I am currently 16 weeks into training after a break. This track season my goal is to set prs in every event (which I think I can do coming from an endurance perspective rather than the speed based approach of the past) with my main event being 1500m. In the past I set all my track prs with really low mileage but quality workouts. That brought me success but my goal is to run competitively (which I believe I can do with consistent smart training and staying healthy). When I set my mile pr every week was between 15 and 40 miles (avg 29 mpw) Off low mileage I was able to run low 150s and low 4:teens. As a result though my strength sucked (relatively). I have never broken mid 9s for 3200m or surpassed mid 15s for 5k. After much study I'm convinced high mileage is the key to being a successful middle/distance runner (I'm not content where I'm at). During the last 16 weeks I have been doing high mileage for me averaging over 50mpw. 50 miles is the lowest I'll let my self hit and I try to go higher and have hit over 70 a couple times. The good news is my strength is better than ever and I've been able to run some longer distance prs (10k and up) in practice. I'm pretty confident I can match or break my 5k pr currently. On the other side my speed stinks currently. If I had to guess I'm probably 5-8 secs off my 400m best currently and about 12-15 secs off my 800m best though probably only 15-20 secs off my mile best and 10 - 15 sec off my 3200m best. In my workouts I've been focusing on tempos and longer repeats. Should I start to regularly incorporate shorter and faster repeats or is it better to keep focusing on my strength and focus on speed later in season? Am I focusing too much at slower paces that are irrevelant to my focus or is this setting me up well for later in the season?
Here's my training breakdown (run 6 days a week, 2 workouts typically Tuesday and Saturday, everything else is run at easy or recovery effort) -
88% of my mileage is run at easy/recovery/conversational pace.
12% is at hard effort (my estimated marathon pace down to sprinting pace)
6% has been at my half marathon pace
4% has been at my marathon pace
2% has been at my 10k pace
.75% has been at my 3k/5k pace
.25% has been at mile pace
0% has been at 800m pace or faster
719 easy/recovery miles
101 quality miles (marathon pace or faster)
820 total miles over 16 weeks (51 avg).