I graduated a few years ago. I kept running most of last year and was even up to 70mpw for a short while, but most of my running has looked like 2-5 miles 2-5 days per week without any real workouts. I'm currently about 8lbs overweight and couldn't run within 3 minutes of my 5k PR. I'd like to race a few times this indoor and outdoor season though, not necessarily set any PRs, but just be competitive. I have 9 weeks until my first race, 11 until my second one. Those are the only two in my area that don't require me to travel 6+ hours, so I'm really only planning on those right now. I'd like to run the mile at both.
I was wondering how should I prepare for those races given they're only a mile and that I am in pretty terrible running shape in general right now. I was thinking of just focusing on running consistently, slowly increasing mileage, and doing one threshold workout and one faster workout per week (something like 200s at mile pace). I thought I'd do a time trial once every third week to see how things are coming along. What do you think?