As far back as he can remember, Jonathan Basalyga has always loved to run. The 53-year-old from Atlanta fondly recalls being one of the fastest kids in his elementary school. As he got older, pounding the pavement was his preferred way to get to and from his friends’ houses.
Basalyga was living in Maryland at the time, and ran the 2005 Baltimore Marathon—his first attempt at the distance—in 4:52. He fell in love with the distance, and over the next 10 years returned to it seven times. As his three children grew older, the family started participating in a lot of activities and charity events, which included short races.
In one 5K, Basalyga recalls his high-school-aged son beating him—the push he needed to rethink his running strategy. Basalyga figured that to become faster, he’d need to do speedwork, something he had not done consistently in the past. He started adding intervals to his marathon training, specifically Yasso 800s.
I will never forget how much I liked the way hard running felt,” he says. He saw the improvement as he crossed the finish line of the 2015 Quebec City Marathon in 3:54, breaking 4 hours for the first time. He decided to see what dedicated training for speed could do for his time in shorter distances To train for a quick 5K, Basalyga knew he needed to dial in his speed workouts.
At the time, he had read about the 10x400 being Sir Roger Bannister’s favorite workout. It’s such a short workout,’” Basalyga says. In the span of less than 30 minutes, I had really felt like I worked out in a way I had never felt before.” He kept returning to the feeling—and the workout, which became his favorite speedwork.
After diligently incorporating the 10x400 into his training once a week, he managed to break 21 minutes in the 5K—a PR by more than 4 minutes, and a time he consistently comes in under to this day. (And yes, he beat his son’s original 5K time in the process.) “It has always been me against myself,” Basalyga says, acknowledging that how he used to structure his training plans held him back. Only recently have I become more focused.” To be able to maintain a sub-21-minute 5K, these days Basalyga does one long run, two shorter runs, and one speed or hill workout per week. He also strength-trains twice a week.
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