Hell yeah! Well done! That’s a massive accomplishment! I would say that if you can run for the length of time to complete a 4k you have hit the strength and cardio fitness you need for a 5km already! From this point 5km goal is almost entirely psychological! Which is great news!

In my experience from here the most important thing is to remember to warm up and cool down. As you want to keep training and go further / faster / more often, the main barrier to that is injury. I never used to bother taking warm up or cool down seriously and I kept getting injured / shin splints etc. And then I couldn’t train any more until I recovered by which time I’d lost fitness and couldn’t make progress. I took some convincing to start taking it more seriously but once I started doing proper warm ups and cool downs I magically stopped getting hurt. Weird hu? I don’t even do much, 10ish slow calf raises off the bottom step and then walking for about 5 mins before and after running. Makes all the difference for me but you’ll have to find the exercises and stretches that work for your body. Perhaps you have a specific injury and need to loosen that joint or a particular tight muscle that will cause you issues if you don’t warm it up first (e.g. my calves hence the raises). I have a friend who basically does a full yoga routine before she’ll even consider a run and another who does nothing at all - but you have to find what works for you!

Great work again! Running gets so good when you get into it. Keep it up!