2017 25 Minute 8k XC thread

Howdy y'all, good to see a lot of new names along with some familiar ones.

Nice 1500 thedub!

Last week was all easy runs, 39 miles.

This week was 56 with 2 days with strides and a "long" run of 10 miles. No doubles yet, I'll start on those next week. Still keeping things fairly relaxed for now.

Also as I mentioned in another thread I will be running sans-watch all summer, I think it'll be a good way to tune into my body.

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 7.06 miles at 7:47 pace

Wednesday: 4.07 miles at 7:49 pace, 6.06 miles at 7:49 pace

Thursday: 6.05 miles at 7:50 pace

Friday: 7.07 miles at 7:38 pace (Hill run)

Saturday: 4.02 miles at 7:55 am, 6.11 miles at 7:33 pace pm (Was trying to go slow, but I apparently ran fast)

Sunday: 11.07 miles at 7:15 pace

Total: 51.51 miles

2nd attempt at 50 mpw went well! Took most of this week easy because legs were dead. On Tuesday, I used the normatec and by the end of the week, my legs felt fine. I'll still do the same thing this coming week, but maybe a little faster for the paces.

Goal for this week: 59 miles. Last week of easy running before I got my first tempo run for the fall season. #SummerofMalmo

Mine as well hop back in this year!

Shut down the track season early, got pretty beat attempting to put some speed back in these legs. I took a solid 2 months of easy jogging a few times a week while academic life kicked in hard for the term. This past week was my first week back.

M: 50' + drills

T: 59' + drills

W: 62'

R: 47'

F: 10 x 300m hills

S: rest

S: 85' + strides

Easy mileage week felt good. Got a road 10k on July 4th that is going to be a swift kick to the crotch. Hope getting in 2 workouts this next week helps the legs wake up a little.

Last week was my first full week. After track season ended I took one week off and ran every other day for another week before getting back into it.

M: dynamics, 4.3, 4x110 barefoot strides

T: progressive 4 (6:32, 6:07, 5:47, 5:35), .4 down

W: dynamics, 5.5 on a hilly XC course, 6x15s barefoot strides

Th: dynamics, 4 with last quarter at tempo

F: 4.8 progressive, (7:07, 6:42, 6:12, last .8 @ 5:36 pace), 4x20s strides

S: 7 miles, 6:30-6:50 pace

S: off (I will have one day off every week)

Total: 30 miles, I did core a few times as well. My core workouts usually involve around 100 pushups, 5ish ab exercises, 2ish back exercises, leg lifts, bodyweight squats and lunges.

Pretty average first week. It's hard to truly run easy when there are no planned workouts, so I should probably be a little more careful with that. I have had bad experiences in the past with running too hard on easy days so I need to just set good habits early.

I hope everyone's training is going well!

Glad to see another 8K thread with some familiar names!

I posted fairly frequently in last year's thread, but in the past year I've only been able to go to 3 races: a road 5K in 16:39 last fall, a track 5000m this Spring in 16:16, and then a 1500m soon after in 4:13. The 4:13 was a bit of a breakthrough for me, I was in shape to run under 4:10 I think, but I couldn't stay in peak shape long enough for another race to come around. My goal for next year will be to break 4 minutes, or at least see how close I can get.

This fall I have a few goals:

1) PR in the 5K, hopefully breaking 16 minutes.

2) Run an 8K in under 26:30.

3) Maybe run a half-marathon.

My attendance at races this year will heavily depend on the functionality of my car. Hopefully it'll hold up.

I forgot to put my goals in for this fall.

-sub 26 8k

-sub 16 5k

-sub 10 2 mile. My pr is 10:03. I'm sure in my best shape (when I ran 4:11 1500) I can do it.

This week was a fail. Things were going great until Saturday. I was going to do my 2nd run of the day, but as I was about to go... my family wanted me to eat dinner with them. Took a while and by the time I was done, it was late at night. This coming week, I plan to do 60 or a little over 60.

Monday: 4.02 7:50 pace

Tuesday: 7.08 7:49 pace (wanted to take it easy)

Wednesday: 4.06 am 8:00 pace (Reasonable because of weights on Tuesday and barely had 12 hours of recovery from Tuesday's run), 7.07 (7:37 pace) pm

Thursday: 6.08 (7:44 pace)

Friday: 7.05 (Didnt do hill run because of time constraints. So I did a 7 mile run and in the middle miles I ran 10 x 1 min on and off. The mile splits for these were 6:50, 6:47, and 6:48).. 7:15 pace overall.

Saturday: 4.03 7:51 pace

Sunday: 12.11 7:15 pace

Total: 51.52 (LOL! 0.01 higher than last week.)

Quick summary of training thus far:

w1: 3 runs, 11 miles

w2: 5 runs, 20.5 miles

w3: 6 runs 32 miles

w4: 7 runs 45 miles (6:48avg pace)

No workouts, doubles, or strides yet. Hoping to hit 55-60ish this coming week

Nothing too exciting going on here...last week was 50.0 in 6 runs, two of which were ~10 miles. Going for 50-something this week and starting workouts next week.

Decent week for me. 62 miles in 6 runs with a planned day off, long run of 13, and 2 days with strides and a (very) light unplanned progression. Meant to get in doubles but I didn't want to get up early... I liked the longer singles this week but I will throw in a few morning runs in these next couple days. No planned workouts until next week, but I'll probably wind up doing a progression during a run or something similar

Running without a watch is still surpassing my expectations by the way, I encourage you all to try.

Welcome back clonedDuck!!

Oedipus Rexing wrote:

Decent week for me. 62 miles in 6 runs with a planned day off, long run of 13, and 2 days with strides and a (very) light unplanned progression. Meant to get in doubles but I didn't want to get up early... I liked the longer singles this week but I will throw in a few morning runs in these next couple days. No planned workouts until next week, but I'll probably wind up doing a progression during a run or something similar

Running without a watch is still surpassing my expectations by the way, I encourage you all to try.

Welcome back clonedDuck!!

Cheers bud!

Kicked the training right up this past week. Fitness was gained, legs are trashed, life is good. Didn't mention above, but I'm doing twin cities marathon (Oct 1). I was hoping to get a few XC races in before to tune up but looks like they pushed back Dellinger meet to same week as TCM. Any idea when that 6k XC race up in Corvallis is?

M- 6 / 4 easy double

T- 12 w 7 at 5:48 avg

W- 8 easy

R- 9 w/ tempo effort up mile long hill

F- 12 x 300 hill

S - 6 / 4 easy double

S - hilly 15

Total: ~75

Road 10k tomorrow. Not a clue how it is going to go off of 2 weeks of training and legs are knackered. Plan is stick myself in it and see how much pain I can handle.

Monday: 4.07 miles 7:54 pace

Tuesday: 4 mile tempo: 2.52 WU, 4 mile tempo, 2.26 CD. 4 mile tempo at 5:54 pace (5:55, 5:59, 5:54, 5:48).

It wasn't too bad because there was wind at the backstretch. I also ran a tempo run after 5 weeks of easy running. I also shouldn't be hammering these tempo runs. Thoughts?

Wednesday: 5.04 miles at 7:58 pace; 7.05 miles at 7:50 pace (felt flat)

Thursday: 6.02 miles at 7:45 pace

Friday: 7.09 miles at 7:44 pace

Saturday: 5.01 miles @ 8:01 pace; 6.12 miles at 7:44 pace

Sunday: 12.24 miles. 7:28 (Hills in the beginning and breathing was whacked)

Total: 61.42

Most likely will be shooting for 68 miles this coming week.

Alright week for me ... 64 miles with one (unplanned) day off - I got a bee sting on my foot on Tuesday and couldn't fit in my shoe the next day! Be careful when running barefoot. No workouts but got in 2 days of doubles and 3 days of strides, longest run of 11 miles and a few fast-ish segments on some runs.

I'll start in with an easy tempo next week as I officially start building up for the season.

Cloned Duck - I'm not sure about the Corvallis 6k race this season, the team got a new coach so a lot may change, but I'll keep you posted.

xperirunner wrote:

Monday: 4.07 miles 7:54 pace

Tuesday: 4 mile tempo: 2.52 WU, 4 mile tempo, 2.26 CD. 4 mile tempo at 5:54 pace (5:55, 5:59, 5:54, 5:48).

It wasn't too bad because there was wind at the backstretch. I also ran a tempo run after 5 weeks of easy running. I also shouldn't be hammering these tempo runs. Thoughts?

Wednesday: 5.04 miles at 7:58 pace; 7.05 miles at 7:50 pace (felt flat)

Thursday: 6.02 miles at 7:45 pace

Friday: 7.09 miles at 7:44 pace

Saturday: 5.01 miles @ 8:01 pace; 6.12 miles at 7:44 pace

Sunday: 12.24 miles. 7:28 (Hills in the beginning and breathing was whacked)

Total: 61.42

Most likely will be shooting for 68 miles this coming week.

clonedduck, good luck with the upcoming marathon training. getting in some xc races is a good way to prepare, although I think road races are better. Last fall when I was doing all the stumptown races, I never felt like I was racing well, and then I crushed a road 10k and then my marathon. so basically, I'm suggesting that you don't worry too much about the xc season races, and just think of them as good tune ups before the marathon.

WARNING: LONG POST COMING

xperirunner, I'm guessing you're young, probably frosh or soph in college? I'm the "old guy" of this thread at a whopping 24 years old. anyway, you remind me of myself a few years ago.

(ok now although this comment is directed at xperirunner, it applies to everybody here...you younger college kids just starting to take your running more seriously. some of you reading this don't even post here, you just read the thread, which is fine.)

but anyway, just based on seeing a couple of your posts it seems like you may be worrying too much about the details. hundredths of miles...exact paces for easy runs...I used to do the same thing until I realized that nobody needs to know if you ran 4.07 or 4.13 miles at 7:57 or 7:54 pace. not only are those details extraneous, but it could get you into the wrong mindset about training. you should spend more time worrying about the big picture things, and not the exact paces of your easy jogs. you could probably go search for the 2013 version of this 8k xc thread and I was doing the same things. And at the time I was concerned with every tenth of a mile I ran, which isn't a big deal until you have a single bad day or a bad week, and you let it get into your head. Earlier you said your week hadn't been great because you missed a single evening run, which probably was gonna be a 4mi jog or something. You can't let those kinds of things get in your head. When you're working full time, there are gonna be days where you don't have time to run, but you can't think that your day or week or month is ruined because you missed one easy day.

anyway, I hope that didn't come out as negative or as some kind of insult. I just don't want other kids making the mistakes I made a few years ago.

as for my training (which is not aimed at cross country but rather a trail 50 miler in november plus some other long trail races along the way)

M 10.5 easy, flat

T 8 easy on trails

W 11 hilly miles, 2200' climbing

Th 9 hilly but easy

F 8 easy w/ strides. flat

Sa 18 miles (4960' climbing) in 3:22 (11:30/mi) on the timberline trail around Mt Hood. lots of snow still

Su really easy 5.7 mile jog at 9min pace. quads feeling okay but body is tired

total 70 miles in ~10hr15min (avg pace 8:40/mi LOL) with 10,500' climbing. this felt more like an 80 mile week because

I'm really starting to feel like an ultrarunner now. saturday's run was crazy, I did it solo in the warm afternoon. it's sort of at altitude (started at 6000, went down to 3400 before going back up to 6000) which makes the uphills SLOW. this was tied as my hilliest run ever (last week I did 17 miles with 5000' of vert) but this week was my hilliest ever by a good margin.

I might hop into a 3k steeple on tuesday if I'm not still sore from saturday. will probably aim for 10:0x or something. haven't done any speedwork or hurdles in months...what could go wrong?

Reed.. I'm the same age as you and I did post in the 2014 thread. In fact, I work full time and I can still fit in my runs.

I do get what you are talking about, but its just something I like to do. I don't want to be vague and have people asking me questions.That day, I missed a 7 mile run and it was on a Saturday. At first, I wasn't happy, but after reading Nick Symmonds training plan from 2012, I realize it isn't a big deal... I just got to go from 51 to 61-63, which is what I did.

I find this interesting, but idk. I'll still do what I've been doing when it comes to posting these things. The only things I really care about is fast times, being healthy, and good workouts.

Last week's mileage

7

7

7.5

7.5

6

11

6

total = 52 @6:55avg

Plan is to hit 60 this week, maybe with some strides. So far this week:

7

5.5, 3.5 double

May as well jump in on the fun.

I am an incoming college (d3) freshman. My pr's all from senior year of hs are:

2:05 (800)

4:27 (1600)

9:47 (3200)

1:15 (1/2 marathon)

So far this summer, I have been doing easy mileage with a few tempos and workouts. I took a week off after states and I'm running 75 mpw at the moment and look to build up to 85/90 by end of July.

I've done all my tempos and workouts on the treadmill (1.0% incline).

My workouts and tempos on the treadmill have been:

1.) 30 mins @ 5:20 /mile

2.) 40 mins @ 5:40 /mile

3.) 4x1 mile @ 5:00/mile with 2 mins rest

4.) 3x2mile @ 5:10/mile with 3 mins rest

On the 4th of July I ran a 20k race in 1:10 (5:39)

I've become preferential now to using the treadmill for the rest of the summer for tempos and longer intervals. Idk if this is a good idea or if I should switch to doing them on the road.

At this point in the summer, what would you recommend my training look like? I plan to do a tempo run and workout per week and keep mileage at about 85 and take a rest day every 10 or so days. I want to break 26:30 for the 8k this year. Glad to be along for the ride.

I'm happy to join the fun.

As a 28-year-old college head distance coach, I'm sure I'm different than most on this thread. Formerly pretty decent. 8k PB of 24:04. 3:50/14:21/29:44 on the track. Haven't run a PB in over 6 years. Taking things seriously again, and basically trying to train like I did when I was in college (at least for the summer...Things are bound to go downhill again once the season begins, I fear.)

Mileage so far:

Week 1 - 48

Week 2 - 58

Week 3 - 68

Trying to get to 75 this week, which is about as high as I'll go this summer.

Workouts have not gone well so far. 5:20 pace feels like 5:00 pace. But I think things will get better, and at least I'm getting out the door and putting in the work. That's more than I could say for most of the past 6 years.

I won't have many racing opportunities in the fall given the coaching duties, but nonetheless, my goals for the season: Sub 25 for 8k. Sub 32 for 10k XC.

Good luck everyone!

Thanks Reed!

Keep updated on the thread about that 6k. I'm thinking Sun Dodger in Seattle might happen, it's 2 weeks before my marathon.

M- 35' easy + strides/drills

T - 34:04 for road 10k

W- 3 easy

R- 11 w/ last 3 down around 6 flat

F- AM: 44' easy / PM: 4 easy + strides/drills/plyos

S- 65' with 2 mi/2mi/1mi, 0.5 mi rec- 10:52/10:52/5:16

S- 1:53 on mckenzie river trail

total: upper 60's

10k was fun. Didn't have a watch, heard no splits, and was in no mans land majority of race. Had no gauge on pace other than I wasn't comfortable. Not too worried about the time despite being a minute faster last year. I feel the fitness coming back pretty quickly after a few months of not doing much.