4:25 or bust... How to make a breakthrough in last 3 months of HS?

im not as good as you, so i won't try to tell you what to do, but i know what people here will want to know, list what your training has been and your times through high school.

Mileage? In each year of high school?

Amount of speed work?

XC PR's?

When you started running?

Start doing a long run every weekend.

mateyoustink wrote:

im not as good as you, so i won't try to tell you what to do, but i know what people here will want to know, list what your training has been and your times through high school.

Mileage? In each year of high school?

Amount of speed work?

XC PR's?

When you started running?

I'll give my mile progression, since I didn't really run the 3200m much other than junior year (I've rounded the numbers to not give away my identity):

9th- 5:00

10th- 4:50

11th- ~4:35

Mileage progression:

9th- 30-35mpw

10th- 35-40mpw

11th- 45mpw (went as high as 55)

12th- 45-50mpw for the first half of the season, then down to 40 in the weeks before championship races

I only ran 17:00 in XC. Never got to run on a fast course and am more of a track guy. During the beginning of the indoor season, I did a lot of tempo stuff (twice a week). As the season progressed, I started doing two track workouts a week (200s, 400s, 600s).

Other PR's? Recent training / recent mileage?

bazap wrote:

Other PR's? Recent training / recent mileage?

As I said, 10:00 in the 3200m. Also ran 2:04 in the 800. The last couple weeks I've run about 35mpw because it was the end of the season and I was tapering for our championship races. I was doing one interval workout and one race per week. I took a few days off after my season ended and have just done easy runs since to get back into the swing of things.

Have any notable workouts from the past to use as reference? Also how soon do you feel comfortable starting workouts? I would say it is likely time for that soon in addition to getting mileage high up again

You are running too slow, too often and still treating interval work like it is icing on the cake. Run more

Start running 80mpw no buildup. Long run around 15miles, if you have at least 58s 400speed you will definitely run 4:25... OR you will get injured but if you don't try this you won't run 4:25 and will quit running anyway.

I am speaking from experience as I have done this starting at a lower mileage than you and have NOT gotten injured.

idk about what the above posters are saying and I don't think that is really a good idea to listen to that

double except for the saturday or sunday long run, strides every other day, 4M tempo once a week, 6M progression another day, and intervals another day until mid April. But the real action for the mile is going to come from the faster track work at 200-800 intervals and hill sprints. And then I don't know what you did during indoor, but you've been dropping 10-15 seconds a year and so have a very good shot at 4:25 just from physical development and another year of training. But you'll be needing to be doing plenty of workouts like 10x400m (200 jog) at 66 or so to be ready to run 4:25. Your current 800m pr is 62 pace, so speed development is probably necessary but the fact that your 5k xc pr is only 17 flat indicates that the tempos will give you a significant benefit.

I ran 4:20, 4:22, and 4:29 this past winter for an full mile indoor and what I did was run 40 to 50 miles per week. Workouts I would do and be able to pull off was 8 to 10 by 400 at 65 to 68 seconds with 60 to 70 seconds rest. 7x800 at 2:22 average with 15 seconds less rest and 3x1000 in 2:57 with 3 minutes rest if you are able to do these without struggling then you are ready to run sub 4:25. I also would have ran well under sub 4:20 if I did not end up in a sit and kick race.