G'day folks,
I just thought I might throw up a training log thread that will hopefully be of benefit to others as I try to improve to a sub 15 5k by the end of 2019. It's an audacious goal, but I think with consistent training and the right mix of ingredients I can continue to make improvements across the board. I liked reading ThatAverageRunner's thread and watching him improve so I thought I'd try to do a similar sort of thing beginning my first year of uni.
Last year my focus was primarily on improving my aerobic base, and I worked my way down from mid 17's to a 16:19 on the roads midway through the year. My ankle was totalled during the State XC champs and I struggled a bit the rest of the year, although I still ran a 1500m pb.
Iron & Magnesium problems along with some injuries proved fatal to any further improvement after about July.
My progression thus far from my first season of running to my last during my school career:
2013 [yr 8]:
400m~64
Trained 3 times a week, maybe 10 mpw
2014:
100m~12.6
400m~59
800m~2:21
5k: 22 mins
Started training more like a mid-distance runner during XC season, but I mostly followed a sprint based regimen during track and pulled a hamstring, which began a shift to longer and longer distances. 20mpw in XC, 10mpw in track
2015:
150m~18.5
400m~56.8
800m~2:12
5k~19:11
This year I went on an exchange to the US towards the end of the year where I spent a bit of time with the XC team. I think I did my first ever run over 10k there, and learning better training methods [more volume, less anaerobic crap] led to big improvements in endurance in 2016. Averaged 25 mpw.
2016:
800m~2:06.8
1500m~4:24
2000m steeplechase~6:42
3000m~9:36
5k~16:52*
[*right at the end of the year so basically during 2017 buildup, was only at 17:36 in July]
I started training reasonably well in 2016. Had an ok XC season, made a big improvement in the 5k. Track season my coach was crap and made me do too many 300 repeats, but I managed to bang out a 2:06 800 in my first before failing to improve on it for the rest of the year. I tried the 1500 and 3k for the first time and managed some ok results.40-45 mpw in XC, 35-40 mpw in track
2017 [yr 12]:
400 hurdles: 62.4 [surprising considering horrible speed]
1500m: 4:20
3k: 9:25
5k: 16:19
6kXC: A couple of low 20 min runs and a 5.8k on pace for 19:45
10000m: 35:38
Last year I averaged about 60mpw with high weeks of 80 in XC season and had good results. I finally developed a decent base and became better at longer distances.
Track season was comparatively garbage due to a variety of problems [described above], could not get any speed work in. I really think sub 16 was on the cards until sh** hit the fan.
2018:???
Goals:
800: 2:02
1500: 4:10
3k: sub 9
5k: 15:40 road
8kXC: sub 26 [does this sound right?]
10k:~33, idk
so far after taking 8 of 12 prior weeks off :
3k in 9:32 off 1 month of training
1500m in 4:21 off 2 months of training
I'll post my most recent 2 weeks [where I have started to train decently again] down below! Please feel free to chime in wherever.