Base Mileage-Lots of Tempo?

I got very large improvements by doing two to three high-end aerobic workouts per week in concert with high mileage. My workouts were

1) long tempo run at marathon pace

2) cruise intervals, 6-8x3min at LT with 1min rec (sometimes did not do this every single week)

3) Kenyan-style progression run

The important thing is that I did all of these by feel, not by assigned paces. I only did one continuous tempo at LT but you get to hit on LT at the end of a progression run.

I got better results mixing up the aerobic stimulus. AS LONG AS you finish these workouts feeling GOOD, and not killing yourself on them, you can do them very often.

Do note that your easy runs will probably slow down a lot. One summer I just did mileage at an easy to moderate pace, no workouts or anything, and my runs usually averaged 6:30-6:45 pace. The next summer I did the above workouts weekly, and my easy runs ended up being 7:15-7:45 pace. I ran a lot faster after the second summer--90 seconds over 8k--even though my easy runs were slower.

JK wrote an awesome article on progression runs. You should read it:

http://www.letsrun.com/2005/jkfitness.php

Focus on tempo runs and not the junk mileage

Thanks for the response! I figured my easy mileage would be a lot slower. I'll likely wear a gps watch but turn it to a screen that doesn't feed me info. Just so I can run by feel, and after the run see what my paces were.

When would you recommend to start doing hill repeats? Like longer interval type ones. I'll likely do short 8 second sprint ones most of the base phase already.

Look up Summer of Malmo

In the summer you want to do lots of work and practice running at all different paces. The trick is to do all that work without forcing your workouts. In the summer you are getting ready to be able to do great training when you get to school.

if you REALLY want to be good, go up to ~85 mpw and settle in around 70-75 a week.

As for tempos, do an over-distance at a slower pace than LT once a week by feel. Racing distance should be .6 of the tempo, so for 5k do a 5 mile tempo and if you're racing 8k, do an 8 mile tempo. My LT is ~5:00 and I do these around 5:20 near the end of the summer, but start around 5:45 at the beginning of the summer. Again, feel it out.

The summer of malmo has you do a tempo, as prescribed above, and another day of alternating a few workouts such as 14x200 with full rest or 5xmile with 3 minutes rest. I personally have seen a lot of success with the 5xmile just slower than threshold. However, at the beginning of the summer, I do short hill sprints on Tuesday and the long tempo on Friday, then about mid-July start alternating 200s with the 5xmile every other week with the tempo remaining the same distance, but progressing in pace.

STAY ON THE TRAILS/GRASS. I can't stress this enough. Even the tempos, stay on the soft surfaces. Your joints will thank you.

Good luck.

What does a "major" improvement look like to you? 16:45 to 15:30?

I swear that is almost word for word what I had planned on responding when I read the OP's post. Either you are one of my former runners or my twin. And according to my parents, I don't have one.

for what it's worth wrote:

What does a "major" improvement look like to you? 16:45 to 15:30?

In high school from fr --> sr I went from 18:30, 17:30, 16:20, 15:50.

And my milage went from like ~20 to 35. My freshman year of college I was breaking my PR's very easily during relaxed tempos because I ran real milage. So if you are going to be running a lot more and taking it seriously, than aim for spectacular times.

Context is Key wrote:

STAY ON THE TRAILS/GRASS. I can't stress this enough. Even the tempos, stay on the soft surfaces. Your joints will thank you.

Not that important at all.

A well written article here for those prepping spring/summer base training at the end link.