19min 5k to sub 18min

Just run every day. Take your tempos easy, the intervals easy, and long runs easy. Effort shouldn't ever be difficult to sustain in the summer. Get aerobically sound and it will do wonders for you in the season. Start a running streak for consequtive days. You can easily get to sub-18 and sub-17 this way. Eventually sub-16, etc etc

also just finished freshman year with 5:04 and 10:57. after track I ran a 5k road race in 18:10, with nearest people about a minute ahead and a minute behind(so was running alone most of the race) so you probably aren't as far as you think.

The mileage increase will do you wonders. But is there any reason you don't want to push further to the 50-60mpw range?

Like someone else said, feel free to take these miles slow, but be careful not to go too slow.

Yea I plan on hitting 60mpw a week before xc praxtice but I don't want to risk getting injured. So far I'm running 40-45mpw comfortably.Thinking about doing a 3 mile time trial to see where I am.

I think time trial is a bit of a waste of time at this point for you.

If you have a HR monitor, see how your body has adapted over the summer to your basic base and your tempo pace. I.e., run at the same "effort" level, and see how much your speed has increased relative to your HR.

So maybe before your HR was 175 running at 6:30 pace, but now a HR of 175 gets you a 6:15 pace.

Im a former high school/college runner. i know what you are going through, i broke 19 my sophmore year in HS. Best advice to give you is stay consistent, 30 mpw with a speed workout, i would think should be good enough. anymore might promote injury. With that being said 1.Focus 1 day at a time at your plan, listen to your body. 2. Have the appropriate running shoes. and 3. Have fun your in High school enjoy this time. You will break 19 min this year. Good luck to you.

What training did you do during summer before your freshman year? 25-30mpw? Or was that in season only?

Your 11:30 two mile time suggests a 5k equivalent of 18:25ish.

Your 5:07 mile time suggests a 5k equivalent of 17:34ish.

Assuming you haven't lost too much since track ended (a month ago?) then you can probably already break 18 min.

If you were just running 15-20 mpw in track then you've got a long buildup to get to 45-50 mpw. Have you been running since track ended? Hopefully you have.

I would start by shooting for 30 mpw for now over a 6 day week if you have been running since track ended. Take one day off a week. A little rest can help prevent injury and keep you fresh. So 30 miles per week is 5 per day average over 6 days. Knock a couple of those runs down to 4 miles and then do a long run of 7 miles once a week.

After a couple weeks bump it up to 33 per week and maybe start adding a tempo run once a week on a pretty flat route - perhaps 25 minute run at 6:25 pace. If you can do that relatively comfortably then you're probably in sub 18:30 shape now. If it takes an all out effort or close to it then you've lost a little since track and should maybe back off the 6:25 pace.

Don't make the mistake of running a fast first mile during the tempo run. The goal is to maintain the 6:25 pace throughout. Not go 6 flat and then struggle to run under 7 min per mile the rest of the way in. If anything, you should be able to bump up the pace to 6:15 or faster at anytime during the final miles of tempo run if you had to (but that's not the goal here). If you fall off the 6:25 pace dramatically, you'll need to readjust to a slower tempo pace for the next run.

It's better to run the first mile slower than goal pace (maybe 6:30-6:35) and then speed up a bit. I use a GPS watch and set the auto lap for every 1/2 mile.

Keep the same route for your tempo run and vary it by occasionally going for 30 minutes at 6:28 pace or 20 minutes at 6:20 pace (assuming that the first tempo run goal was accomplished with quite a bit less than an all out effort).

After three weeks, you can consider bumping your mileage a bit each week but (depending on what you've been doing since track ended), I don't think you'll get to 45-50 miles per week before season starts (mid August?).

If you can get in 4-6 tempo runs before the season starts, I think that is plenty. Don't worry about intervals, fartleks, hill repeats until the season starts. You'll do plenty of that in season - no sense peaking on August 15 and going downhill from there.

The tempo runs of 20-30 minutes will give you a lot of confidence going into an 18-19 minute race. You'll know that you have trained to run longer than that at a challenging pace so the 5k should seem less daunting. Take what you've learned from the tempo runs and apply to the 5k races.

Enh your suggestions with times are way off.

17:34 5km runners can usually do a 1600m between 4:45 and 4:55. An 18:25 5km runner can usually do a 2mile in the mid-to-high 10s.

It seems you don't have much experience running XC. I can see that your correlations are based on a faulty presumption that conditions are the same, and all you did for the 5K conversion was tack on an additional 5:45 mile and giving about 60 seconds to run the last 200m.

A 2-mile race is run on a fast track, whereas a 5K XC race is on grass, dirt and on varying degrees of elevation, with lots of turns and twists that also slow you down. Aside from the totally different conditions, you're assuming the OP can maintain his 2 mile pace for an additional mile. Wrong.

With this mile and 2 mile time he would be in the 19s, possibly even 20s for the 5k if it's a particularly hilly/windy course with rain and mud.

And dang, why the heck are you telling him to run his tempos at 6:30 pace? Are you nuts? The guy is a 19:00 + 5K runner (read: 6:05 pace or slower runner at his peak). There's no way he should be doing tempos right now at 6:30 pace for 30 minutes, you're out of your mind. That's the pace he should use for 800m - 1200m intervals, not for a 4-5 mile tempo run!!!!

OP, I went from a 19 minute something 5K runner in middle school to 17:40s my freshman year by going from zero miles per week in the off-season to about 30mpw before my freshman year. Went down to 16:30 my sophomore year doing about 50mpw, and into the 15s by my junior year doing about 80 mpw. I didn't try to increase my speed or run fast over the summer. For HS runners, mileage is king. If you have a half-decent coach, he will have the sense to give you challenging workouts during the season to leverage your mileage to get you to do really fast tempo/interval workouts during the season. The early races are also great for getting you into race shape.

And for heaven's sake screw that stupid 10% mileage increase per week nonsense. You're lightweight like I was, your body can handle a lot more than some 160lbs middle-aged runner who just started running. If you feel nervous, split your mileage into doubles, and/or run on the track. The track is a great soft surface for doing long miles, although it is boring.

My mileage progression was basically from zero to 30mpw, all very fast miles going into my freshman year. Logic would say I should be injured and/or burned out. Instead I ended up running at D1 and winning a state championship. The only injury I ever had was a stress fracture.

Hi, before my freshman year I ran around 15-20mpw not knowing anything about tempo runs and building up mileage. Also before my freshman year I did a 5k road race in about 22min. During the xc season I ran close to 25-30mpw.

Before this track season I came in with literally no miles because of swimming in the winter (big mistake). During track we ran 15mpw of mainly just speed workouts with our distance runs just being around 3 miles.

After track(this season) I took 2 weeks off and then started to run again. Right now I'm running 35-40mpw comfortably with my long run up to 7 so far. Majority of my runs are pretty easy around (7:30-8:00) pace and I add on some strides a few times a week.

3 weeks ago I did a 2.50 mile run which felt like a tempo. The first mile was around 6:40 and the second mile was 6:10( didn't get the last .50 split though). It felt a little challenging but definitely was not race pace. Also it was 85 and humid. I was running 30mpw then.

I will definitely add in a tempo run each week! Thanks for the advice!

Yeah I don't follow the 10% rule, I just take my mileage easy around 7:30-8:00 mile pace. Running at 40mpw now I can definitely see a difference in my running strength from when I ran 25mpw.

I'm going to have to site my sources for the peanut gallery (helpmeout)

McMillan Running Calculator sayeth -

5:07 mile is equivalent to 17:46 5k.

Dr. Jack Daniels sayeth that

a 5:06 mile is equivalent to VDOT of 58.

At that VDOT - 17:33 5k should be possible given training geared more towards endurance.

Granted cross country courses are different from running on the track so factor in whatever difference you can figure for hills, surface, etc. Of course, plenty of courses are short so OP may run on a short course that may approximate track/road 5k.

Dr. Jack Daniels further sayeth that tempo run paces for a 55 VDOT (I lowered it to account for potential time off from track season) would be 6:20 for 20 minute tempo run; 6:25 for 25 min tempo run and 6:28 for 30 min tempo run.

As I indicated in my original post, if the OP has trouble maintaining 6:20 pace for 20 minutes -he can adjust accordingly.

Interval pace for a 55 VDOT =

87 for 400m;

3:37 for 1000m;

4:21 for 1200m;

5:48 mile if mile reps were recommended.

Sounds like you are well on your way. If you want to change it up, you can always create a fartlek run that would approximately the tempo run or throw in a hill workout now and then instead of the tempo run. I would hold off on any intervals until the season starts.

I'll say your 2.5 mile tempo run was at about 6:20- 6:25 pace or faster so see if you can hold that for 20 minutes next time. Doesn't seem like I was far off at all in suggesting 6:20 pace for 20 minutes contrary to what others may believe.

You should be well ahead of last year given your current mpw compared to then.

As helpmeout! indicated, cross country courses do involve hills, varying terrain, turns, etc. All XC times must be considered in this context. For training purposes however (especially tempo runs), you'll want to do them consistently on a fairly flat course.

Keep us informed with your progress!

Sorry just to be clear - tempo runs should be done on fairly flat course so that you can hit the pace without having to figure out/factor in how much a hill will slow you down.

You can always do other training on hilly courses if you so desire. For example, hill repeats, easy runs occasionally, etc.

Right. Let's apply McMillan and Jack Daniels to a HS student who is probably undertrained and has a very poor mileage base.

Anyone who has run at a decent level in HS knows that a 5:06 mile is a far crappier time than a 17:33 5K in XC. 5:06 won't even get you a varsity letter, whereas a 17:33 may even qualify you for states.

Yea its tough to make states in my section. The slowest guy would have to be around 16:00 5k maybe 16:10. The sub 16 guys always make states so I guess I found my goal for junior year :). The scary thing is a 7th grader in my section can run a 16:50 5k and I'm not even kidding.

You've got to be kidding...slowest qualifer would have to run 16:10? That is crazy. In my state finals we had kids running in the 19s (qualified as a team), and individual qualifers who ran in the high-16s, and I was in the strongest XC state in the country at the time.

Hell yeah you can. I was basically in your same position, very little training freshman year XC ran a 19:25 and then trained over the winter maybe 20-30 mile weeks and ran a 5:05 in track. Then over the summer for XC did 35-40 mile weeks ish and came into that cross country season and ran a 17:20. Just be dedicated, train smart