sub 26 XC 8k

another update from me just to keep this somewhat active

ran my 10000m debut

goal was 32:30, which happens to be 26:00 8k pace

plan was to hit 78s even if feeling bad through 5k in 16:15, but i lost focus a bit and ran a lot of 79s

recap:

40+ guys in race from 31:30-33:30 seed times

race had chip timing to track your laps, so i ahve exact 400m splits

start was a mess, ran 84.xx for first lap just trying to not get knocked over. 2nd lap was on pace, was at 2:42. 1200m was 4:00/4:01, finally with a spot in lane 1 with a small pack.

1600 in 5:19.8

next 1600 in 5:13.6, with a couple guys with me all trying to run mid 32s.

after 3200 i was leading the group, running 79s.

3200-4800 was 5:18.3

got passed around 5k (16:30) but the guys who passed me started running 80-81s. stuck with them for a few laps before going ahead

4800-6400 in 5:19.9. passing a few guys but had a tough time

6400-8000 in 5:24.5 mentally the toughest mile by far. hit 8k in 26:36, was hoping to at least be 26:15 for a PR. i guess this just means i need to smash an 8k next year. 25:30s?

anyway, with 1600 to go i knew i couldnt run 5:02.5 to break 33:00, so i cruised with 79,79,79,75 for a 5:14

33:11.36 was the official time. weather was great, but not perfect. it had been raining but when the sun came out the humidity rose quite a bit from the water on the track surface evaporating. no big deal at all

i think i couldve pushed a lot more with 2 miles to go. i felt fairly decent running 80s for a couple miles, and i probably couldve kept running 80s if this were a 12k or something.

i'll run another 10000 next year, but by then i think my PR will at least be under 33, even if its in a road race.

Trying to get this thread rollin again.

My goal for xc is to break 24:20 in the 8k. I've never run cross in college due to injuries, although I will be a senior this coming fall. My PRs are 1:53 for 800, 3:56 for 1500, 9:09 for two miles, 14:52 for 5k (off of 2 months of training). These times are all over a year old, as I was injured this entire past year. I ran 35-48 MPW when running most of these times, but have recently gotten over a lot of past injuries and am able to run higher mileage again. My freshman year of college I ran 55-65 MPW. I will hit 58 this week and am progressing to 70 or 75 by July, with two 4 mile doubles a week starting in two weeks. I'm taking it slow, adding 4-6 miles a week (at most), with a down week/day off every four weeks.

I ran one "workout" this week just to see where I'm at, which was an 8 mile progression in 44:54, with the first few miles around 5:50 pace and the last 3.025 miles in 16:14 (5:20 pace). I'm not planning on doing another workout until the last week of June, which will be an easy 6 mile tempo. After the last week of June, I will be doing 3200 at "current 8k pace", 2:30 rest, 8x400 at a slightly faster pace off of 30 seconds rest. I plan on starting at 10:15 and :75s, and getting down to 9:40 and :72s for the last 3 weeks of summer. My other weekly workout will be a tempo run of either 6 or 8 miles, starting at 5:40 pace and working down to 5:20 pace before the season begins. My workout schedule is very similar to Wisco's.

Does this sound reasonable? I can post my entire training plan if anyone wants to see it.

Will post an update sometime in the next few days about my season. Realized that I was becoming obsessed with running and the running community so I had to cut myself off from it until the season was over. I finished up my spring season today.

I did not end up improving my 800m pr, but I dropped about 5 seconds off my 1500/mile pr and ran 4:00.25 this season.

Meet Schedule:

Jan 18th: 1:58.37 Indoors (PR) (SB)

Feb 1st: 1:59.9 Indoors

Feb 15th: 4:26.5 indoors,2:00.37

March 8th: 4:20 1500m, 2:07 800m (mentally psyched myself out)

April 5th: 4:07.5 (52 second last 300), 2:03 800m

April 12th: 4:06.06 (49 second last 300)

April 26th: 4:27.78 (62 through 4:09, 2:05 high through 809, 3:13.5 through 309, 1:14 last lap)

May 3rd: 1:58.87

May 10th 4:04.09 (PR)

May 18th: 4:00.25 (PR) (SB)

May 28th: 1:59high

June 4th: 1:59low

PR's Before the Season:

800m: 1:59.2

mile: 4:24.17

Pr's After the Season:

800m: 1:58.37

1500m/mile: 4:00.25/4:18ish

Biggest two regrets of the season:

1. Not Breaking 4:00 in the 1500

2. Not running a decent 800

I had trouble in a lot of races closing well. From meets April 5th and on, I was in a position to pr in every race with 200-300 to go.

My 800m pr is terrible compared to my fitness. Was told by my coach that I could run between 1:52-1:55.

For interest sake I did 5x300s for my last workout @40.9 average solo w/100m walk, 400m jog with the first 3 averaging 39.9

Another workout I did was a 400m in 62.9, jog a lap, 1000m in 2:40.1, break, 8x200s cutting down from 32-29 solo

This season made me realize how much easier it is to train with a team and a coach by your side. Going to meets by yourself, taking public transportation to get there, racing without the help of any teammates or a coach and teammates to cheer you on is incredibly difficult. I realize now why many people quit the sport at an elite level after college. This past year of training was incredibly difficult and tested my love of the sport on every level. When I ran my 1500m pr, I took a taxi to downtown seattle, to hop on the amtrak train for 4 hours to get to portland, took another taxi to the meet, and booked a hotel to stay overnight (no trains back to seattle after the meet…late at night).

In that race everything came together. There were 9 guys with prs from 3:52-4:00. The rabbit went out ridiculously fast and pulled the Portland d1 guys through in 43high-45, while I stayed back in almost last in 46high. I slowly moved up to the main pack as they slowed down and I held pace. Came through 2:08low through the 800. Started to move up more. Hit the 1k in 2:41 and realized that I was PRIMED for a big PR. I proceeded to gun it and started to kick a bit too soon. Ended up running 45high from 1000-1300 coming through in 3:26high/3:27 before fading in the last 125m. I finished 6th out of 13 in an entirely d1 heat beating half the Portland Pilots team and taking down guys with credentials that were laughably better than mine including a 3:53 guy and a 3:55, 8:20, 14:20 guy.

I think my struggles can be chalked up to a lack of confidence in the critical moments of most of my races, which is why I had a lot of near prs throughout the season. I believe I ran a lot of my season mentally burnt out and with some physical burnout as well. Up until Wednesday I hadn't taken a break from running since last June. I'd been doing hard workouts for almost 11months and this year my racing season was an extra two months longer than it has ever been.

I'm currently in the process of taking an 18 day break and will begin training for xc with the same goal in mind as I had last year. SUB 26 8k. Only this year it's actually obtainable and I expect to achieve it.

Good update. Are you still trying to make your college team?

If so what is the standard / goal you are shooting for?

Well done on your efforts. Do you work on pure speed with very short sprints with full recovery? That could help get your 400m time down, and hence the 8, and so on up the line. Worth it even in XC season. Best of luck.

good job. I know how it feels too training by myself without a coach on your side. This season I basically had to train by myself too, but at least my coach is on my side. I even have to travel by myself or with a buddy because my school has no track program. This season, I had to drive to stockton all by myself for a meet. It's horrible, but at least post race meals are fun though. I went through injuries beginning of the year. My pb was 4:19 and now I'm at 4:11. Great season, but not perfect as I wanted. I am 1 week through with my break.

I couldn't improve my 800 pb. It's at 2:04. I need to work on that in order to improve my 1500 time now. I think I can run faster than 2:04 because I ran a 55.99 400 (end of march) and running 4:11 shows I can run a fast 800 too.

Are you trying to go for your college team? Now you know whats your best event. You got tons of potential in the next 4 years. I'm also going for the same goal as you in the 8k. I believe you can do it. My xc season last year was horrible due to lack of sleep and class conflicts. Learned my lesson and grew stronger from it. With my 1500m time, I believe I can run 26s. But I'm inconsistent with tempos and fartleks so I just hope I'm not the runner that only does well in track. It's weird because in HS I was more successful in XC. But then I did well in my first year of XC so we'll see....

Thanks for the kind words guys. As for my running plans next year, I'll let you guys know them when I figure them out for myself haha.

Speed is not an issue. The lack of an 800m pr was psychological. Like I posted I did 5x300 @40.9avg. Another workout I did was (200m, 200m jog, 400m, 200m jog, 200m) X 2 in 26.5, 57.4, 27.8, 26.2, 58.03, 29.8. I've also done 16x200s with 300m jog @28.8 avg

I'm excited for this xc season. I have never been properly trained for xc and I don't have an official 8k pr (tempo of 27:57) and my 5k xc pr was only 16:24 in hs. So it's safe to say I'm going to PR haha.

Do you know how to train for xc? I can help out.

Really glad I checked back on this. Thanks for the update Try Hard. I posted really infrequently here a few months ago. I also ran solo this past year. I didn't get to race much of a track season at all because of injuries, I've just been somewhat building mileage. Running on a college team this Fall and couldn't be more excited. Sub 26 is going to be an early season goal, and I want to go as close to 25 flat as possible. I think realistically I'm just not gonna be strong enough to go 25:1x, but I only have 1-2 years left of eligibility sadly so I'm going for broke. Haven't really had a college runinng career at all and I don't wanna look back with even more regret of not competing at all. So, 25:2x would make me really happy. I'm trying to put in as strong a summer as I can without getting injured.

Please do let us know if you walk on the UW team, or have you already decided to transfer schools? I really enjoyed reading about your training and races this past season.

sup fellas

so i sucked it up this track season. ran 15:53 after a 13-hr day of sitting at a track meet in the heat, which i figured was worth low 15:40s. never felt like i was in better than 15:35 shape though, which is inexcusable. mileage dropped too much for early season races.

but whatever, this summer i'm staying in town where the weather will be ideal, so i can focus on running.

goal is to run about 25:30s, and if i enter any 5ks to run 15:40s or so (on the roads)

last 2 weeks were 64, 61 (finals week). this week will be 70-72, then 75ish, then 80ish, etc. should be over 90 for at least 4 weeks hopefully.

^hey how are you structuring your summer mileage. Do you mind posting a breakdown of how you plan to hit 70 next week? Any doubles in there? Any light workouts or tempos? Just curious because I'm at 55 right now and want/need to get into the 70s in a few weeks and want to do it as safely as I can.

well...without saying too much, here's how my last couple weeks were laid out.

7

9

9

9

6, 5

6

12

total 64

8

3

7

6, 7

3, 8

7

11

total 61 (finals week)

this week (mon-fri)

6, 9

9

7

7

8

planned: 8, 4

planned: 13

total planned: 70

i'm gonna try to get those easy runs up to 9 miles, with my doubles being 4+8 or 6+7 and long runs starting at 13 and going up to 18

doubles are as needed for now, or on days that it seems right. depends on scheduling but i dont really plan them. for now i'm not doing any hard runs so i'm never that tired.

Started back slow last week.

m: 4.5

t: 5

w: off

th: 6.5

f: 4.5

s: 8

sun: off

total: 28.5 miles

a humble beginning after 18 days off haha

Week II in the books since tomorrow is an off day

Monday: 5

Tuesday: 7

Wednesday: 5

Thursday: 7

Friday: 3

Saturday: 10

Sunday: off

Total: 37 miles

Going to try and hit 50 next week. Started feeling a lot better towards the end of this week.

68 miles for me this week with 8 miles of doubles. One 4 mile tempo at 5:46 pace. Long run of 12 miles at 6:45 average pace. Can't complain for the first week of July. I think I need to throw in more post run strides.

Frustrating though because I know a lot of my competitors are hitting 75-80 already. I'm just not confident enough to bang out 10 milers daily at 6:40 pace because I don't want to get injured.

Hopefully I can hold around 70 miles for a few weeks and then get into the 75-80 range for August. That should be good as it will be higher mileage than I've ever done.

Just sucks knowing I'm not in that good race shape while other people could probably already go 26:1x right now. Oh well, still a lot of summer to go, and my goal is as close to 25 flat as possible in October. I think I'm a year away from breaking 25 unfortunately, since my training was inconsistent in the Spring and I haven't raced since last Fall.

Pretty crazy story but I was one of the first people to comment on this board and it\'s been a long year since then but I\'m training on my own now so I\'ma post on here.

prs: 1:58, 4:08, 17:10, 28:05

Building a base slowly for a half marathon in early october then a cross country season and building up for cross country club nationals in Lehigh Valley PA.

Been building up extremely slowly with my base but at 45 now on 6 days a week.

Monday- 6 miles with striders

Tuesday- 1 mile warm up, 8x .25 up hill at 5 effort with .25 rest, 1 mile cool down

Wednesday- 10 mile progression run super hot started as slow as 7:50 and finished around 6:50s should mention today was 85 and very humid

Thursday-- off

Friday- 6 miles with striders

Saturday- 12.5 miles first 9 in 7:10 pace then last three at 6:30

Sunday- 4 miles easy.

45 miles total.

as you can tell I\'m putting my focus more on the longer stuff then anything fast right now next week the workouts are a little different. but nothing but easy milage and good effort based work. also just ran a 17:20 5k my goal is sub 17 by mid august

Training has been going well. 7 1/2 weeks into my training for xc after my

2 1/2 break. Mileage has gone as followed:

W1: 28.5

W2: 37

W3: 50

W4: 53

W5: 51.5

W6: 60

W7: 61

Key workouts (along with some fartleks/easy progressions that aren't posted):

Controlled 4 mile tempo in 22:24 (week 6) (5:36pace) (cool 65 degrees)

Controlled 4.5 mile tempo in 25:11 (week 7) (5:36 pace) (85 degrees and humid)

6x1600 on the track w/200m jog in 55-60 seconds in 5:35, 5:35, 5:35, 5:35, 5:23, a 5 minute break then a fairly hard but controlled 5:09

it's about time to revive this thread, but i think i'll start a new one for 2014 as we're 29 pages in

so look out for the new thread, title will be similar