To Sub-5 1600, Sub-17 5000, and Beyond!

Hey man good luck I'm rooting for you!

If there's one thing that I can say and it's probably obvious and said thousands of times on here but still valuable, keep the easy days but still of aerobic quality, hard days hard, and stay in touch with speed.

easy days easy*

sorry my bad

dumba55 wrote:

Hey man good luck I'm rooting for you!

If there's one thing that I can say and it's probably obvious and said thousands of times on here but still valuable, keep the easy days but still of aerobic quality, hard days hard, and stay in touch with speed.

Thanks!

That's the plan.

12/26/16

PM: 3mi E + 3 ST

12/27/16

AM: 3mi E

XT: 25min bike

Is 5:36 what you can run now or your PR from last track season? Any idea what you'd run for an all-out mile right now? If you're running around 5:36 now then I think your chances of breaking 5 this year are really good.

5:36 to 4:59 is a lot though, and I think 4:59 probably correlates better with a 17:30 5k than sub-17.

Not trying to be a downer here, I really hope you do it. I think your times are about the male-equivalent of mine (I'm a girl, obviously) so I really hope that you do succeed haha. (My rule of thumb is that a guy's time * 10/9 is roughly the female equivalent, which means 5:36-> 6:13 and 4:59 -> 5:32).

I haven't had a hip flexor injury but I do have very weak hip flexors. Are you allowed to or supposed to be doing exercises for that? I can post the exercises my PT gave me if you want. A lot of them use a resistance band, which hurts a ton but I think that means it's working lol

Breaking 5:00 this year isn't impossible but it might be a stretch, I bet you can break 5 before you graduate though. Best of luck!

To clarify, if you're running 5:36 *now* then I think you'll most likely break 5. If that's a PR from last year and you're running slower than that right now, then it's more iffy.

The 5:36 was from a TT just a few weeks ago (before injury). I had done a workout that indicated 5:20 or lower. I think 5 in the spring isn't reaching too much ... with the right training.

Everyone is different when it comes to natural speed vs. endurance, so I don't know exactly where I'll be at in the fall.

I have started doing some overall leg and hip stability exercises.

Are you running in HS?

Thanks for posting, feel free to post any of your training if you wish! Good luck to you too!

Ah, I see. My bad, I was thinking that 5:36 was what you ran at your peak last year. In that case I would definitely go for sub 5, and wouldn't be surprised if you're significantly faster.

Yeah, I'm a junior but didn't start running until the very end of freshman year, and wasn't on a team until sophomore year. I could barely finish a mile freshman year haha. I have exertional compartment syndrome so that's been messing up my training but I'm still optimistic. Also had a stress fracture before which is healed now but made me miss a lot of XC.

My training today is actually super similar to yours. 2.75 miles + 30 minutes biking (stationary bike).

Since my injury makes it hard for me run a lot I've been trying to compensate with biking to build a decent aerobic base. Not sure if it's working yet but I hope it does lol

I heard you can't go very high mileage with compartment syndrome, so biking for aerobic fitness sounds like a great idea.

I use a stationary bike too. Two winters ago the only thing I did was bike over the winter (around 1 hour a day). Going into that winter I had a mile PR around 7:10 (I was super slow, first mile I ever ran was ~9:30 at 13 xD) and then coming out of that winter after only a few mile TTs by myself (no other running but the TTs), I was under 6:20. But that's just mostly because biking greatly improved my overall body and aerobic fitness, not my running speed.

Keep it up though!

12/28/16

AM: 4mi E + 4 ST

XT: weights

Get out the door for an easy 30 minutes every morning. That's an extra 20 miles a week.

That's basically how I started out too haha. My best mile in middle school was 7:59, then I got down to low 7s once I started to run. Freshman year I would walk/run the mile and get like 11:30 haha. Last year in December I ran low 7s but then barely ran in winter and ran 7:30 in January. Ended up getting down to 6:15 by May (on like 12 miles a week with no cross training lol) so I'm hoping for 5:50 ish this year.

Yeah the compartment syndrome sucks, the pain pretty much corresponds with my miles so the more I run, the more it hurts xD It's not that bad when my mileage is low though, so this season I'm probably going to run like 15 mpw and cross train a bunch. I know I'm not very fast but I'm optimistic that I can get faster if I can get over the compartment syndrome and run more than 15 mpw haha

Good point. Thanks.

I don't want to raise my mileage too fast yet, but I plan on doing a morning easy runs later on.

12/29/16

XT: 45 min bike

12/30/16

AM: 5mi L + 4 ST

NK wrote:

Male sophmore in high school.

Current mile PR: 5:36 TT

Haven't run 5000m TT or race.

Goal is a sub-5 mile spring 2017 and a somewhat stretch goal sub-17 5000 fall 2017.

Coming out of a minor hip flexor injury and at ~20 mpw. Most I've ever run in a week was around 35 (immediately before injury).

I'll post my training and progress here.

Call me crazy, but its worth a shot I guess.

Don't panic. You will get faster just by physically maturing. 1:00 is nothing to a growing boy.

Just don;t get hurt, concentrate on racing tactics / strategy, and running efficiency. Let your birthdays take care of the rest.

blow my floats wrote:

Don't panic. You will get faster just by physically maturing. 1:00 is nothing to a growing boy.

Just don;t get hurt, concentrate on racing tactics / strategy, and running efficiency. Let your birthdays take care of the rest.

Thanks for the encouraging words!

I'm really trying to do it right this time around. Slowly building mileage at an easy overall pace before adding too much long speed.

Is there an resource you would recommend on racing strategy? Or does it just come from experience and watching races?

The other day I was skimming through this:

https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Honea,%20David_2012_Thesis.pdf

It's basically about how cross training affects running performance. The short and simplified version is that bike workouts will improve VO2 Max but won't improve running economy nearly as much as running does (no surprise). I recommend you skip to around page 30.

So my conclusion is that, for people like us who are logging a substantial amount of bike time, we ought to look at how we can improve our running economy to keep up with the aerobic/VO2max improvements. Running at goal pace, sprinting, and strength training are possible ways to do so.

I think sprinting can improve lactate threshold as well.

Don't take my word for anything though, check out what the paper says.

The page 30 section on the different efficiency types is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

They talk about three different types of efficiency for running:

Biomechanical efficiency - "the mechanical cost of running and includes such factors as energy storage and how wasteful a movement pattern is"

Neural efficiency - "an improvement in the communication between the nervous system and the muscles themselves"

Metabolic efficiency - "factors that impact the production of energy for the muscles to use"

Biomechanical efficiency at a certain pace will probably be improved by running at that pace and learning it.

Neural efficiency, if I remember correctly, can be greatly improved through strides, drills, sprints, and strength training - practicing using all the muscle fibers.

Metabolic efficiency should be improvable through any physical activity, including running and biking... right? I think that should be true.

In other words, I just stated what you have already. :D "Running at goal pace, sprinting, and strength training" should improve running economy.

"Frustrated runner," do you do strides often during or after your easy runs?

I also found this paragraph on page 33 (actual pg. 24) very interesting, it goes in the face of the "180 is the best cadence" movement: (RE = running efficiency/economy)

Again, very interesting article! Happy New Years Eve!