Breaking 5 minutes

Training Advice/Discussion High School

7 years ago 05/14/2016 9:23am EDT

Hi,

I'm a freshman and I am looking for some advice on how to break 5:00 for the mile. I am currently at 5:03. If I do manage to break 5 by the end of this spring track season, I will run varsity for the rest of the time I'm in high school. I have not actually raced a mile in an invitational meet, but I did race an 800 in one. All of my "races" have been time trials and as far as our jv team goes, I'm a good 10 seconds faster than our next guy. My coach really hasn't helped us at all with training or advice because he only cares about the varsity runners.

Sorry for the long paragraph but does anyone have advice on how to break 5:00?

7 years ago 05/14/2016 9:43am EDT

re: Northxc2000

pace is everything for the mile. Ask others before ur race what their pr's are and try to stay with a guy who has a 4:58 pr or something. Ideal lap splits are 73 75 76 74 for a 4:58. Try and maintain even splits for the entire race

7 years ago 05/14/2016 10:11am EDT

re: shruth

The jv team has only ran time trials so asking kids what their pbs is pointless. I have a meet in 2 weeks (my first of the season) so I'm hoping there are kids who are going sub 5

7 years ago 05/15/2016 8:09pm EDT

10/10 if youre trolling villa, ive seen u talking about your 4:47 all day on the boards.

7 years ago 05/15/2016 8:13pm EDT

This is awful advice.most WRs mile and up are from negative splits. Because the first lap is 109m, go out in 74,73 or so, but no faster. settle in the 2 lap for a 75, and really try to surge for the 3rd lap, which is where everyone else slows down. That surge most likely will feel fast, but if you feel like you're not speeding up, you're slowing down unconsciously. last lap, is all you have, a kick..

tfvilla9 wrote:
Hi, I'm a freshman too. My PR in the mile is 4:47 so I can give you some beneficial advice.
However, the first time I've ran it and broke 5 I got a 4:51.7. My splits were something like 71,73,73, then 74 for a shitty closer. When I ran the 4:47 my splits were much better with 67.9, 73,73, then 71.
The key is consistency in the middle of the race. To break 5, you need 75 seconds for each lap. My advice is to get out faster than your normal pace, so probably around 70-71. Then, begin to settle in with maybe a 75-76. I like to run my first 800 faster than my 2nd because a negative split is much harder to do and it allows you to have more cushion for fatigue since that will naturally happen on the 3rd lap specifically. Anyways, on the 3rd lap is when you need to really focus be chase like I said your body will want to naturally slow down. Try and maintain a 75 second pace and then for the 4th/final lap just let it all out and try and finish under 75. So say you end up going 71,76,76, then 75. That's a 4:58 1600m.
Good luck

7 years ago 05/15/2016 10:58pm EDT

re: cool kid

Never in the course of running history has a freshman boy ever successfully run a negative split mile. It's one of the Laws of Thermodynamics or somesuch.

cool kid wrote:
This is awful advice.
most WRs mile and up are from negative splits. Because the first lap is 109m, go out in 74,73 or so, but no faster. settle in the 2 lap for a 75, and really try to surge for the 3rd lap, which is where everyone else slows down. That surge most likely will feel fast, but if you feel like you're not speeding up, you're slowing down unconsciously. last lap, is all you have, a kick..
tfvilla9 wrote:
Hi, I'm a freshman too. My PR in the mile is 4:47 so I can give you some beneficial advice.
However, the first time I've ran it and broke 5 I got a 4:51.7. My splits were something like 71,73,73, then 74 for a shitty closer. When I ran the 4:47 my splits were much better with 67.9, 73,73, then 71.
The key is consistency in the middle of the race. To break 5, you need 75 seconds for each lap. My advice is to get out faster than your normal pace, so probably around 70-71. Then, begin to settle in with maybe a 75-76. I like to run my first 800 faster than my 2nd because a negative split is much harder to do and it allows you to have more cushion for fatigue since that will naturally happen on the 3rd lap specifically. Anyways, on the 3rd lap is when you need to really focus be chase like I said your body will want to naturally slow down. Try and maintain a 75 second pace and then for the 4th/final lap just let it all out and try and finish under 75. So say you end up going 71,76,76, then 75. That's a 4:58 1600m.
Good luck

7 years ago 05/26/2016 2:02pm EDT

Update:

Yesterday I did break 5 mins hitting a 4:59 in like 100 degree heat. Thanks for the advice. I made varsity baby!

7 years ago 05/26/2016 3:14pm EDT

re: Northxc2000

solid, and sorry if u weren't trolling tfvilla9

7 years ago 05/29/2016 3:15am EDT

re: YMMV

i did. i went from last place to first place, 4:39.

7 years ago 05/29/2016 12:37pm EDT

I really don't think this is bad advice. As far as the people saying that negative splits are necessary, it is unnecessary for a HS frosh trying to break 5. When my PR was around 5:00, I ran splits very similar to what you said. Good advice.

7 years ago 05/31/2016 1:33pm EDT

Trolling with that pr? My twelve year old runs a 4:52 right now for 1600m and he will have a tough time winning his age group (13) in nationals (aau). God, forbid he runs in usatf with 13-14 group. some of those fourteen year olds are just sick hitting 2:18-2:22 for their first 800m

7 years ago 05/31/2016 1:35pm EDT

re: Good luck with that

And not that much worse for the second half

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