sub 26 XC 8k

sunday: 13 miles @6:55pace

monday: 9 miles @7:04pace

hit 65ish last week after 13 on sunday.

tomorrow is my last "xc" workout. easy fartlek.

7 EZ today. Kinda chilly out today, 43 degrees felt cold, but I still ran in just shorts and a t-shirt so I guess I can't complain too much

5 mile tempo at 5:47 average. Blah, hope I can race a lot better than my recent workouts have been indicating.

had a solid workout yesterday. 8x(3 hard, 2 easy) fartlek. on flat grass turf (the fake stuff). didn't take splits of laps but we were doing about 5:15 pace, then cut down to probably 5:00 for the last couple. felt superb, best of the year. recoveries were about 7:20/mi. dropped all my teammates except the 14:50s chem professor we have training with us. my breathing was lighter than his, although he's more of a 1500 guy (PRs from college 1:53, 3:55. i'd like to try to stick on him in workouts until track starts. hopefully he can carry me to 15 flat.

workouts like this make me look forward to track. i can still make big gains if i keep at it.

Nice workout Reed!

Had a solid workout today. Nothing crazy by any means but was very in control.

7x800s all at 2:25 with a strict 2:30 recovery jog. I did this workout in flats NOT spikes. It was very cold here today, 37 degrees with conditions a little breezy. Overall, pleased with how it went. I ran within myself more today than in other workouts. I also wasn't feeling the greatest going into the workout, so I consider today a success.

Yesterday: 4x200 @ 30, 3x1000 @ 3:10, 2x400 @ 68. Did it on the track, pretty good except was off a bit on the 1000s which was disappointing (ran more like 3:15 for each of them).

Today: 11 at 7:02 average, wind was brutal.

4 days until my race

had my PA USATF race on sunday. ran 34:26 for 6? miles. mightve been long but who cares

i was the first from ym team so i'm happy, i didn;t really have other goals. finished well but not too hard to conserve some juice for this thursday. running 10k road race.

goal for thursday, maybe not sub 33. i think i'll go out in 5:19-5:22 and try to hold onto 5:20 for as long as possible. i'd be happy with 33:30 or faster.

ran 51 last week in total, with wednesday off. took today (mon) off as well.

Thursday: 9 miles @6:55 pace

Friday: 48:30 EZ

Saturday: 7.5 miles EZ. I was flying back home for Thanksgiving and decided to call off the hard workout due to time constraints and my legs feeling pretty fatigued

Sunday: 1:35:00 (keep forgetting to charge my gps haha) it was probably at just under 7:00 pace

Monday: 7 miles @6:53 pace

Tuesday: 6x800s @2:23.9 pace with 2:00 recovery jog. It was a VERY NASTY day out with temps in the mid 30s and steady winds of 15mph as well as steady rain. I did the workout with a jacket and gloves on and could barely manage wearing shorts. My legs were pretty cold after 2-3 of them

seems like you're making the switch to mid-d workouts alright.

i'm about to do the opposite.

had my turkey trot today

i'm definitely past my peak fitness, ran 34:12 90% effort. with a pack to run with i might've run 33:30s but not likely any faster. splits were 5:27 5:35 5:32 5:25 5:31 5:29 1:12 for 0.24. flat course, negligible elev. change. kind of settled into a fast tempo effort for the 2nd and 3rd mile, then picked it up to pass some guys int he 4th mile. help position mostly, was in 12th after 1mi and finished in 7th overall out of ~15000. 30k people at the event but it's a 5k/10k so i guess 15k for each.

onyl got 3rd in my AG though, sucks being 19-25. i'll have something mailed to me i think

oh and Max King, steepler and ultra/mountain-runner wonm the race in 30:15ish. they came through 5k in 14:30s but i guess he dropped everyone and cruised it in.

That's two minutes faster than last year. Congrats!

I bet had you given it 110% effort you could have won the race.

I've been following this thread for a while now. I'm older than you guys (33), but have similar goals. My shorter Prs are worse than your's (1552/902 3k/5k), but I have some decent halfs under my belt.

Anyway, I had a nice solo 1610 5k two weeks ago, so I thought I might be able to flirt with 26 flat at my local TT.

Sure enough, I ran under 26 for a full 5 miles (certified) yesterday (2555).

Here's my advice to you guys:

Find a good race and someone to run with, If you can get through 3 miles in 1535ish without starting out faster than 505, you'll easily break 26. All of you are doing workouts slightly faster than I can.

You got this!

Thanks for the encouragement bdubs and congratulations on that sub 26 clocking!

I am making the shift into middle distance workouts right now as I prepare for my 3 attempts to walk on to Washington's D1 team for mid January-mid February. I have 50 days left before my first attempt, and I hope to make it on the first try rather than continuing to wait.

Last few days of training:

Wednesday: off

Thursday: 51:30 EZ

Friday: 8x600s with a 2:00 recovery jog in between. Times were 1:42,1:41,1:41,1:41,1:42,1:43,1:44,1:39 for an average time of 1:41.6. Felt this workout went very well and was very encouraged by it. My speed is gradually coming back very nicely.

This is a really awesome thread. Everybody's killing it, but I have a question semi-on topic. I ran 26:00 for 8k yesterday going (with the pack) through 3 miles in 16:00ish and closing from there. I don't race well from the front and it was 20 something degrees. I won by over 20 seconds. Any ideas as to what my potential was?

Hard to say. Depends how much effort you put out there after you already had the race won. I would say in the 25:30s area if you ran the same course with better conditions and competition. Plus you went out a little slow.

congrats bdubs

to the guy 2 posts above this, i dunno if it's fair to guess any faster than 25:40s. you ran 5:20 for 3 miles, then 5:04 for 2 miles. that's a big negative split, but i doubt you'd have managed much better than ~5:12/mi or 25:50.

Interesting. I appreciate the quick responses.

and congrats to bdubs from me as well.