back to jogging. Except for that, I was able to complete the whole thing without walking. Jogging the whole time. I just think about the fact that I could not even walk a mile in 30 minutes a little over a year ago without wanting to die and now I am jogging over 3 miles. What a long way to come.  I do have a question. I have found that I really do like jogging and would like to continue to do it. I would like to find out the best way to improve my time. Do you keep with the long distance and then just try to go a little faster each time or do you start with short distances and go fast and add on to that? I tried yesterday to run a 10 minute mile on the treadmill. I was able to do it in 10:40. It was torture but I did it. So, I do not know if I need to work on it one mile at a time and add a little distance each time or if I should continue to do 3 miles and just work on going faster each time during the 3 miles? Any suggestion on improving time? Thanks!

Misty, Great job on the 5k - congratulations!  My advice is don't try to do too much, too soon.  Give you body some time to adapt to the stress of running.  For increasing your speed you might want to try some intervals; for example run 2 minutes at a comfortable pace and then 30 seconds at a faster pace.  You can gradually increase the amount of time you spend at the faster pace.  You might want to try a workout like this during the week and then do a longer run, at a comfortable pace,  to build up your distance up on the weekends. 

Mary

Misty, This may sound stupid but to run faster, you have to run faster.  Getting a good distance base is important.  If I 5K is your goal, I would try to get in the 5-6 mile range just so that 5K is nothing to think about.  That will give you a good base.  As for speed work, get into it gradually.  About once a week do some speed training.  What I did this summer improved my time.  One week I would do 1/2 mile intervals at a pace slightly quicker than my 5K pace.  I tried to maintain a 3:45 pace for the half.  The next week I did mile intervals at 7:30 pace.  By the third one I was doing it at about 8:30 pace but those first two really helped improve my V02 max, which is how efficiently we supply oxygen to our blood.  You have to get your body used to taking the stresses of running faster.  It takes time to build up to some real quality speed work but seeing times drop makes it worth it.   The first speed workout I ever did was after I had a good distance base and was up to probably 10 miles.  I wanted to so 100m, 200, 400, 800, 1200, 800, 400, 200, 100.  I ended up doing less than half of it.  My body just was not ready for it.  I could do it now though. I run 4 times a week.  One day is a long run.  One day I will do a Tempo run which is a kind of fast run where you border on uncomfortable.  The other two days I do recovery runs where I run at a comfortable pace for a medium distance.  Once spring rolls around and the marathons are over, I will reintroduce some speed.  My goal for next year it to run a sub 23:30 5K.  Speed is the key.

Great question - I've been thinking the same thing!