4:35 or faster in the next 2 months

had very similar PRs to you in HS. senior year ran 16:59, 4:28, and 9:55. mileage was around 45-55.

junior year i ran 2:05, 4:50, and 17 low. senior year i started doing indoor and ran 4:39, and then started dropping time a lot from training i did in the fall and winter -- got to 4:32, then 4:31, then 4:30, then 4:28.

first, try not to double unless you have a time conflict or something. singles are best at this mileage. you'll get much more benefit from longer runs than two shorter runs.

make sure you're doing strides too, 1-3x a week, at least 6x10-20sec of them at mile effort, and no more than 12.

bump up the long run. i started getting strong when i bumped my lr from 10 to 12-13. the kind of training you get in when you start to really roll at the end of a long run is unparalleled.

next, idk what year you're in but two weeks after your last track meet, GET TO WORK. bump up your mileage a little. use the summer to get strong. you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want, but try to build up to a threshold fartlek, a tempo, and a long run in your schedule. do lots of hills and strides. that's one aspect of my training in high school i regret not doing -- i never trained hard in the summer and took big seasons off for injury or no reason.

If your in high school and doing 45-50mpw you should need to double. Sleep in! Your coach take a low volume approach? What are the volumes of these workouts? Your coach has you doing just 400s every week?

citius5000 wrote:

If your in high school and doing 45-50mpw you should need to double. Sleep in! Your coach take a low volume approach? What are the volumes of these workouts? Your coach has you doing just 400s every week?

Our coach is pretty oriented towards high mileage as he was a 5000/10,000 guy back in the day, but lots of easy runs that are an hour long. Workouts are 10x400 with minute rest, or 3xmile repeats with 800 jog, 25-minute fartleks. We start and end these workouts with 15mins or 2mi warmups / cool down. He recommends that we run 3-4 miles in the morning, but doesnt REQUIRE us to.

honestly those workouts aren't ideal but they're not totally meritless either... 800 jog is a lot it seems, i like the 25 min fartlek for early season or pre-season work and here n there later on, 10x400 could be ok depending on the prescribed pace.

the morning run could bump up mileage a little if you do 30 mins or so in the morning (as long as you're not splitting up your mileage to accommodate the morning run) but sleeping enough is paramount for a highschooler whose schedule is already insane

Dr Pepper is BBQ Water wrote:

High school. Been hitting my 1600 in 4:46-48 consistently in the past two months on 45-50mpw

400m - 55-56

800m - 2:06 (year ago)

5K XC - low 17’s

Long run of about 10 miles. 1 threshold day and 1 medium interval day per week (400 repeats), lots of easy miles usually doubles.

How can I improve? Starting to doubt my training since I’ve been consistently in the high 4:40’s the past couple months. Cut out doubles? Do more speed work? Speed endurance?

Goal is to go low 4:30’s by peaking time end of April.

I recommend more varying speed work. 1000s down to 200m repeats. I was stuck at 4:41 with prs of 57/2:09/10:17 in tenth grade until I did some key continuous 200m repeat and 1000m workouts. But if you do like 400s try 3 sets of4x400m start at 69s then take a second off every set and maybe 2 seconds off the last set. 400m jog in between reps.

Dr Pepper is BBQ Water wrote:

High school. Been hitting my 1600 in 4:46-48 consistently in the past two months on 45-50mpw

400m - 55-56

800m - 2:06 (year ago)

5K XC - low 17’s

Long run of about 10 miles. 1 threshold day and 1 medium interval day per week (400 repeats), lots of easy miles usually doubles.

How can I improve? Starting to doubt my training since I’ve been consistently in the high 4:40’s the past couple months. Cut out doubles? Do more speed work? Speed endurance?

Goal is to go low 4:30’s by peaking time end of April.

I think you're on track; the doubles are (imo) good and you will reap the rewards later.

Am I safe to assume that, in addition to your threshold day and interval day, you're also racing every week? If yes, then you should be fine. Ideally, your threshold day would be switched out for another day of intervals in the next couple of weeks, such as repeat 300s or 200s. If you're not gonna do this (and there's no need to fight your coach over this, as it looks like he/she is already doing a good job), you might add 2 or 3 quick strides after 1 or 2 morning runs per week.

If my assumption is wrong and you're not racing every week, then you'll need another hard interval workout in there to reach your potential.

Did u qualify for Boston?

Well if your doing say five doubles a week of three miles that means 15mpw which means your only running 30-35mpw otherwise which is pretty low but if your running an hour a day you must be going pretty slow then. Do you run on the weekends? You can’t control the workouts the coach gives you during the week really so that can be a limiting factor. I prefer my athletes to sleep in in the morning as your all still growing but still have upper classman running 55-60mpw on 6 days of running singles as i also give them Sundays off.