2018 Sub 26 8k xc thread

Inception wrote:

My coach only likes doing mile repeats with 1 minute rest and 1200m repeats with 3 minute rest. My mile repeats are at 5:17 pace. My 1200m repeats are at 4:02.

Before I say anything else, please explain this. Why are your 1200 workouts at a slower pace than your mile workouts despite shorter distance and triple the rest?

Of course! They are on a different terrain. And the way he has it planned out, there are way more turns than and uneven paths than the mile repeats. It's just really hard to get to maintain a top speed when you are always making 90 degree turns and rolling ankles. I was able to get to 3:54 on some of them, but then it started raining and it was hard to stay on my feet. I have persuaded him to move it somewhere else and diversify our workouts. We are going to a different place soon.

Inception wrote:

Of course! They are on a different terrain. And the way he has it planned out, there are way more turns than and uneven paths than the mile repeats. It's just really hard to get to maintain a top speed when you are always making 90 degree turns and rolling ankles. I was able to get to 3:54 on some of them, but then it started raining and it was hard to stay on my feet. I have persuaded him to move it somewhere else and diversify our workouts. We are going to a different place soon.

When you diversify the workouts, make sure to do stuff that's faster than race pace, like 800s at 2:25-2:30. That appears to be missing from you current training.

my week

M: 3 / 7 @ 6:50, s&d

T: 6 s&d / 6

W: 3 / 10 w/ 5-mile tempo in 27:57 (5:35/mi)

T: 7 s&d / 7

F: 7 w/ 4x (200,200,400) equal recovery, 200s in 34-35, 400s in 73,72,73,70

S: 8 / 4

S: 12 @ 6:40, last 3 @ 6;00

Weekly Total: 80

8k saturday, pr here I come!

Lol. My coach and assistant coach hate doing anything under a mile?. I will have my way eventually though. What we also don't do are tempos. He just replaces them with mile repeats at that pace with 1 minute rest. He claims that we are gonna "race" the tempo. And what I've noticed in my past 3 races is that I keep the same exact pace throughout the whole race. Is that a good sign or bad sign? The last race I split 5:28-5:26 every mile. The race before that it was 5:35 every mile almost exactly on a very hilly course.

Inception wrote:

Lol. My coach and assistant coach hate doing anything under a mile?. I will have my way eventually though. What we also don't do are tempos. He just replaces them with mile repeats at that pace with 1 minute rest. He claims that we are gonna "race" the tempo. And what I've noticed in my past 3 races is that I keep the same exact pace throughout the whole race. Is that a good sign or bad sign? The last race I split 5:28-5:26 every mile. The race before that it was 5:35 every mile almost exactly on a very hilly course.

As long as you feel spent after those races, that is a very good sign. That's how you run your fastest possible time. The only bad part is that is very far away from your goal time.

Your coaches don't have a damn clue what they are doing.

The Starved Elephant wrote:

As long as you feel spent after those races, that is a very good sign. That's how you run your fastest possible time. The only bad part is that is very far away from your goal time.

Your coaches don't have a damn clue what they are doing.

Well that makes me feel good about my season? ?. I feel as if I shouls be running way faster than this too. Like... a dude who almosr broke 15:00 in the three mile Senior should probably be in the 25s by now. Somethin ain't right.... and now I'm having problems getting coaches to notice me. I may have to take matters into my own hands pretty soon.

Haven't posted here in a while...

previous 2 weeks were both 67 miles with decent workouts. 1 race last weekend in 27:24 on a very tough course for 2nd place. Happy with the place but it doesn't really tell me what shape I'm in. Racing again next weekend

This week

M - 9

T - 10 and strides

W - 10 with 6 tempo/progression (5:50->5:10, average 5:30)

Tr - 8.5

F - 7.5

Sa - 10.5 w/ 2 miles (10:17), 2xmile(4:55,5:01),2 min (4:40 pace), 90s, 45s

Su - 13.5

Total - 69ish

Really good week! Very happy with my workout on Saturday

I haven't posted in a while but this was my week:

(S) - 4 mile tempo @ 5:35 pace

M - 8

T - off...sick

W - 8.6 with 5.67 progression (6:00-->5:50-->5:20 approx 3k splits) average of 5:48, last 3k in 9:55

T - 7

F - 5.4

S - 9 with 1x3,2,1 with equal rest just to spice things up

S - 8 with 2 mile tempo(10:55), 1200 (3:36), 400 (64) all on an asphalt bike path

This was my first week with two workouts in a while! I have my first race next weekend, not sure what exactly I'm going for but I may do some sort of indicator workout next week, Hoping that low 26 is in the cards as the course should be pretty fast.

Good luck to everyone with upcoming races and stuff

Last week I ran 26:03, 27 seconds faster than my PR was going into the season. Happy with that, but it was painfully close to that barrier we're all chasing. Dropped mileage from like 77 to 70 for after that race with hopes of being a little more fresh when I go for sub 26 next week.

I'm running the D3 pre nats at Oshkosh this Saturday. I have never had a flat course this season. All of them were pretty crudy and hilly (example: UW Parkside). The last time I ran was a 27:09 on a hilly course. I won the race, but I don't think it is anywhere near where I'm at. I'm never good with bad conditions so this was a surprise to me. I'm pretttly fast when it comes to I have beaten guys who have gone under 26 or really close to it so I'm excited to see where I'm at. Last week I got up to 83 miles. It felt like nothing. Had a 12 mile fartlek( 2miles on 1 mile off) and a ladder workout where when I went under 5 for a mile in the 2k rep, it felt pretty good. The goal is to get out fast and hold on. Last year I was at a 26:33 for a pr, but this year I'm like 40-30 seconds faster than my races last year. Let's what I can do.

Had a great race last week in 25:36. Hit it hard on the off racing week. Did:

M: 5 AM (7:15), 8 PM (6:35)

T: 6 easy (6:45)

W: 4xmile, 2xK, 800 with 3 mins rest in 5:05, 5:03, 4:58, 4:58, 3:06, 3:05, 2:23

T: 5AM (7:15), 8 PM (6:35)

F: 4x (K, 8, 6) with 45 seconds rest at LT pace

S: Easy 7 (7:15)

S: 14 mile long run with 7 mile progression from 6:30 down to 5:10

Total week came out to about 75. Have a race this weekend on a notoriously fast course, hoping to pull another one out. Thanks for the support guys!

High hopes wrote:

Had a great race last week in 25:36. Hit it hard on the off racing week. Did:

M: 5 AM (7:15), 8 PM (6:35)

T: 6 easy (6:45)

W: 4xmile, 2xK, 800 with 3 mins rest in 5:05, 5:03, 4:58, 4:58, 3:06, 3:05, 2:23

T: 5AM (7:15), 8 PM (6:35)

F: 4x (K, 8, 6) with 45 seconds rest at LT pace

S: Easy 7 (7:15)

S: 14 mile long run with 7 mile progression from 6:30 down to 5:10

Total week came out to about 75. Have a race this weekend on a notoriously fast course, hoping to pull another one out. Thanks for the support guys!

Nice job mate. I should probably take your week into consideration. Mine is not the best.

S: 13.5 mile long run 6:30 pace

M: 10 miles easy with strides 6:47 pace

T: Ladder Workout of somesort 2k (4:59 pace) 1k (4:45 pace) 3k (5:25 pace) ,2k 1k 3k

Total: 14 miles

W: Easy 10 miles easy with strides 6:57 pace

T: 12 Tempo. 2 miles on(5:47 pace), one mile easy (6:47) for 12 miles. 14 miles total.

F: 9 miles easy 6:40 pace(too fast)

S: Took the day easy for precaution. 10 miles 6:59 pace.

Total: 80.5 I feel good but I feel like I haven't been getting much faster until now. I think I should have started the faster stuff earlier in the season. But a lot of people weren't ready for it on the team(Junior College problems).

WELL, I finally did it. It is finished. I've been a part of every iteration of this thread and that makes it feel nice to get that sub 26

M - 7

T - 9

W - 7 total with 6x3min @ 5:00 pace

T - off

F - 5.6

S - 5

S - 9 total. 8k race in 25:54, 11th place.

Yeet, I did it too!

M - 8.5

T - 10 and strides

W - 10 w/ 2xmile (5:05,4:55), 8x1on / off

Tr - 9.5

F - 8

Sa - 6

Su - 2 / 8k in 25:33, 5th place

Happy with the race but still feel like I can go a bit faster - one more 8k left in the season : )

Yet again.... another bad course. I ran at Oshkosh and I was the 6th race. By that time it was like running through a swamp for much of the race. The pre nats , open races and the girl's invite race tore up the ground before we even started. I knew that pr wasn'r coming. I still placed 4th so I can't complain too much. I'm just pissed that I have been running crap courses and trying to get a time. I beat some peeps who have went under 26 in the race though. I know I am doing way better than last year, it's just the times don't show it. I'm doomed to transfer to an NAIA or D3 program. I could let go of D1 now. Should have went right out of HS.

Inception wrote:

Yet again.... another bad course. I ran at Oshkosh and I was the 6th race. By that time it was like running through a swamp for much of the race. The pre nats , open races and the girl's invite race tore up the ground before we even started. I knew that pr wasn'r coming. I still placed 4th so I can't complain too much. I'm just pissed that I have been running crap courses and trying to get a time.

That Oshkosh course was trashed this weekend. I lost one of my spikes in the mud pit that that golf course turned into.

Hello everyone,

Just found this thread. I’m a freshman running at a D3 school. So far my best 8k this season has been 27:24. So sub 26 is a ways off but hey it’s not bad to have big goals.

PRs

400-51.8

800- 2:01

1600- 4:28

3200-9:51

5k-17:03

7k- 22:47

8k- 27:26

I’m definitely better at the short distances but I want to improve at XC. Had pretty good training over the summer and the first half of the season but have had some shin problems the last few weeks that have forced me to cut my mileage way down.

Runner-9999 wrote:

That Oshkosh course was trashed this weekend. I lost one of my spikes in the mud pit that that golf course turned into.

Tell me about it.? I did somethin scary today. I turned a long run into some crazed tempo run. Ran 14.75 miles at just above 6:00 flat pace and went under 6:00 flar for a lot of the miles. Legs felt great. Idk if that means anything though. I've been saying that my legs is what is keeping me back every race. I've never been dead at the end of each race this year because of it. Maybe some speed work would help my problem? My regionals is in 2 weeks. And then nationals is later. If I can't pull out a good race by then, imma have to go all out in some of the tracl events.

Alright, I'm back. I finally had good conditions for a race this weekend. It was the conference/regionals race. This probably ruined my chances of going under 26, but the first mile went out at like 5 flat. All I could do was try to hold on to the pack at that point. Then people started dying and I moved into 2nd for the final 3 miles. I actually had a kick, but enough to catch 1st. Ended up with a 26:16. I felt as if I could have pushed the pace in the middle of the race because I still had more in me at the end. But I wanted to play the waiting game, so I just drafted behind a couple of guys. I can feel that sub 26 now though. I get another crack at it at nationals. I'm sure they will go out fast too.