There’s no shortage of complicated ways to run faster over 5k. Threshold sessions, floating reps, pace bands, heart rate caps – all worth looking into, but it’s all too easy to overcomplicate things when what you might really need is a clear, repeatable way to run quicker.
Top running coach Lee Grantham suggests a much simpler approach, and one that sounds very similar to how we progress in the gym. The premise is straightforward: pick a pace slightly faster than your current 5k speed, learn to hold it across repeated 1k efforts, then gradually build the amount of work you can do there before nudging the pace up again.
This works in exactly the same fashion as ensuring we can hit, say, 5 sets of 5 at a given weight of bench press, before putting more weight on the bar. And we know that works.
As Grantham puts it in a recent YouTube video, ‘The whole point of this session is to get you used to running faster than your current 5k pace.’
What Is the 5/6/7 Method?
The core of Grantham’s approach is a session of 1k repeats, using short, fixed rest times.
He uses the example of a runner chasing a 25-minute 5k, which works out at 5:00 per kilometre. For our imaginary runner he recommends running reps around 10% quicker – in this case, about 4:30/km. Then breaking down the workout as follows:
What to read next
- Run 1k at that target pace
- Rest 60 seconds
- Repeat for 5 total reps
That’s your session for week one.
10% quicker may not seem like much, but the goal here isn’t to bury yourself. It’s to hit the pace concretely, recover briefly, and do it again. If you can’t control the pace, it’s too fast. If you jog through it comfortably, it’s too slow. Assess and reassess accordingly.
Once you can complete all 5 reps at your target pace, you progress to 6 reps. Then, eventually, 7 (giving the method its name).
Grantham’s logic is simple enough: once you can run seven 1k reps at a pace that used to sit well above your 5k speed, your body has adapted. You’re fitter, more efficient, and ready to move the goalposts.
How to Progress It
When you’ve successfully worked from 5 reps to 7 at one pace, you move the pace on and start again. Dropping back to 5 reps and moving from 4:30/km, to 4:15/km, once you can hit 6, then 7 at that pace, moving on to 4:00/km. Just like lifting in the gym, you earn your right to progress. ‘Once you can do 7 reps,’ Grantham says, ‘you move up to the next pace.’
So rather than endlessly repeating the same interval session and hoping it somehow keeps working, you’ve got a clear framework: holding the pace convincingly earns you the right to smash more reps, smashing those reps earns you the right to run quicker.
This works as a good ego check. You don’t just go faster because you feel like it – you got prove you’re ready first.
Why it Works
What makes this method appealing is that it solves two problems at once.
First, it gets you spending meaningful time at speeds faster than race pace, which is where you start to improve running economy and confidence. Your current 5k pace begins to feel less threatening because you’ve repeatedly trained above it.
Second, the jump from 5 reps to 7 builds durability. Anyone can hang on for one or two hard efforts. Being able to reproduce that pace across six or seven rounds, with only a minute’s rest, is what suggests you’ve actually moved the needle.
Grantham also makes the broader point that once your 5k pace improves, plenty else tends to come with it. Your steady runs feel steadier. Your long-run pace often comes down. And if you’re building toward longer distances later, a faster engine gives you more to work with.
How to Use It
If you want to try it, slot it in once per week as your main speed session. Work from your current 5k pace, take roughly 10% off to set your rep speed, and start with 5 x 1k efforts with 60 seconds’ rest. Don’t rush the progress. Nail the pace first, then add the sixth rep, then the seventh.
Simple on paper, unpleasant in practice, effective over time. Which, to be fair, is how all good training feels.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
