Training log and goals of an HS runner

Almost forgot, Junior Year goals are:

5k - 16:59

3200 - 10:30 (not too important to me, more of an 800/1600 guy)

1600 - 4:45

800 - 2:05

400 - 56 (although not really important)

nice, I have similar goals and times as you. I'm also gonna be a junior.

My prs are:

5k: 18:47 (22 as frosh)

3200m: 11:13

1600m: 4:57

800m: 2:19

I also want to break 17 this year, nobody on my team has done it in a while. Currently running about 50 miles per week.

looks like a pretty good plan to me

you are doing so much more than I did in my day

those long runs are great

you might surpise yourself this season

use your teammate to improve by gauging off of him in both training and racing

by that I mean just as you said you ran with him for 1/2 that run before dropping off - yes, that how you do it. eventually you will find you stick with him for longer and longer

if you race that way - where you go with him, that might work but if you find you drop off a lot (and end up really losing a lot of time) might be best to just let him go on race day and find your own pace...but in the beginning of the season I would say give it try - go with him and see how it goes.

I'm more of a 400m runner with a personal best of 50.8. I don't have much advice but I do XC. your PB is better than mine by 20 seconds. I think sub 17 is possible for you. I had a team mate go from 19min first race to 16:59 literally at our conference meet in one season as a freshman. He averaged I believe around 50 miles. He also played hockey on the same days so he was in good shape. I'm going to be a senior and I saw the breakthrough for my running times my junior year. Your body is still growing/developing so I bet you will be similar. I'd try to stick with the senior if you can. Make sure you get proper rest and your easy days are actually easy. Don't push yourself on these days so you can run hard and better yourself on the hard ones. I love speed so I think that will definitely help your kick and even your 4/8 times. Hills and drills are also important. Also, I was really lazy about strides but I think doing strides before your workouts and also after your easy runs is beneficial. 6-8x100m is good and would help your speed. I'll let other posters talk about speed work because my speed work is geared towards my 400m. I'm sure a workout I do like 6x60m alactic all out sprints with full rest would help your pure speed but I don't know how beneficial that is for XC.

TNE wrote:

nice, I have similar goals and times as you. I'm also gonna be a junior.

My prs are:

5k: 18:47 (22 as frosh)

3200m: 11:13

1600m: 4:57

800m: 2:19

I also want to break 17 this year, nobody on my team has done it in a while. Currently running about 50 miles per week.

Hey, thanks for the reply, I've seen your posts and threads before, you look pretty good too. As for my team, 3 guys are sub 17 with 3 sub 18 and a bunch should be sub 19, top 5 are all seniors this year, we're kinda loaded for our division to be honest. In order to make varsity, I have to beat out a freshman who runs 8:15 1.5 mile (I can run that fast now, but he's still pretty good, his only problem is adjusting to HS varsity miles). Again, thanks for the reply.

jerrry wrote:

looks like a pretty good plan to me

you are doing so much more than I did in my day

those long runs are great

you might surpise yourself this season

use your teammate to improve by gauging off of him in both training and racing

by that I mean just as you said you ran with him for 1/2 that run before dropping off - yes, that how you do it. eventually you will find you stick with him for longer and longer

if you race that way - where you go with him, that might work but if you find you drop off a lot (and end up really losing a lot of time) might be best to just let him go on race day and find your own pace...but in the beginning of the season I would say give it try - go with him and see how it goes.

Thanks for the reply! What you're talking about with the stay with him as long as I can and then catch up is exactly what him and I are trying to do, I just wasn't sure if I'm going too hard, because it did feel sorta "crazy" fast, but I guess we'll see this season. Again thanks for the reply, it really helped sorta cool my little worrying about it.

Thanks for this reply, that was a lot of info. I'm really hoping this year is mine, I've always trained hard, but I'm really trying to kick it in gear now and get a "breakthrough" year. Also, completely forgot to mention, we do strides Mon, Wed, Fri called x drills where we do a 75 - 100m stride (it's on a little baseball field at our HS) and that the diagonal of an "x" and then we jog (or sometimes walk if it was more of a sprint that time) and then stride the other diagonal and jog to the start and that 1 x drill. With no break between each one, since you already get to jog after each stride, we do 4 x drills usually and I can beat everyone on my team, probably the sub 17 guys too (my brother is a senior and he ran 16:5x and I can easily out stride/sprint him), but they're always after our runs so probably not as fast as they feel. Also, I run them barefoot because it's on grass and it feels refreshing to do it that way. So, in total I do about 8 strides each of those days. Thanks for the reply!

I'm a senior hoping to run under 16 minute 5k my best it 17:01 but I'm sure I could beat that now.

My top tips are:

1.Consistently run high mileage weeks. (I got 17:01 with 25 mpw. Trashy mileage but what I did run was quality. If I would've done 50-60 miles a week I probably would've broken 16 last year)

2.Take easy days easy so speed days can be faster.

3. You need a long run once a week around 12 miles. 6:5x pace is suggested for 17:xx runner.

4. Make sure you do hills. Either on a medium length run or do 400m hill repeats.

5. Do 5ish mile tempo once a week.

6. Try lifting some(squat, lunge, dead lift, run on a treadmill when it's off)

7. Stretch every time after you run to recover faster and prevent injury.

8. Drink lots of water all the time.

9. Get running partners.

Sorry this is kind of long but that's the things that have worked for me.

I WENT FROM 18.51 TO 17:01 SOPH TO JUNIOR YEAR so it's definitely possible

your training week looks good ...

two criticisms:

your "easy" runs are too fast.

incorporate progression runs ... it looks like you run too fast in the beginning of your LTs and can't hold that pace in the end. if you practice building up your pace gradually, this would translate well for your racing.

Since I've had a few helpful posts already, I thought I'd just mention a few extra things. First, I've had a 3.9 mile fun run/race where about 9 of us guys from my team just did because we could, and I ran 29:59 (terrible, I know. I ran faster on Wednesday) and my miles were 6:15 ish and averaged 8:15 for the other 2.9 miles. I will say it was hot and I was dehydrated and my shins were acting up, but since then I've been icing and doing workouts for my shin to relieve pain (I also like to bike and 10 to 20 mile rides seem to help my shins). Next thing is my racing schedule goes like this:

Aug 22nd, Tues, 2.96 mi camp race at 7am to determine varsity (top 6 by time and 7 is up to coach but is usually by time) also made varsity last year, got sick after 3rd race and petered out getting close to PR again, but not quite (18:3x compared to 18:1x)

Sept 9, Sat, 2.5 mi Invitational (went my freshman year as well and ran 17:2x, horrible, hoping for 14:xx this year)

Sept 16, Sat, 3 mi Invitational, very very long big hill last .5 mi (ran 17:59 last year on varsity)

Sept 27, Wed, 5k dual meet with one semi strong team (lost a bunch of fast seniors) and one bad XC team for league at home course

Sept 30, Sat, 5k invitational, reallyyy big meet, ran PR here, looking forward to it

Oct 4, Wed, 5k dual meet with biggest competitor team in the state for our division at home course

Oct 7, Sat, 5k Invitational, another reallyyy big meet, never been to, but people PR here from lots of competition

Oct 11, Wed, 5k dual meet with one crap team and one mediocre team for a league meet

Oct 17, Tue, 5k dual meet with worst team in our league and another mediocre one

Oct 26, Thu, 5k districts, our team should be #1

Nov 4, Sat, 5k State meet, should take first, maybe 2nd

After that we might have other extra meets, but not too important for me unless somehow I make it to footlocker, but not likely.

Little random info, longest run of the summer is 15.8 mi and we'll run that twice this year, coach has us doing a slower, gentler buildup this season since a bunch of us ten d to get injured easy, last year we did three or four of that run.

My mom was a runner in HS, ran 7th at state for her division with a 18:xx 3 mile, grandpa ran in HS and college and ran sub 15 3 mi in HS and ran a 30:30 10k in college and supposedly sub 4 mi (after college), but can't find any record of that, and sub 9, 2 mile in college, a pretty fast dude.

That's all for now, thanks guys!

Thanks for the input, this helps. I know my easy day was really fast Tuesday, but I felt good so I just took it, but I know what you mean. Under 7 pace for that long is still pretty hard for me, but I'll see what I can do Saturday. We do Hills every week, next week will be repeats up a 400m hill that's really steep. The training type isn't up to me, so tempo is up to coach. I forgot to mention this, we do weights on Tuesday and Thursday after practice and I wouldn't say it's intense, but it's definitely not easy. I sometimes wimp our on stretches, I'll try doing it more. I try with the water, I'm just not great at it. I have plenty of running partners, it just changes from day to day. Really hoping I do what you did, so thanks!

Shorter Than Frank wrote:

your training week looks good ...

two criticisms:

your "easy" runs are too fast.

incorporate progression runs ... it looks like you run too fast in the beginning of your LTs and can't hold that pace in the end. if you practice building up your pace gradually, this would translate well for your racing.

Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna try and work on that. I think it really just depends on the day and the circumstances and having LT on Monday isn't as great for me because I don't run sunday, but that's my fault. Anyways, thanks for the reply, it really helps to get feedback.

Agree with all of that - good tips. I would add minimum 8 hours sleep every night. And eat a lot of fresh fruit every day. If I do both of those (far too often I don't) I feel rocket fuelled.

Thanks man, I'll definitely keep that in mind. I do need more sleep and I really do need to work on my diet. Thanks for the reply, it's pretty awesome to get so many so soon!

Forgot yet another thing. I run an extra 2 mi at night on Mon, Wed, Fri to help with recovery at an easy pace (it's with friends so sometimes we screw off and sprint a little).

Your training sounds really good then. Another thing is don't eat lots of sugars and greasy foods. I'd recommend you go up to 50 mpw and stay around that. With everything you're doing and 50 mpw you should break 17 soon.

When you do speed and race always think if there's an extra gear you can run at. Last year I hit 17:3x for most the races until in an invite I decided to try and pass as many people as possible in the last two miles. If I was running with a group and I had any energy I'd pick my pace up and pass the frick out of people. When people on my team would say to pass people I'd almost sprint past them no matter if it was uphill or what. I ended up passing 67 people and not getting passed ( there was around 300 people in the race) got 16:22 but the race was around 2.9 or something.

Often times I think our body is too used to a certain pace so we just have to break that pace.

Thanks you so much, this is exactly the kind of advice I need. I'm definitely going to try this, I really need help with my racing strategy, do thank you so much. And I think my coach plans on hitting about low 60's for our summer peak, but we build for about 3 or 4 weeks and then take a massive cut back (about 10 to 20 mi/week) and then build back up, and this buildup ends right at our XC campout, so we'll probably stay steady instead of cut for the camp out and then when the season starts we'll probably cut back mileage and start doing speed. Again, thanks for the great reply man!

Sounds like you have a good coach. I've had to partially coach myself through high school. Like make excuses to miss practice to train on my own and add doubles a lot. What state and school do you go to?

Sub16goal wrote:

Sounds like you have a good coach. I've had to partially coach myself through high school. Like make excuses to miss practice to train on my own and add doubles a lot. What state and school do you go to?

Yeah, he's a great coach, he's had two sub 1:55 800 guys and one 1:56, a bunch of sub 4:20 and he used to coach in California and now he's here in Washington with us, trying to keep a little anonymity so won't say school but it's 1a. I won't be skipping because my mom is an assistant coach ( which doesn't leave a ton of fun for me), but if it were bad I could do that anyways though. Thanks for replying again!