The 5K is one of the most beloved race distances and certainly the most popular in road races, trail races, track races, time trials, cross-country races, and parkruns alike.
It’s an impressive yet feasible milestone for new runners, and it offers experienced runners and distance runners coming from half-marathon and marathon training the chance to step down the distance and ramp up the speed.
Taking on a couch to 5K training plan and just finishing can be a great goal if it’s your first time, but if you’ve been running for some time, setting a 5K time goal is a good way to work on your speed and set a PR.
Many runners are appropriately challenged by running a 5K in 22 minutes. In this guide, we will cover how to do so and provide a sub-22-minute, six-week plan to get you to the finish line on race day.
What Is The Pace For A 5K In 22 Minutes?
To run 5K in 22 minutes, you must run 7:03 per mile or 4:24 per kilometer.
However, since most people looking to run 5K in 22 minutes want to break 22 minutes as a barrier (running 21:59 or faster), aim to run the race at a 7-minute per mile pace. This will give you a tiny buffer to come in under 22 minutes.
If you are running on a track, 5K in 22 minutes works out to 1:45 per 400 meters and 3:30 for 800 meters.
What Is The Running Speed For A 5K in 22 Minutes?
If you are training to run 5K in 22 minutes on the treadmill, your race-pace workouts will be run at a treadmill speed of 8.5 mph (13.7 km/hr).
How Do I Know If I’m Ready to Run 5K in 22 Minutes?
Running a 5K in 22 minutes is an appropriate goal if you’ve run a 5K in 24 minutes or faster. If you have yet to run fairly close to this time, you might want to start with running 5K in 25 minutes.
You should also be able to run one mile in 7 minutes, as this will be your race pace.
What Training Strategies Can Help Me Achieve A 22-Minute 5K Run?
Our 22-minute 5K training plan involves running 4-5 days per week and resting at least once. You should be able to run 3-4 miles comfortably without stopping and have about 5-10 hours per week to train.
To run a 5K in 22 minutes, you need to follow a well-rounded training program with interval workouts, hills, distance runs, cross-training, and strength training.
Long Runs
You’ll have a long run just about every week. It is your primary endurance-building workout, and it gets progressively longer to help your body improve your aerobic capacity, muscular endurance, and mental strength.
Long runs increase your mitochondrial density so that your muscles get more efficient at burning fat and producing energy aerobically. They strengthen your muscles, joints, bones, connective tissues, heart, and lungs.
Threshold Workouts
Threshold workouts, or tempo runs, are designed to improve your lactate threshold, or the point at which your body can no longer clear lactate from the muscles as quickly as it is being produced. Beyond this point, you will rapidly fatigue, and your legs feel heavy and tired.
Threshold intervals train your body to handle running faster before hitting anaerobic efforts.
The lactate threshold occurs around 83-88% of your VO2 max, so your threshold run pace would be the pace you are running at 83-88% of your VO2 max according to your lab results or roughly the pace you could hold at max effort for an hour of running.
For most runners, the threshold run pace is about 25-30 seconds per mile slower than the 5k race pace. Therefore, if you are training to run 5K in 22 minutes, your threshold workouts should be run around 7:20-7:30 per mile pace.
Hill Repeats
Hill repeats involve sprinting uphill, usually at near max effort. Hill sprints develop power, speed, and strength and can help increase your cadence or turnover.
When running hill sprints, drive with your glutes and hips, bring your knees up, keep your stride short and powerful, engage your core, and use a powerful arm swing. Because the focus is to build up speed, run each hill as fast as possible.
Speed Work
Speed workouts on the track will involve race pace intervals (1:45/400 meters for the goal of 5k in 22 minutes), and intervals run slightly faster than race pace. These workouts get your body used to running fast and build comfort and tolerance to race pace.
Easy Runs
Easy runs help develop your base without taxing your body like speed workouts do. Pace isn’t important here. You should run at a comfortable, conversational pace, at an effort of 5-6 on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is the max effort.
Strides
Strides are usually 50-200 meters and should be run at near-maximal speeds. Running at this pace trains your neuromuscular system to handle faster paces in a controlled and coordinated manner.
Cross-Training Workouts
Cross-training is a great way to get an aerobic workout while using different muscles and reducing the impact of your activity.
Low-impact exercises like cycling, pool running, swimming, elliptical, and rowing can supplement your running and help prevent overuse injuries.
Rest Days
Rest days give your legs and feet time off to recover and rebound from training.
Strength Training
As a running coach, I ensure my athletes fit in core work, mobility exercises, and strength training 2-3 times per week.
Total-body strength training helps prevent injuries by correcting strength imbalances and building functional stability so that your body can handle the miles of running.
How To Run A Sub 22 Minute 5K: Training Plan
This 6-week 5K training plan will help you break 22 minutes in the 5K. Add 2-3 days of strength training per week.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Rest or 30-45 minutes of cross-training | 30-minute easy run or 3-4 miles | 3 miles easy run | Rest day | Warm-up 2 miles 8-10 x 100 meter or 30-45 second hill sprints 1 mile cool down | 30-minute easy run or 3-4 miles | Long run 4 miles |
| Rest or 30-45 minutes of cross-training | Warm-up 1 mile 3 x 1 mile in 7 minutes with a 200-meter jog in between Cooldown 1 mile | 3-4 miles easy run | Rest day | Warm-up 1 mile 2 x 8 minutes at 7:10-7:20 pace with 90 seconds in between 4 x 30 seconds at sprint/mile pace with 30 seconds rest Cooldown 1 mile | Warm-up 1 mile 5 x 1,000 meters in 4:20 with a 200-meter jog in between Cooldown 1 mile | Long run 5 miles |
| Rest or 30-45 minutes of cross-training | 30-minute easy run or 3-4 miles 4 x 50-75m strides | 3-4 miles easy run | Rest day | Warm-up 1 mile 3 x 8 minutes at 7:05-7:15 pace with 90 seconds in between 4 x 30 seconds at sprint/mile pace with 30 seconds rest Cooldown 1 mile | 30-minute easy run or 3-4 miles 4 x 50-75m strides | Long run 6 miles |
| Rest or 30-45 minutes of cross-training | Warm-up 1 mile 1 x 2 miles in 13:50 – 14:00 200-meter jog 4 x 400 meters in 1:40-1:42 with 90 seconds recovery Cooldown 1 mile | 4-5 miles easy run | Rest day | Warm-up 2 miles 10-12 x 100 meter or 30-45 second hill sprints 1 mile cool down | 30-minute easy run or 3-4 miles 4 x 50-75m strides | Long run 7 miles |
| Rest or 30-45 minutes of cross-training | Warm-up 1 mile 1 x 1 mile in 6:50-7:00 200-meter jog 4 x 1,000 meters in 4:15-4:20 with 60 seconds recovery Cooldown 1 mile | 4-5 miles easy run | Rest day | Warm-up 1 mile 25 minutes at threshold pace (7:20-7:30 min/mile) 1 mile cool down | Warm-up 1 mile 6 x 800 meters in 3:30 with a 200-meter jog in between Cooldown 1 mile | Long run 5 miles |
| Rest or 30-45 minutes of cross-training | Warm-up 1 mile 6 x 800 meters in 3:30 with 200-meter jog in between Cooldown 1 mile | 4-mile easy run | Rest day | 15-20 minute easy jog + 4 strides | 5K Race | Shake out or active recovery walk |
Let us know how your race goes! Once you break 22 minutes, set your sights on breaking 21 minutes or even sub 20 minutes. You’ve got this!
If you want to increase your distance after mastering your 5K, it may be time to move on to some 10K work. Take a look at our 10K training plans to take the next step distance-wise:
Hi coach
I’m a slow runner who runs 5:40 per kilometre. How can I improve my pace. August 28 2022 I will be running a 90 kilometres marathon. I really enjoyed your daily information
Thank you as I look to get back into 5k running
5K in 22 minutes is pace 4:24, not 4:22.
22:5=4.4
0.4 from minute is 4·60/10=24 sec.
You are right! I wanted to build in a buffer to ensure people would break 22 minutes, but I corrected the article to reflect the exact splits. Thanks for pointing this out.
Is there a specific reason why the training plan mixes meters and miles? Or is it just me who finds it confusing to read…?
Hey Emma,
The meters is for the sprint / interval workouts, which most people measure in meters as they’re often done on a track. Even if done in a park or similar, it’s easier to measure meters than fractions of miles.
Thanks,
Thomas
Thanks coach. I’m 51 and I complete the 5K in 21:53 👍