newbie 5k questions

[oliverboliverbutt]

I've been a dirty lurker here lately- you all have helped keep me motivated, I've learned a lot, and now I'm hoping maybe you guys can help me out :-)

I finished the zombies, run! C25k yesterday and I'm registered for a 5k on the 20th, but I'm kind of at a loss about what to do workout wise between now and then. My big plan was to be able to run it all and that seemed ambitious enough, but the 3.3 miles I ran yesterday were surprisingly not that hard and I know that I could have gone faster/further. Now I'm trying to figure out how to figure out what pace I ought to shoot for for the race and what workouts I do now that I don't have anyone in my ear telling me what to do. 

Any advice or resource ideas? I feel like I'd at least know where to look if I had a longer training period in front of me, but I've got about two weeks.  

[runaways]

I'm totally making this up. But. I would probably do a few 2 mile runs during the week and try for 3-4 miles on the weekends between now and then. If you're wanting to increase your pace, maybe try to speed up a little on one of the shorter runs during the week, or try some speed intervals.

Not sure if you are wanting advice for more long term, but it really depends on what your goals are. Keep running? Run further? Run faster?

[oliverboliverbutt]

I'm trying to get through this race for now- I figure I have about 8 runs, and I'm not sure if I just spend most of them running 5k trying to figure out what pace I can maintain or if there's a better way to do that or to spend my workout time.

I'll have to figure out my long term goals after this, but I can only handle one thing at a time :-)

[Deleted]

I'd probably aim for 4 runs per week of 2-3 miles. On the weekend, you could work up to 4 miles, if you really wanted but it's not a necessity so just do what feels good.

[runaways]

No, I definitely wouldn't run 5k every time. I'd definitely do shorter runs on the weekdays and maybe just do 3 or so each weekend, so that's twice. And take a day or two off before the race.

[gt7301b]

I'd just focus on maintaining your fitness and maybe and some distance on a weekend run. Two weeks isn't really a lot of training time, so I'd wait till after the race to work on really improving speed/distance.

[oliverboliverbutt]

Thanks, I can do the holding steady thing.

As for figuring out what is a reasonable speed for myself, just maybe try a little faster at the race than what I did last time and cross my fingers then figure it out better next time? Its rough because I've only run the distance- or even close- once at this point, so my ability to predict what I can maintain for how long is nil.