breaking 20' in a 5k

Well, yes, you can hurt yourself.  I don't think it's likely unless you have underlying issues going into the race, though.  But I'd say that's the case regardless of the distance.

Recovery time from a hard effort has as much or more to do with your overall fitness as it does the level and length of the effort.

Speaking solely for myself, I would say that I could never overestimate the potential I have for injuring myself.

However, if you really want to do it, I don't think you should be thinking about 'will I get injured?'.  It sounds like full commitment will be required, and nagging doubts do not (IMHO) sit well with 'full commitment'.

Based on what little informatin I listed, you think I can do it?

Here's a question - if it's your goal for the season, why does it have to happen so early in the season? Just curious. Why don't you work on it a bit more and find another 5K to run? They're a dime a dozen around here, anyway. The season lasts awhile

You totally don't have to listen to me, seeing as how I will probably never break 20 minutes in a 5K! BUt just a friendly thought

Do I think you can go sub 20?  Yeah, I think there's a good change.

But, I think you need to let it happen.  Don't worry too much about how fast you're running in training.  Go into your races knowing what you want to happen, and let your body do the rest.

great question--

If I don't do it april 4th, I'll learn a lot and be able to try again in a few months.....If I wait until aug/sept, I'll only have a couple months to apply what I learn and find another race.

Then pick one in late May or June some time Besides "running season" never really ends - there's stuff to do all year round, unlike triathlons. So technically, you've got until December 31st

alright, you got me.....I really didnt think about it....I'm just ready to go for it, so I picked the soonest race....I feel great right now and want to tackle one of my goals.  I just want to race.

Now, after registering, I'm second guessing my ability to do it, so I'm looking for some people to pump me up....

I know when I reach the start line, I'll be ready.  I just need to run and forget about the time...(great advice, Scout)

Personally, I see no reason not to go for it.  More opportunities to make adjustments as necessary.  Plus, experience is experience.

MTA: Plus, tri season could cut in on race opportunities.

thank you for all the input....

also, never did I say I was slacking but I can easily understand how it was interpreted as that...I said I've done no zone 4/sub-threshold runs.  this is because my training does not call for them for another 2 weeks....

I have the base to hold a sub threshold effort for 15-20 minutes, which will be lower than 7:00/mile as my current tempo run is around there, but how low I do not know.....

can you hurt yourself? definitely. I will greately depend on the training you've done over tha past months and how adapted are your muscles/soft tissue, etc. Still if you have been doing consistent training the chances are smaller. make sure the warm up thoroughly before the race though to dimish the chances even more and cool down post race.

Can you do it? who knows, but you can only try no? the best thing is that you indeed do it, the worst is that you won't but you'll have a baseline of your current fitness level to work and build upon.

Go out there, give it all and have fun. Let us know how it goes!

I say you can do it.. maybe not this time, but you could get it this season. 

Twice last year (Jan & Feb) I tried to to go sub 20.   My first attempt was a 20m 59s effort than a 20m 49s finish.  Hopefully you'll have better luck than me!  I seem to always lose something that 3rd mile.  Hopefully with some track work and losing some weight I'll do it this year.   Good luck  

As long as you maintain your form, you (hopefully) won't get injured.  5k's are so damn painful

[hijack]

When did the apostrophe become acceptable to indicate minutes? For me it has always meant feet and " mean inches as in 6'6" for six feet six inches.

I've seen it used on this site several times and at first I was confused by it. I wondered why someone was swimming for 60 feet

[/hijack]

I have a similiar goal for the season.  My PB is 20:30 which I hope to have as a distant memory in a few months.  I think you can do it this season, but you'll be hard pressed to do it next week.  It just seems, judging by your tempo runs, that you'll be in the 21:00ish range.  But, like you said in your OP if you have all the stars align you might be able to do it.  Good luck!

But - why tape over the pace watch?  If it were me I'd try to pace it evenly @ 3:55/km and make sure I was always on pace.

becasue now you are racing a pace/time, not a race.

If I go out and give it my all, my pace should not matter....

in other words, a pace watch will have me going too fast or too slow....running based on what my body tells me should yeild the best result.

after mile 1, I should be questioning why I am out here, mile 2 I should be ready to throw up, mile 3 I should be ready to die....

Different strokes, I suppose.

I never really raced by pace.  If I have a time goal, I know about what the splits should be, but I never let that dictate how I actually run.  Sometimes I'm faster, sometimes I'm slower.

Beats me, but all the workouts I see are always in ' (minutes) and " (seconds). The context will generally tell you if you're dealing with distance or time. I don't find it that confusing - and I used to work at an architectural firm where those notations mean feet and inches.

I went for a sub-20 5K at Thanksgiving. I had my Garmin set to beep at me if my pace was above 6:28. I even had it set to beep at me if my pace was too fast, something like 6:15. I did some intervals on the treadmill at goal pace with a mile recovery in between. That seemed to help a lot. I ended up with a 19:37.

Of course, as soon as I broke 20, I did another 5K two weeks later and broke 19 without any pace alarms or anything.

I think sub-20 (or sub-whatever) is as much mental as physical. You have to visualize it happening the first time. But then once you've done it, it's way easier to duplicate. Kind of like when Roger Bannister finally ran a sub-4 minute mile. Up to that point nobody had, but after that lots of folks did it.