Biggest chunks of time you or others have cut off your PR's and how you did it?

20:37 freshman year

19:10 sophomore year

5k time by year:

1 - 19:23

2 - 17:28

3 - 17:15

4 - 16:52

5 - 16:47

mile time by year:

1 - 5:24

2 - 5:05

3 - 4:56

4 - 4:44

5 - 4:38

speed diablo wrote:

What the heck did you do?

28.9 to 22.6 in the 200? You're on drugs or you did some CRAZY training? What did you do to drop that much time? Being at the 28 range myself, I'd love to run 24-25, not to mention 22!

I worked my ass off and basically devoted my entire life to track. Those freshman times of mine are extremely pathetic, and although I was "trying" in those races, I didn't take track too seriously. You can see that I dropped my times a ton from Frosh to Soph years, and that's mostly from taking the sport more seriously. The big drop from Junior to Senior years came from becoming the most motivated track athlete of all time.

Beep Beep Beep

Ran my first marathon with no formalized training plan in 3:15 averaging about 40 miles per week.

Ran my second in 2:59 six months later. A mid-week medium to long run (12 to 15 miles) run at a progressive pace did wonders for my strength. I am also a big proponent of short hill intervals following a sufficient base build-up.

I started running in May 2004 with about 15mpw. Now I average about 40mpw.

5K

19:44 (Sept 04)

17:22 (Oct 05 might have been a little short tho)

8K

40:XX (July 04)

30:23 (July 05) same course

10K

45:XX (July 04)

38:35 (Aug 05) same course

Mile progression:

8th - 5:15

9th - 4:54

10th - 4:30

11th - 4:20

12th - 4:16

Biggest improvement (9th-10th) came at the same time I increased my mileage from 30-40/week to 60-70/week.

Sophmore year XC: 18:30 (district course)

Training: 0 to 20 miles a week over the summer and 15 to 25 miles a week during the season.

Junior year XC: 16:32 (same district course)

Training: 40 to 60 miles a week over the summer and 40 to 50 miles a week during the season.

I think I would have naturally gone under 18 my Junior year but the training I did made me Two minutes faster!

Just took 20 min off my marathon pb. 255 to 234. I think the key was i didnt train for the first marathon like a marathoner and I did the 2nd time.

In one year, age 19-20, I went from a 17:50-18:00 5k to 32:50 10k. The former was my first or second ever race effort at anything over a mile. Had been training about 30-40 mpw. After a year of 60 - 80 mile weeks and a summer of training with group of 4:00 - 4:15 milers (once or twice a week) I did the 32:50.

My freshan year in highschool i ran a 17:40 5k and was number 11 on my team. sophmore year i ended up running number one for my team in 16:05. all i did was increase my summer mileage from 200-600 miles in lke 12 weeks.

I train on a nice grass loop that I do speed workouts and time trials. My 5K PR was 16:41 on the road. I did a couple 16:45-55 time trials on this course. On day I decided to just go balls to the wall and don't stop until I hit 3.1 miles. I ran 15:58 that day and went on to run a road race the same night in 16:50 with really tired legs.

Sorry, I did 5 x 1000 meters for every speed workout. I did this with 1:00 recovery for like 5 weeks straight. Thats how I did this.

I ran xc as a college frosh in '96 despite playing football all through hs. I attempted to train, but I hadn't a clue what I was doing. Our home course was particularly viscious, as a 25 flat cranking all out can only manage low 27s. I ran 35:30 my first time. Needless to say, I quit xc and played football quite successfully the next four years in the fall. As an assistant coach in '01, I had trained all summer with the men's xc team just fooling around with running more. I jumped in the race for fun and ran 29:51. Not bad six years later.

My 5k progression...

Junior yr HS - 21:XX

Senior yr HS - 18:20

1st yr College - 17:42

2nd yr - 17:17

3rd yr - 16:53

4th yr - 16:22

Started running senior year of h.s.

Senior year:

Beginning-400-56

-800-2:08

-Mile-5:08

End-200-23.2

-400-50

-800-1:58

-Mile-4:39

Freshman (college)-400-49

-200-23

Sophmore-400-48.2

-200-21.7

Junior-400-46.5

-200-20.9

-800-1:51

Senior-hope to run 45

Dramatic drops in PB's are awsome and to be cherished, because they are fleeting part of a runner's career.

My 10k road PR coming out of HS was a 39:36, probably my best overall HS performance given that I was only going 12 flat in the 2-mile, low 5's for mile and barely sub-20 for 5k XC. I walked on at a D1 school anyway; first 10k road race as a frosh was 38:06 (1:30 drop); did not run another road 10k until the next summer, 35:55 (2 min plus drop - completely skipped 37's and 36' which was cool); later in junior year, post XC season, ran a 35:25 (30 second drop) one week and a 34:25 (another full minute drop)the next week; post college brief running bum phase, ran a 34:12 split en route to 15k PB but never went any faster (grad school, real life, etc.). I never thought my best times would peak at age 23 but such is life and the times have been creeping upward since (I found those 36's and 37's eventually).

How did I do it? (1)maturation - I got older/stronger; (2) I worked my ass off trying to prove I belonged on a D1 squad when I knew full well I didn't; (3) I graduated and went to a 'train don't strain' plan while training with a good fast group.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear - but you can make a darn nice sow's ear purse.

5k junior yr: 18:02

5k senior yr: 15:59

i did this by working my ass of the summer before senior year running daily doubles, hitting 83 miles and consistently running 70 miles a week.

STL_Runner wrote:

I worked my ass off and basically devoted my entire life to track. Those freshman times of mine are extremely pathetic, and although I was "trying" in those races, I didn't take track too seriously. You can see that I dropped my times a ton from Frosh to Soph years, and that's mostly from taking the sport more seriously. The big drop from Junior to Senior years came from becoming the most motivated track athlete of all time.

If you don't mind, precisely how did you "work your tail off"?

28 to 22 in the 200 is sickening progression. Some of the others on here likewise. I'm a distance runner, but when I see people go from 55-58 in the 400 to 48-51. there longer times always come down enormously as well because with their new speed everything seems slower. What did you do in training to take 6 seconds off your 200?