sub 26 XC 8k

collegiatexc wrote:

so what did you mean by career then? just curious, wasnt taking a jab anything.

you're just running for your own enjoyment basically right? are you gonna hang it up after college?

also, try hard, where are you racing?

what i meant by career is the period of my life involved with the sport of running

and heck no i'm not bailing after college. if anything, i plan to get faster after college.

good on ya! what do you study/what are your job aspirations out of school?

civil engineering

oh and i forgot to mention my 3k race

gonna blow this one off. bad day, still tired from tuesday's mile repeats

race was moved up by ~15 minutes, cutting a mile and strides out of my warmup. got in one stride in my spikes, but felt something spiky on my right foot. tried to get it out, then started the race.

here are my splits, as you can see i gave up pretty early to save it for another day. just ran about 5k pace for the last 6 laps. didn't even close hard. got 4th place, my 2 teammates ran 8:48 and 8:58.

73.3,74.9,76.6,76.6,77.0,76.5,76.1,36.5 (9:27.54)

technically a PR, but i ran around 9:25-9:27 for the last 3k of my 15:46 PR.

did 15 minutes of jogging, then did a light 20-minute fartlek with the 8:48 teammate. 9.6 miles on the day

2 things

1. Don't give up on running college track/xc. You're a freshman right? If you have the motivation to train like you are, you WILL get to pull on the singlet at some point. Another base cycle, some more physical maturity, voila, you're fast enough.

2. Don't wast races. You're right about Tuesday's mile repeats still being in your legs, but you should've had two days of recovery...you're young so your legs would have come around if you didn't "give up." Maybe 850 wasn't there, but 859 or even 910 was there. That's more important than the fartlek you did after.

3. This is really a continuation of #2. When you're on a college team you race...a lot. Thankfully, at 19 you should be able to do this. Keep in mind that you've done the training (the hay's in the barn), even though you don't feel 100%, the training doesn't go away. If you get just a bit tougher mentally, you will see that the variance in your races will really decrease...For instance, the range of your times would've been 850-905 Friday.

good luck.

well...i'm 21 and a 3rd year. does that change your mind? also, that race wasn barely part of my season. i'm not doing another track race for 5 weeks. we just do it because it's local.

but really i'm okay with my decision to bail rather than running 9:10. anything over 9:00 and it isn't worth it to me.

finished last week with a double on saturday and a 15-mi long run sunday for 70 miles.

today i did the longest non-marathon training workout of my life. an 11-mile fartlek. 3,4,5,6,6,5,4,3,2,1 (minutes) with 3 minutes recoveries until the last 2 intervals. ~65 minutes total. all on a turf field. paces were about 5:10-5:20, faster on the last couple ones. the 5 and 6 minutes bits were strong at around 5:20/mi

14 total in 89 minutes, plus a 4 mile jog this morning

"well...i'm 21 and a 3rd year. does that change your mind?

-maybe a little, but you still have years 4 and 5 (potentially 6 if you entered grad school).

-As for quitting on the race...all I was trying to point out was that "feeling bad" (or however folks describe/rationalize bad races) is usually in their heads. You can almost always gut your way to a good performance.

-Certainly there is such a thing as a bad day, but usually something is going on, cold, bad sleep, hills, etc...

You said it yourself, you ran the last 3k of your 5k pr faster, had you run 910 (and I think you probably could have run faster), at least you'd be able to call it a real PR, and think "at least it was a faster pace than my 5k pr).

This board is FULLL of guys with your talent who go on and have a great time road racing after college. Who knows, $500 might be on the line the next time you aren't having a good race!

My criticism is because your training clearly indicates you are tougher than perhaps you even know.

Bdubs wrote:

-As for quitting on the race...all I was trying to point out was that "feeling bad" (or however folks describe/rationalize bad races) is usually in their heads. You can almost always gut your way to a good performance.

-Certainly there is such a thing as a bad day, but usually something is going on, cold, bad sleep, hills, etc...

You said it yourself, you ran the last 3k of your 5k pr faster, had you run 910 (and I think you probably could have run faster), at least you'd be able to call it a real PR, and think "at least it was a faster pace than my 5k pr).

feeling bad was not just in my head. i can assure you of that

i was still tired from a workout 3 days prior. 6.5 miles in spikes was a poor choice for my first workout in spikes of the year

yeah maybe i couldve grinded out a 9:10. that wouldnt have proven anything to me. i don't need a mini PR to feel better. if i wanted an easy PR, I could run the 400/800/mile. i could've run all 3 events and PRed in each. i'd rather save the real effort for another day.

as for the coming years, i can assure you collegiate running isn't an option for several reasons. no need to go into it. and if there's $500 on the line, you can bet I won't back off.

"as for the coming years, i can assure you collegiate running isn't an option for several reasons. no need to go into it."

-Pretty sure I know why. I forgot how nice it was to be 21 and have an answer for everything.

Most of this thread indicates you're a good guy with reasonable talent/goals/work ethic.

Unfortunately, there's also a consistent theme of refuting helpful advice/explanations.

"The older you get, the more you realize you don't know." -somebody famous.

This thread does get pretty pathetic and disappointing to read after a while. Reed why don't you race more? Honestly, if you are not running for a team and you want to notch some pr's...race as much as you can. Racing a lot is one of the best (and only ways) to get really good at...racing. Isn't racing kind of the point of your training? You should train to race not train to train. If your goal race is a 5k...dick around with a bunch of 1500s and 3ks. You'll recover quickly and get some much needed experience. You'll learn to race when you're tired, sick, ate to much, didn't eat enough, had dead legs, got tripped up, make a tactical mistake. Through racing and experience you will gain the confidence you need to perform consistently through all kinds of circumstances. If you run for a college team you will be racing all the time...usually every weekend or every other weekend. You need to perform and be consistent all the time. As the poster above me said...you need to be consistent...if you have a bad day and you're an 8:50 3k guy...maybe you run 9:00 or 9:05. I've seen so many kids during my time in college who always threw down impressive workouts but when it came to race they just couldn't hack it. It was a mental problem...not a physical one. If you are having a bad race that's not a reason to give up. Imho...based on your training...a 9:27 3k means that at some point during the race you gave up.

No question that I gave up. You're right

You're also right that I'm too conservative in races.

But I will be racing plenty in April and May, not in February when it doesn't matter. I can't race all the time because I have too much work or school stuff. February is about training, and we only do that 3k because it's a few miles away and it's 1 of 2 annual open track meets within 40 miles of here

But seriously...I'm not gonna make my D1 team. Id need to run 14:30s probably this season. I will only be year one more year anyway. No 5th or 6th years for me. Besides, I am on a team. Just not NCAA

There is the possibility of going to grad school and running for them, but it's unlikely.

heres the thing.

since you are a third year. that means you can run for a grad school at year 5.

i agree wrote:

heres the thing.

since you are a third year. that means you can run for a grad school at year 5.

i am aware...i mentioned that. i'm not going to grad school just so i can run for them. if i do go to grad school immediately after finishing undergrad, i'll go somewhere where i can get on the team, but that's an unlikely situation. i don't plan on grad school, and if i do, i might take a couple years off first to work.

im not good enough to be changing my career plans just to run on a team

yo OP are you still around?

anyway, did some 400s today

3x(4x400m) 60sec between reps, 3min between sets

avg 68.9, i was very consistent at 68-69. hit 70 on the first one, and stayed at 68-69 other than one in 67. didnt blow out the last one or anything, stayed in control.

best 400 set i've done yet, and just fast enough without being overkill. i don't need to be killing any 300s/400s at this point. i'm only trying to run 74-77s in my races

Looks like this thread kinda died but just was seeking some advice guys. I posted a few times several months ago in here.

I decided to join my college's team. I'm running just 2 races this outdoor season, and then really focusing on cross country next fall. I'm pretty excited.

I'm not in great shape right now. Kinda took time off more or less, but have consistently been running 35-40 easy miles. Mainly on the treadmill because winter has been absolutely brutal here. Hopefully it warms up next week so I can go outside again. If I had to guess, I would say I could tempo 4 miles at 5:55 pace but it would feel a little tough. For reference, I felt comfortable doing ~4 miles at 5:40 pace last summer. I also ran 26:30 for 8k this past fall.

The 2 outdoor races will probably both be 5k's, just to let the team and coach get a feel of where I'm at. Not really focused on them.

Basically I have an extra 3 months to get ready for cross country. Most of the team is running outdoors competitively until mid May, and then they start XC training beginning of June. I have March, April, and May to get strong.

How do I train so I don't burnout. Practice isn't mandatory for me, but I'm going to get familiar with the team. They are all doing workouts though, my body isn't ready. Should I just basically keep it easy base running until maybe May and then just ramp it up starting in June with mileage/adding tempos and workouts? Or should I do some workouts starting in April, and then take a mini break at the end of May and start up in June again like a normal cycle would be? I want to make the most of my extra 3 months to prepare for XC.

I think I can get myself back in 16:30 shape by late April. And then I could hopefully build on from there and maybe be in ~15:50 shape around mid June. My ideal goal would be to go sub 25 in the fall of 2015, but I know that's a long ways off.

avoid any hard workouts for the next few months. focus on easy runs and long runs. any workouts you do should feel controlled. no going under 10k pace except for strides

just keep it chill...xc isnt until september/october. you dont need to train hard until july/august.

i'll post about my recent running later tongiht

since 2/21...

week of feb 17-23 was 75 miles

next week was 68 miles with 2 workouts:

7x1000m at 10k pace (3:12 avg). easy workout, 3min rest which was too much but the point was to nail 3:12s, and i did that

then i ran and won a 10k that weekend. just 37min, my 3rd year winning in a row.

this week:

tue: 6 mile tempo in 34min. slower than i'd hoped but not difficult. then did 5x200m in 32.9,32.7,32.2,31.7,29.7 with 60 seconds rest. couldve kept spitting out 32s for days. the 29 wasnt that hard either, probably couldve run under 29 with spikes on.

for my upcoming half marathon: seems like 5:34s is too difficult. i ran 6 at 5:40/mi tuesday easily, on a route with hills. i think 5:36-37 is a good target for at least the first half of the race.

weird workout today, because i'm not racing a 5000 like the others next weekend. they did 10x400 in 70s with 60sec rest. normally i wouldve gone with them, but i instead did 12x400 in 75.1, as a rabbit for another group of runners. led every one, with really good splits. range of just 1.5 seconds, from 72.3 to 75.8. std dev was 0.49, which is pretty dang good.

anyway, those were like cake so i added 2 more in 69 and 67.

M 7 easy

T 14 w/6mi tempo, 34:00, plus 5x200 in 33,32,32,31,29

W 9 recovery

Th 10 recovery

F 10 w/14x400 easy

Sa 7 recovery

Su 12 easy trail run

total 70.3, 7:17/mi

tue: tempo went alright, was hoping to run faster though. i seem to be able to run the same tempo pace all the time, and as i get fitter it barely changes. however, i was able to run fairly quick on the 200s that followed. those had 60sec jogs, last one was about 90%, all in trainers.

fri: i didnt do a real workout because i'm not doing a track race next weekend. so i was a rabbit for my teammates. ran 75s really consistently, then did the last 2x400 in 69,67. it's fun to just focus on even splits. especially when it's an easy workout.

mileage progression:

2014: 68 mpw avg

jan: 66.7 mpw

feb: 68.9 mpw

mar: 70.8 mpw

did an easy fartlek on tuesday

today(thu) i did an easy 3x1 mile workout on the roads. goal was half pace or 5:36, but i hit 5:37, 5:41, 5:40. this was without getting any splits or knowing my average lap pace, so i wasnt too far off.

half marathon is sunday, shooting for 73 i guess