2016 25 minute XC 8k

I think the big mistake I made my last two summers of college was doing my mileage too fast during the summer. If I could it over, instead of running 65-80, I'd aim for 80-95 consistently, and do it a lot slower. And keep the mileage up well into the season, even though I would have had to do more on my own.

Hey all, I've followed this thread the past 2 years so I think that I will hop in now. Aiming for a good XC season after a subpar year of running

A bit of background:

College Sophomore currently, I race with my school's running club but end up doing most of my training solo. PRs are 2:02, 4:06, 8:43 (all from HS) 15:20 (from FR year), and 32:50 (only time I ran it, on a moderate XC course, 100m long). 8k time is 25:50, but that was in the 1st 8k I ever ran on a tougher course; I placed among ~25:20 guys on a sloppy day that year and I was probably in that shape my FR year.

This last year of running was pretty bad. No injuries or anything - I just couldn't put anything together. My season PR was 26:30 on a fast course despite doing just about the same training I did the last year. Track was marginally better but still a bust - fastest time was 15:28 with leading through halfway. I really don't know why this year wasn't good. Mileage wise I was more consistent than last year at ~70mpw, my workouts were less impressive but I just have no reason why nothing clicked. Very frustrating especially as it feels as though I haven't set a "real" PR since I was a senior in HS

This year:

I plan on running under 25 or at least beating some guys who do that consistently. I'll be doing SoM - esque training @ 75 - 80 mpw for most of the summer with a couple low-key road races here and there. Come track season I hope to finally hit the goals I had freshman year, but we'll wait to think about those until further down the road

try hard go far - Really nice 1500 this season. You're playing life on high stakes mode with this maybe being your last XC season - Good luck.

I loosely followed this thread last year. I’ll hop in as well!

I’ve not had a good competitive season (track or XC) in a while. I couldn’t make it onto my college team so I just kind of quit racing for a while. I tried to get back into it last year training solo but I kept having all kinds of injury setbacks that limited my preparation, the most recent of which was a hip flexor strain that killed my track season this year and put me out for several weeks. Everything’s all healed up now and I’m ready to start fresh!

8K PR - 27:15

Goals:

1. Slowly build to and maintain 60ish MPW until November.

2. Run a 2K time trial towards the end of Summer in 6:00-6:10.

3. Race an 8K in 25-high/26-low in the middle of Fall.

4. Work up to a 15 mile LR, and a 10 mile run in under 60 minutes (my endurance is my weakest asset by quite a lot).

5. Race a 5K in the mid-to-high 15s at the end of Fall.

After years of zero improvement, I'm hoping for a great year with a big breakthrough!

Welcome to thread guys!

While this could potentially be my last xc season, I don't think I'll do anything too crazy such as running 100mpw or something. But I've thought about some key changes I'll make to my training. My coach does give me a weekly schedule but that just has minutes on it and I won't be starting workouts for about 2 months or so.

Basic outline of training plan:

-Build to 75-80mpw (70-75 last fall, 60-65 in track)

-More consistent strides (maybe some hill strides as well)

-Start slow, finish fast: meaning if I'm feeling good run the last few miles of an easy run quick

-Run easy runs by feel, don't get fixated on pace

-Run more on grass and do workouts on grass (not the road or track)

I'm also considering trying to lose 10 or so pounds to get my race weight around 155. I raced this track season at 165 but I'm 6'3. I think ultimately this is what may make the biggest difference if I'm smart about losing the weight . I'm around 167/168 after 2 weeks off with no physical activity.

here we go again

nice track season THGF.

I graduated in December and things have gone pretty poorly ever since. strings of injury plus sickness made winter a bust, and as I started getting back up to a few weeks in a row of 70 mpw in around late March, I started feeling really bad all the time. I was running more hills/trails than ever before (as i moved to Portland in late Feb) and I also started rock climbing, which could have added to the cumulative fatigue. A bad cold forced me into a week off, and since then I've been doing about 50 mpw, up to 60 last week.

I'm climbing 3 days per week about 2hrs each, but I don't think it impacts my running. I haven't been doing any running "workouts" in basically a few months.

Goal for this summer is to make my new club's Hood to Coast team, which will be very tough as they averaged about 5:30/mi over the 200mi last year.

I have no clue what kind of shape I'm in, but I know that I am about 5-10 pounds overweight so that's my #1 goal for June. Today was actually my first workout back, and I think that adding workouts plus a long run will speed up the weight loss. I'm currently about 144 lbs, need to at least get under 140. I was 146 last week.

My only goal race is a marathon in December, but I do plan to run an XC season. Sub 25 is unlikely but a PR could be possible on a good course. (PR is 25:39, flat course)

weekly update:

this week I ran 58 miles with 3 notable runs:

tuesday: first workout in months. 10x200 in 38 with 100m job rest, then another 10x200 in 37, then 1000m in 3:04. pretty easy workout, just getting the legs turning over.

friday: 4x1600 in 5:14s with 90sec rest. this shows that I actually am decently in shape, similar to where I was sophomore year of college when i broke 16min for the first time.

sunday: 14mi long run, 6:37/mi. this was my first long run over 12-13mi in a couple months. didnt expect to run so fast but it gives me a baseline.

this week gives me hope that I can regain mid-15 fitness within a month or two, and hopefully improve on that by september for hood-to-coast

I was on this thread 2 years ago. last year I had a bad Achilles injury through the summer that made me decide not to do xc, I ran a 34' 10k last November for fun and to sort of see where I was at.

I got in good shape throughout the winter, running a 4:32 mile indoors with a fast last 400 just 2 days after my hardest workout of the year. The week of my first outdoor meet I bumped my knee while walking and I couldn't run for a month. It took me another month to build up to 30 mpw. I then made the intelligent decision to help a friend of mine out with his toughest workout of the year which ended with some Achilles pain that made me have to take it really easy for a few weeks. So my track season was non existent.

This past week I did 40 miles and quite a few strides. I've gained quite a bit of speed which makes me excited for track next year. I'll be building up to ~60 miles a week with one tempo, I'll also be doing a lot of open track meets just to get my legs moving a bit this summer. Good luck to all.

My week was pretty uneventful - just putting in some mileage w/o hard efforts. M - 8 / 4 with circuits

T - 8 / 4 with strides

W - 5.25 and circuits / 8.75 with weight/core routine

Tr - 6 / 6

F - 8.4 / 4

Sa - 15.5

Su - 6 w/ strides

Total - 83.5 (new mileage high)

Weight routine was totally new to me and left me sore until today. I am not a huge fan of weights but some friends got me to do their routine and I thought it was pretty good - I might try to build up to 2 days per week in the gym. Most of my runs start around 7min pace and end at 6:20 or so, averaging 6:30-6:40 most days. So I'm not going crazy fast but not slogging out there either. I might add in tempos next week or the week after

reed - pretty solid week. Mile repeats with that short rest are no joke. Are you doing Stumptown XC series by chance (you said you were in portland?) ? That'll be most of my xc season.

Well my training is pitiful compared to everyone's. I started up nice and slow this week haha

M: 0

T: 0

W: 0

T: 3 (21:24)

F: 0

S: 3 (20:57)

S: 0

Nothing really notable about this week. Just easing into things nice and slow. I'm thinking 30mpw on 5 runs this coming week

Wow, some of you guys are already running pretty fast!

I have a lot of work to do to get back in shape. 5 weeks off really did a number on my legs, but I'm happy just to be able to get out there again. If I can get through several weeks with no issues I think I'll be able to really put that hip problem behind me.

5 week break

W1: 30

W2: 35

Will try and go 40 next week with a 9 or 10 mile long run, and possibly a very short tempo to get the legs moving fast again.

Oedipus Rexing wrote:

reed - pretty solid week. Mile repeats with that short rest are no joke. Are you doing Stumptown XC series by chance (you said you were in portland?) ? That'll be most of my xc season.

first, i think averaging 6:20s is pretty fast for runners of our caliber. i average closer to 7:15s most of the time, although portland's trails mean that many of my runs are over 8min/mi

and yeah i'm sure i'll do the local xc series. what city are you in? i don't know much about the xc races yet as i just moved here, but my club does xc.

reed wrote:

Oedipus Rexing wrote:

reed - pretty solid week. Mile repeats with that short rest are no joke. Are you doing Stumptown XC series by chance (you said you were in portland?) ? That'll be most of my xc season.

first, i think averaging 6:20s is pretty fast for runners of our caliber. i average closer to 7:15s most of the time, although portland's trails mean that many of my runs are over 8min/mi

and yeah i'm sure i'll do the local xc series. what city are you in? i don't know much about the xc races yet as i just moved here, but my club does xc.

Yeah, it may be a little fast. I'm not doing workouts for the first time in a while so my legs feel really fresh. I'm sure it will even itself out eventually. During track season I was 6:50 on a good day and quite a bit slower when I was tired so this is a nice change of pace for me.

I'm in Corvallis for most of the year but a portland-area native. I did a few of the stumptown races and really enjoyed them - Good competition, atmosphere, and fun courses.

[quote]reed wrote:

fiortland'or runners of our caliberrst, i think averaging 6:20s is pretty fast fp. i average closer to 7:15s most of the time, although s trails mean that many of my runs are over 8min/mi

Reed, do you mean by "runners of our caliber" as mid level talent ? Because most college runners fall into that category. Most don't achieve the next level of times like say from 4:00/3:55 to 3:55/3:50 and faster 1500 because they lack the strength to hold speed longer than 400 m and have too much injury niggle or worse,down time. Build strength!!

The most effective single strength workout IMO and should be the #1workout in your training is the LR. Do your LT work in the middle of your LR. I would go into a little more detail if anyone on this thread would like.

Good luck in achieving your goals.

The more detail the better. Please do

what i meant by "runners of our caliber" is the 15-16min 5k guys

and please go into more detail if you can.

Starting in base build up for XC, start at 55% of peak goal mileage. All days easy pace (7min) Sat, LR say 10/12 mi. at the beginning and increasing to 15

mi. for a fresman up to 20 mi. for a Jr./Sr. Middle portion of LR is run at LT pace of say 6:00 min. for 4 mi. week 1 6 mi. week 2 8mi. week 3.for a freshman. Upping to 6-8-10 for jr./sr. lower pace 10 sec for next 3 week block until you reach your goal, maybe down to 5:30 for freshman and 5:20 for

jr./sr.

When you can run the 10 mi. portion in 5:20 , you should be able to run sub 25 8k

I'll finish rest of strength/injury/recovery workout tomorrow.

Yeah, of course you can break 25 if you can tempo 10 miles at under 5:20 pace.

Are you trying to say that this is some magic workout or something? I highly doubt that a 20 mile long run with a 10 mile tempo in the middle is necessary to break 25:00. I'd think that if you could tempo ~6 miles at 5:20 you should be knocking at that 25:00 door.

Why all easy days at 7:00 pace? If you want to go faster you should, I doubt that many runners looking to break 25:00 would see much benefit from running at 7:00 pace regardless of mileage.

Nice to see this thread is brought to life again! My goal is sub 27 though! I am finishing the current season in July, here in the UK. XC league starts in November here.

Well were talking about building strength for mid level talent .

There's nothing magical about this workout, this is just plain old work ethic. But

part of the reasoning of this workout is that you do LT work in a somewhat fatigued condition, which is what you need to learn/train to push when your body says slow down.

If you come in freshman year at 26/27 min. 8k ability and focus on building muscular/ aerobic strength you potentially could break 24 by the time your a senior. There is absolutely no reason to run faster than 7min. pace on recovery run in base build. You will add faster workouts in mid July.

So many people feel you need to run most days faster and just end up achieving what I call fit/ fatigued.

If I give you a job digging ditches 7 days a week you will get very fit to a point, if continue for to long your body (fitness) and your mental state will begin to fall apart. This is how so many approach training. Hammer too hard and too often and risk breaking down or running with strains and discomfort or worse.