What's your biggest drop in 5k PR in one year?

21:19 as a freshman in high school, dropped to 18:14 as a sophomore. My mileage was about 30-35 miles a week both years. The difference is that I finally hit puberty and went from 5'2" to 5'9" in a year.

mabrunner wrote:

Include your mileage increase too.

Mine was when i went from 16:51 to 15:22 from junior year to senior year of xc in high school. went from 25-30 mpw to 50-55 mpw.

That is definitely NOT the biggest 1-year drop in your 5K PR. I guarantee you dropped more from your first-ever 5K race to your PR one year later.

Five minutes and thirty seconds. Not joking.

Freshman year i went from 25:35 to 19:52, probably around 20mpw.

Freshman year of college was 17:24. Sophomore year was 15:32. Trying to go sub 15 next year.

Idk what my mpw was but it never changed. Anyway, I have a story to tell. I started the year late so I missed the first two meets, my first meet was at this thing called Tiger/Grizz invitational(in Idaho) and got a 23:38 or something like that, then my second meet(my home meet) at Harriman State Park, I got a 23:13, my third meet, The Bob Firman Invitational in Boise, I got an insane PR by 3:13 and got a 20:00.3. I was crying happy tears then. My fourth meet in Salmon Idaho, I got a 20:17, not too shabby, but my fifth meet(in Pocatello Idaho), idk what happened but I died and got a 21:21, then, out of the blue, my sixth meet, at Firth Idaho on a very windy cold day, I got a 19:42! I'll tell you my motivation, I made a deal with a girl that if I got under 20 minutes she would let me kiss her(which I wouldn't do until State) and so I pushed myself. My seventh meet(districts) also in Salmon Idaho, I got another PR by 1 SECOND. I was disappointed and started crying cause a little before that my friend I was gonna kiss got two of her teeth knocked out and she wasn't there. Anyway, I continue on to go to state after my team won districts at first place. The night before I ran at the state race, I did indeed kiss my special girl, I was very happy, but that's besides the point. I didn't think I was even goin to get close to 20 minutes that race because that was the course I got a 21:21 on(still in Pocatello Idaho). It was snowing when we got up and I was even more nervous now. I didn't think about the race that much that day, but I felt the pressure the day before as sixth runner. I got to the line with my gloves and beanie, I started out good at about 12-14 mph and slowed into my pace after about 300-400 meters. I was doing really well until about 2.4 miles when I wanted to stop so bad, my body recovers really slow and the week before at districts was my first time wearing spikes so my calves were still a little sore. I slowed down to probably about 5 mph until I realized why I was running(for my girlfriend), I wanted to make her proud. So, I pushed on. About 500-600 meters left the course goes through a big ditch with three little bumps, on the last bump I stepped a little low and my spikes caught the dirt a little, my leg almost gave out and I almost fell, but I forced myself not to, I had to finish without stopping, two people passed me and I thought, dang it here comes 22 minutes, until someone said, "YOU'RE ALMOST THERE! JUST 400 METERS LEFT, that's when I sped up and with 200 meters left, I started sprinting my full, I glanced at the clock and was quite literally flabbergasted, here I was, the first "slow" kid on the varsity team, in state, just trying to keep up. I crossed the finish line at 18:58.9. I never thought in my life that I would get an 18 this year. If you saw me after you would've thought I was a nerd who got kissed by Ariana Grande or something. I didn't feel as tired anymore. Just happy out of my mind, almost as happy as when I kissed my girlfriend the night before(which was my first kiss btw). So there you go, I started at a 23:38 and got down to an 18:58. That's a 4:40 cut. I would also like to say, I started last year, my freshman year(at a different school), and my PR last year was 22:22 so technically, this was a 3:24 cut off, but from this year it was a 4:40 cut off. So I'm pretty proud. My XC team ended up winning state, not because of me as 6th runner though, with 2/5 of the top 5 varsity runners on our team medaling.

Note:

My first ever 5k was a 38:32 during a 4th of July fun run when I was twelve. I'm 16 in several months.

I went from 23 min Freshman year to 20:50 at the end, broke 5 in the spring, and ran 18 flat the next season. Then ran 16:50 as a junior. So 23 minutes to 18 minutes is pretty good

I've got this. I went from 32:52 from the couch, sedentary to 24:40 in a couple of months.

Senior year of high school I ran 16:18, end of first college xc season I ran 14:23

I went from running a 29:30 my junior year of highschool to a 17:30 my senior year, with a 4:40 mile. Crazy stuff happen when you start running miles

2022: 20:08

2023: 19:24

2024: 7 months later, 4:46 1600m and 2:07 800m, fast forward to cross season I only run 17:29 :/

At age 40 I went from 31 minutes to 19:27 in the course of 10 months.

Stsrted off at ahout 10 miles per week and worked uo to 30-35 mpw plus weight training.

During this time I also went from 200 to 155 pounds which helped considerably.

At age 50-51 I ran 28:00 on Jan 1 of a year and 22:10 at a Turkey Trot the same year. I had started running again after several years off the previous fall, increased mileage a lot through that year and lost a lot of weight. I was at 50+ mpw by the Turkey Trot.

From sophomore to junior year of HS I went from around 22:00 to low 17's. I increased my mileage in the sense that I actually ran consistently for the first time. Probably 40 mpw or so? I couldn't tell you what I was running before that, just whatever we did in practice and no more, and I was disinterested enough that I didn't keep track, I probably couldn't have told you on a given day what I had run the day before. By junior year I was working with my coach on a mileage plan and running consistently on the weekends as directed.

Freshmen year XC, 18:12

Sophomore 15:18

Training was a big jump probably 40 to 60 but I also grew about 7 inches and added 25-30lbs

Easy to run fast when you aren’t 5’0” and 95 lbs anymore.

My freshman year I went from 19:26 to 17:52 in the course of 12 days

Went from 26:xx January 2013 to 17:35 in September 2013. Mileage was about 20-25 per week. I was a highly active teen playing other sports but had let myself slide for a few years after school. Lifetime PR now stands at 14:16.

Only advice I have is don't blow yourself out trying to take huge chunks off in one year. Fitness compounds so consistency over years is king