How much will higher mileage help?

i think you could be a little bit faster but you don't have any real talent with those times

Sorry to say but the above reply is pretty dumb and untrue. 4:58 and 17:45 on 35-40mpw is pretty good. You, being a junior, will probably see improvement just maintaining this mileage and staying consistent with it and the workouts you add. I'd wager you will improve substantially if you raise your mileage, but 60 or 70 over the next couple months to 1 year is a lot in my opinion. Work on raising it to 50-55mpw in base; the main objective is to stay consistent and not get injured. Improvement will come.

m;sdfm wrote:

Sorry to say but the above reply is pretty dumb and untrue. 4:58 and 17:45 on 35-40mpw is pretty good. You, being a junior, will probably see improvement just maintaining this mileage and staying consistent with it and the workouts you add. I'd wager you will improve substantially if you raise your mileage, but 60 or 70 over the next couple months to 1 year is a lot in my opinion. Work on raising it to 50-55mpw in base; the main objective is to stay consistent and not get injured. Improvement will come.

Thanks for the serious response. I think I’ll just stick with the 2 to 4 mi runs in the morning then, averaging about 15-20, because my coach has us average about 35 in the winter, and I have no control over that.

What else could I do to improve?

I was in the same position as you. I ran a 5:00 1600m off of maybe 30-40 miles per week. Over the summer and over 3 months, I built up to 80 miles a week. Now I am 15:44 5k runner in cross country, 15:22 three mile runner in xc, sub 4:30 miler, and I’m almost positive I can break 2:00 or at least get close if I raced it. It is definitely worth increasing your mileage. And it would undoubtedly help the shorter distances like the 1600 and 800. Just make sure you stay consistent with the mileage in the offseason AND during the season. And stay injury free. Also don’t forget to do a few strides after every run.

So basically everything will improve, especially he longer distance races like the 5k and 2 mile

Shoot for 50 mpw for a month or two then 60 for a month or two more then 70 or 80 every so often as an end goal. I went from 40mpw average to 70-80 in around 6 months, everyone is different, that progression worked for me. It's doable if you take your time with the increases.

Thanks everyone! I’m not gonna just blow my mileage sky high, it would be working it up over about 3 ish months until track. Now thinking about it, I’m gonna just work on getting up to 4 mi morning runs this winter (so like 2 mi the first 3 weeks, 3 mi the next 3 weeks, and 4 mi till taper ( about 18 weeks)) that way I’m upping my mileage only about 10 from this summer and 20/55 ish Miles being easy recovery stuff just to really work on my endurance (and speed as that’s not too high either).

Need some help wrote:

Thanks everyone! I’m not gonna just blow my mileage sky high, it would be working it up over about 3 ish months until track. Now thinking about it, I’m gonna just work on getting up to 4 mi morning runs this winter (so like 2 mi the first 3 weeks, 3 mi the next 3 weeks, and 4 mi till taper ( about 18 weeks)) that way I’m upping my mileage only about 10 from this summer and 20/55 ish Miles being easy recovery stuff just to really work on my endurance (and speed as that’s not too high either).

I agree. Too many miles in a hurry will get you hurt and end your track season. Try to hit 45-50 until track.

Don't listen to anyone who says you don't have talent. Your times are better than my hs times and I ran 1:52 in college. Upping my mileage and conssitent strides and lifting helped a lot. Like others have said, don't get carried away with mileage, but certainly increase it. 2 months at 50mpw is better than 3 weeks at 60mpw then 3 weeks at 20mpw because something hurts.

Let's see your times then. Can't make a judgment about someone's talent when they are only running 40 mpw

The thing you can do with the amount of time each week you are running is to first get a very precise range of your paces for those 2-4 mi runs. Obviously, you aren't a robot running the same pace each week. And then push the pace up a tiny bit for 2-3 weeks, then drop the pace a tiny bit for a week or two.

This is assuming you aren't racing your workouts.

The other thing to do is hit the gym outside of your racing blocks. Workout everything paying particular attention to the many muscles that make up the average "core" workout, deadlifts, squats. You won't see immediate improvements. In fact, your paces will suffer a bit during weeks you are in the gym. That's normal. Tapering off the gym, you should see some improvements in your times.

I forgot to add, the challenge of adding volume is that most people get to running more volume by running slower. They get to a higher volume, but don't see any improvements in PRs.

Small increases in volume while your times do not suffer too much, is the way to add volume. Say for example you add 10 minutes more each week for three weeks very near your lower-volume paces. Week three will suck. Weeks 4-6 drop your volume back down by subtracting 20-30 minutes. At the end of the sixth week, your effort at the old paces should seem easier. And then repeat that same cycle. Again, the key being you aren't racing these workouts.