Lots of good suggestions here(tempos, strides, and hill repeats are all well-proven), but don't add all of this to a single week, especially while increasing mileage.
General rule is to add no more than 10% per week to mileage, and then hold the new mileage for 2 weeks before bumping again. Also be careful increasing volume and intensity at the same time... listen to your body on easy runs.
Seems like the training part is well covered here and I've also seen something on sleep patterns. The 2 things I totally ignored in HS and college that I wish I had not . . .
1. Diet - not talking about some total tree-hugger watch everything you eat mission, but something a bit more sensible than the pizza, burgers and soda/beer I lived on. More healthy calories - fruit, veggies, protein.
and,
2. Weight - goes hand in hand with diet, but I think is also very important for distances of 3200 +. Keep it down. You don't have to look like Kiprop, but keep an eye on your weight. Your training should take care of it naturally, but some people struggle with it more than others.
Not that I would've listened, but I really wish my coaches would've stressed these 2 things a bit more.
Junior in HS wrote:
I'm definitely a speed guy, endurance does not come to me naturally but I split 52.7 in a 4x400 my freshman year.
If you're desperate to improve one of the things that is going to help you the most is letting go of the above statement. I would say by becoming a consistent runner you will find that endurance does come to you more naturally. I not sure if there are many people that without some sort of endurance background find endurance at a first attempt comes naturally. Build your confidence and mental approach on being a consistent runner, not a speed guy, and you will go farther than if you keep thinking you're some speed athlete.
-high volume
-high quality aerobic running
-consistency
the three principles to success.
Add some doubles, even if it is only 3 times a week. They do not have to long or hard, do an easy 3 or 4 in the morning (or evening if that is your thing).
Just bumping this for a little update.
I've had a good summer so far, been able to run injury free, the only problem has been my long runs haven't been real good, 8:00-8:30 usually for 12 miles.
BUT not tonight! In the middle of a 50 mile week I went out for a 12 mile long run today, first 2 miles clicked off in 8:15, then a 7:45, and for the next 9 miles I averaged 7:21! It was one of those good runs where you feel like your just gliding along so I'm not going to feel like this every time but I just thought some of you guys who posted would be happy to see I'm still chugging away and seeing some results! I got a bit excited after I realized the miles were coming so easily so I did push a little at the end, my last two miles were in 7:07 and 7:02.
Thanks guys!
Feels great doesn't it when you get ...finally.. an improvement jump and actually feel in control of the long run.Your starting to come on. Maybe eat or replace a little glycogen..small bit, within 25 minutes after such a run. Maybe research that on the web. You sound like a smart kid that has a feel for what it is gonna take. Don't be afraid of a recovery two days if you tear down. I think you got the head and body to target better times. Way better. This is just my opinion. I say target the top guys in the country. What are they doing? Go after your state title. I think you are the type of young guy that can eventually put in the work they are putting in..and take care of yourself and listen to your body.
Go after them! Do it!
Glad to hear the hard work has paid off.
So, which advice did you choose to implement into your training, if any? Did you add tempos, hills, doubles?
Don't get hurt. Run really fast when you feel good. Including easy days. Don't overdo the mileage. Work on getting very comfortable and smooth running at race pace.
I believe I read a Malmo post where he said something like "grasshopper not chase run. Let run come to grasshopper" That's actually good advice. I think you may be stressing a little too much about your pace on the long runs. Just let it happen. Some days you'll feel good & run faster than others, but if you run 8:00+ on a long run, don't sweat that at all.
Other things to try:
Progression runs - these should be longer than tempos, but shorter than long runs. You may just want to let these happen as well. Your medium-long runs will sometimes just turn into a progression run
Hill Sprints - 8-12 second bursts up steep hills. I'd recommend these over 'hill intervals' of longer duration - at least at this point of the season
Cruise intervals - basiclaly just breaking up a tempo or threshold run into pieces with short recoveries.
Form drills - we do these when we do strides. Google Pete Magill. He has a good, free video on technique drills
General strength/mobility exercises - Google Jay Johnson's series on these. Great, free videos.
I disagree about the importance & duration of your long run, but now isn't the time to add to your long run. Over the winter or next summer though, I recommend getting your long run to 120-130 minutes. Pretty good stuff happens physiologically when you go that long. For some reason a 120-130 min run is a lot better than a 90 min run, even though a 90 min run doesn't do really do anything for you that a 60 min run doesn't also do.
Junior in HS, now is not the time for you to worry about anything other than endurance. From you comment about running a 52.7 400 two years ago, I would say you have good natural speed. Once you start working with your team you will be doin plenty of anaerobic and speed related workouts. For now just build endurance. You cannot have to much endurance, and speed and anaerobic ability will come with 6-8 weeks of working on that. I coached HS runners to state titles and Midwest Footlocker titles (different runners). Nothing other than endurance work until after September 1. You have all of September and October to get into racing shape. You will likely be racing at least weekly. The focus should be on how fast you can run at league, sections and state, which if you do it this way, should all fall into place.
Feel free to write to me if you want specific information.
Glenn
While there is something to be said for a 2+ hour run, its not clear that Junior needs it when running 50 mpw for 5k and 1600m races. For example, Mamede and Lopes didn't need more than 90 min runs to run 27:13.81 and 27:17.xx. Of course Lopes ran a few 2+ hour runs as specific prep for the marathon later.
this article has helped me a lot - from a 50 year old guy who has broken 15 and does much coaching.
His thesis is that we have to develop different 'systems' in order to hit our potential. So running at different paces, doing hills for power, drills for strength, tempos, etc. he has some schedules on the last page.
Maurice does have a point about 2 hour runs. Reasearch in the mid 70s showed that there is a significant gain in return for each minute of running from 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours. That revolves around capilarization of the muscle fibers and fiber recruitment. Dr Peter Snell, still the New Zealand 800 meter record holder and an exercise physiologist, has done research that indicates that after 90 minutes of running the slow twitch fibers begin getting exhausted and the fast twitch B fibers, begin getting recruited and start to "act" like slow twitch fibers. This results in a speed improvement without doing speed work. I would agree with io-zs-94s, that Junior in HS may not need runs of that length now, but from my experience, if he want to fully develop his potential, he will add them to his routine, perhaps twice a month to reap the benefits for long term improvements.
I split my day into two runs 3 times a week, I usually run 3-4 at 7:00-7:30 pace depending on how I feel, and I added in strides.
The summers pretty much over now but I think some progression runs would be great in the early season as well! I might add that in.
I honestly think you should keep your long run at an hour. It's manageable yet still effective and you can focus on the other 6 days of training. If you're looking for more miles, etc, why not go for a short 3 miler or so in the mornings. You would be surprised at how easy it is to do and how much of a difference it makes. Just running an extra 15 miles from running twice a day mon-fri could help you see great gains in your running.
How much should I drop my mileage in season?
I'm assuming I should drop it at least a little considering I'll be doing workouts and running with teammates and such so the pace will naturally be more intense. My peak week is 50 but I have run 48 and 45 in the previous weeks.
My team usually only runs 30-35 miles a week so should I add doubles so my mileage for the week goes up to ~40? Or should I keep the mileage high (50+) since it's only august and I'm still building endurance when State is right around Halloween.
Junior in HS wrote:
How much should I drop my mileage in season?
I'm assuming I should drop it at least a little considering I'll be doing workouts and running with teammates and such so the pace will naturally be more intense. My peak week is 50 but I have run 48 and 45 in the previous weeks.
My team usually only runs 30-35 miles a week so should I add doubles so my mileage for the week goes up to ~40? Or should I keep the mileage high (50+) since it's only august and I'm still building endurance when State is right around Halloween.
At this point you need to be listening to or working with your coach. The easiest thing to do if the coaching is not good is adding doubles on top of the coach's training.
50 mpw should be doable if you are comfortable with that. BUT, if your coach has you doing a LOT of hard workouts, 50 may be too much.
I think you're best bet is to listen to your coach and do his workouts, but also run in the mornings 5x a week. Keep about an hour long run. You've gotta be doing consistent manageable work.