bigone77 wrote:
Soph in hs, in track season now but i've been thinking about upcoming xc season and summer training. Most mileage I've ever run is 50 mpw and usually avg 35-40. PRs are 4:35 mile, 10:20 2 mile and 17:02 5k. If i want a shot to break 16 this year, should i just go for it and run 70-80 mpw this summer or is the injury risk not worth it?
I wouldn't advice "going for it" this earlier. But first and foremost worry about running fast times this spring and staying healthy and then you can look towards the summer. You're definitely weaker the higher you go up in distance so you're gonna wanna raise your mileage but I wouldn't advice 70-80 quick yet. I broke 16 my senior year of cross off of 50 mpw with a lot of workouts and tempos over the summer. I ended up running 9:12 and 4:15 during track. If you can stay healthy this upcoming summer and do some quality mileage 50-60 range and workouts you should be close to 16:00. Then you can get a solid winter in and "go for it" the summer before your senior year. The last thing you wanna do is screw yourself over by running 80 mpw when you're not ready for it because trust me, you will regret it.