Prior to breaking 16:30, what were your PR's and mileage?

10:06, 4:46 in track sophomore year.

I ran 20- 30 miles a week summer before junior xc. Ran 16:0x twice and 16:20-16:3x repeatedly during season. High school did not have a good program so training was less than ideal.

Got considerably faster junior track and senior xc. after adding morning runs, long runs and faster tempos.

Second Hill wrote:

10:06, 4:46 in track sophomore year.

I ran 20- 30 miles a week summer before junior xc. Ran 16:0x twice and 16:20-16:3x repeatedly during season. High school did not have a good program so training was less than ideal.

Got considerably faster junior track and senior xc. after adding morning runs, long runs and faster tempos.

Wow you are very talented!

I hope I can get there with my 60-70 mpw with tempos and long runs. My PR's in track were 4:49 and 10:16.

I would love to run that fast! My 3 mile PR is 16:56 so not that fast yet. My times prior are also quite slow, only 5:23 for 1600 and 2:24 for 800m.

Friendly stranger wrote:

I would love to run that fast! My 3 mile PR is 16:56 so not that fast yet. My times prior are also quite slow, only 5:23 for 1600 and 2:24 for 800m.

Keep training good and you'll eventually get there! Consistency is key!

Pnut wrote:

For when you first broke 16:30 in the 5K during a cross country season, what did you do beforehand? Specifically:

-Track PR's in the 800, 1500/1600, 3000/3200

-Summer mileage, workouts, and any road races

-In-season workouts

Thanks!

800-2:04

1600-4:35

3200-9:54

French Dawg wrote:

Pnut wrote:

For when you first broke 16:30 in the 5K during a cross country season, what did you do beforehand? Specifically:

-Track PR's in the 800, 1500/1600, 3000/3200

-Summer mileage, workouts, and any road races

-In-season workouts

Thanks!

800-2:04

1600-4:35

3200-9:54

Wow you are a speedster. My 800 PR is only 2:12; I need to work on that.

PRs Before sub-16:30:

800 - 2:04

1600 - 4:35

3200 - 9:55 (In practice)

5000 (XC) - 16:54

8000 - 27:06

Broke 16:30 solo in a 5k road race after XC freshman year of college (won by 2 minutes and ran 16:10.)

Pnut wrote:

For when you first broke 16:30 in the 5K during a cross country season, what did you do beforehand? Specifically:

-Track PR's in the 800, 1500/1600, 3000/3200

-Summer mileage, workouts, and any road races

-In-season workouts

Thanks!

~ 17:45 (Freshman cross)

4:52 / 10:11 (Freshman track; clearly no speed yet)

Low mileage; fast paces. No summer workouts coming into sophomore cross. Just cruising and a longish run. We did a lot of ladder fartleks, short and long hill work and hard 800m repeats in cross. Broke 16:30 by the end of the season.

Junior track:

800: don't remember, potentially as slow as 2:12

1600: 4:41

3200: 10:07

~35 miles a week over the summer. Hit 40 once. Like another poster said, most of this fast. Only workout of note:

3xmile: 5:14, 5:04, 4:54 with 3:00 rest.

Worth noting perhaps that I ran 16:37 as a junior in xc. Summer mileage similar but a little lower/less intense. Track prs of 5:04 and 11:20.

Ran many races just under or over 17 on track. Probably ran only 55 to 65mpw but lots of very hard speed work. It's really not that hard when you're young. I would have done it easier if I didn't focus on school work so much. I wasn't getting enough rest/sleep because there simply wasn't enough time in the day. Running sub 15, now that's hard. You need talent for that. 72 seconds per lap is lot harder than 75 at that level.

2:07

4:38

9:54

Previous 5K was 18:20 on hilly course the year before, off of ~40 miles/week

I ran 60-70 mile weeks and did a lot (too much) of speed work. Did fast 200s or 400s (30 sec/67 sec), ladders, and 800s (2:30), 3X a week.

progression 16:34, 16:27, 16:15 over about 6 weeks-then I flamed out. But did run 33:00 road 10K 3 months later.