Sub 18 5K in 12-13months?

OK. First of all, if you want to be a runner, you should definitely do cross country and track next year. No offense but you don't know what you're doing right now. You need a coach's instruction and the team atmosphere is just terrific. If you're not fast enough to run on the team in any capacity, obviously this doesn't apply but running JV would be far better than trying to train by yourself. Even if you were experienced and certain to stay motivated, having a coach and teammates is awesome.

Secondly, I have no idea if you can break 18:00 in a year and neither does anyone else on these boards. It would certainly be a huge jump. But, I would argue, this is not really relevant to your decision about being a distance runner. If you like running, you should run. Think about it. If you go out for XC and discover, by the end of the season, that you LOVE running but only run 20:00, won't it have been a great decision to go for it, despite not getting even close to 18? Conversely, if you hate training hard but push yourself to a 17:59, I don't think you would last much past that season.

My bottom line is: go for it. Run over the summer and do cross country this fall. If you like it, keep doing it. If you don't then quit.

With a year of the right training I think anyone could run close to sub 17 at least. Someone on my team went from 24:40s to 18:50s just during one xc season. I think sub-18 is obtainable through 30mpw with 1000s and hills towards the start and throughout the season. If you dedicate your time to running and dont give up on training, I'm sure you could definately run sub 17:30!

That's really inspiring to hear! Not knocking the guy above you but come on dude, I realize that but you didn't answer my question with what I should focus on. It's not your decision of not doing XC and track, it's mine. I know it is not what you'd do but rather what I am doing

Should I keep increasing my mileage over the winter too or what? I am not sure if runners keep increasing the mileage or do something different to avoid injury, etc

And probably just focus of getting 40-50mpw of running by August/September and no speed work?

ssj goku wrote:

With a year of the right training I think anyone could run close to sub 17 at least. Someone on my team went from 24:40s to 18:50s just during one xc season. I think sub-18 is obtainable through 30mpw with 1000s and hills towards the start and throughout the season. If you dedicate your time to running and dont give up on training, I'm sure you could definately run sub 17:30!

uh, no.

with a year of training 90% (99%?!) of people wouldn't even sniff sub 17.

OP, you should focus on sub 20 first, then sub 19. It starts getting quite a bit harder after that, especially if you're only at 21 mins after some actual running.

set obtainable goals and shoot for those and see where you end up. don't set high goals from the beginning when you have zero idea of what it takes to get there.

jamesrunner12 wrote:

That's really inspiring to hear! Not knocking the guy above you but come on dude, I realize that but you didn't answer my question with what I should focus on. It's not your decision of not doing XC and track, it's mine. I know it is not what you'd do but rather what I am doing

Should I keep increasing my mileage over the winter too or what? I am not sure if runners keep increasing the mileage or do something different to avoid injury, etc

And probably just focus of getting 40-50mpw of running by August/September and no speed work?

if you want to be a better runner, join a running team. the questions you're asking and the direction you seem to want to go in sounds like you're going for the antithesis of that. you need to actually learn a bit about the sport before throwing yourself off a cliff of ignorance.

jamesrunner12 wrote:

It's not your decision of not doing XC and track, it's mine. I know it is not what you'd do but rather what I am doing

Wait, so you ask for advice and then tell me "it's not your decision, it's mine"?? And how did you "know it is not what [I'd] do" before I said it?

I'm sorry I didn't tell you exactly what you wanted to hear like ssj goku but I think what I had to say was a bit more reasonable and I maintain that sub-18 would be a huge leap but also that you should focus on learning how to run before you adopt a "17:59 or bust" mentality.

weighing in is absolutely right. I mean sub-17 is sooo much better than 14.5. I'm afraid he's right you seem to "have zero idea of what it takes to get there."

I've been training hard exactly a yr now I went from a 20:38 to a 18:52... Been running a consistent base of 40-55mpw.. With an occasional 5k time trial.. Just been keepin up the base and try to do a burst of speed here and there on a lot of my runs, also do 5k time trials.

Hoping I can polish off that last 52secs by fall.

I bet if u can keep at it and being as young as u are you could probably do it.. But it's not somethin that's gonna happen overnight, takes a lot of time,patience,and dedication.

The reason I say I think you can do it is because you're only 17.. I'm 35.

I would work on speed all summer maybe once a week, and a tempo run once a week, everyone says high mileage is key, but not if your goal is to run sub-18. I dont know what your mile time, but running around 5 minutes would make sub 18 a lot easier. In highschool, I dont think I ran more than 20 mpw, and maybe 1000s once a week because I was on the soccer team(which probably helped a lot since a game can total at least 6 miles) and its basically a speed workout the whole time). If you stay active while continuing to run, Sub 18 is not difficult. I still don't run more than 30 miles a week and sometimes take multiple days off and I run low 16's on a course. Also 4:24, 1:53, and 48.5. I'm working up the miles this summer to around 50 mpw because I actually feel like trying this year(I run for recreation not on a team). I would say a key to sub 18 would be 5x1000 around 3:20-3:30 with 3 minute rest. Try and work either that rest down to 1 minute, or the times down to 3:10-3:20 and sub 18 will be a piece of cake.

ssj goku wrote:

If you stay active while continuing to run, Sub 18 is not difficult.

In context, this is such a ridiculous statement. You have 48.5 400 speed. Good for you. We're all proud of you. You're talking to a kid who ran 14.5 in the 100, training as a sprinter. Did you not find that information useful in any way? He was already off on the wrong track and you're just pushing him further down it.

I know kids that cant run under 32 seconds in the 200m that can run under 18 minutes. All he has to do is do strides throughout the summer. not that much speed is needed for a 5k.

ssj goku wrote:

I know kids that cant run under 32 seconds in the 200m that can run under 18 minutes. All he has to do is do strides throughout the summer. not that much speed is needed for a 5k.

Yes, of course it's not IMPOSSIBLE he breaks 18 with a 14.5 100. But you're proceeding under the assumption that breaking 18 will be a piece of cake for him and he doesn't even need to start real training (higher mileage) to do it! Based on the information we've been given - trained as a sprinter, ran 14.5 - it absolutely will NOT be easy for him to break 18.

You know people who can run sub-18 but not sub-32? Ok, great, they're super-endurance people. They're unusual. They probably did not start out thinking of themselves as sprinters!

Basically, you're taking extraordinary qualities that some people have and assuming the OP has them, despite the evidence to the contrary and despite the fact that extraordinary qualities are, by definition, uncommon.

all I am saying is that for highschool, not 50-60 miles is need for sub 18, only around 20-30

ssj goku wrote:

all I am saying is that for highschool, not 50-60 miles is need for sub 18, only around 20-30

I strongly disagree with that blanket statement. Different people are different. Some people do not have the ability to ever break 18:00. Some people can by training hard and do 50-60mpw. Others can do it easily with far less than that. You seem to expect everybody to have experiences very similar to your own.

No, let this not turn into the latest version of the ongoing argument on these boards about the limitations, and even existence(!), of talent! Yes, talent exists. No, not everyone is smart/non-egotistical enough to see this. \thread.

Talent is a myth

Steveprefontaine wrote:

Talent is a myth

0/10 bro

Ok ill work on speedwork this summer, but probably focus on hitting high mileage. Should I ever reduce weekly mileage like in the winter to prevent injury or just keep going up? Also, tempo run is what exactly? i have never formally run distance lol

just sprint your tempos, bro. all out as hard as you can as long as you can as many times a week as you can.

you'll fly.

are u bsing me?