Do I have what it takes to run a 4:24 mile? Let's find out

PR's:

400m: 49.9r

500m: 1:06.4

800m: 1:52.7

1500m: 4:08

Mile: 4:31

3000m: 9:20

5000m: 16:10 (road)

15k road: 52:40

Week ending in 9/10

Sunday 9 miles easy @ 6:45

Monday Long run 13.1 miles @ 6:50. Last few miles 6:00 pace. + Strides

Tuesday 2.1 miles @ 7:10 + Core, strides and plyos

Wednesday PM 5k and 10k pace reps. 2x(800, 800, mile)

Equal rest between reps. All on grass. Extremely hot day

2:31, 2:30, 5:15

2:34, 2:30, 5:30

Night run 3 miles @ 7:50

Thursday AM 3.1 miles easy @ 8:00

PM 8.5 miles easy @ 7:15

Friday 5x(3x200m) Hill repeats. Each set faster than before. Started in the 50\'s cut down to 33s

Saturday 8.2 miles @ 7:15 pace. Hot

Week total: 62 miles

Always having hiccups along the way that are getting in the way of me hitting 70mpw. Nothing super notable this week. Very hot weather overall.

PR's:

400m: 49.9r

500m: 1:06.4

800m: 1:52.7

1500m: 4:08

Mile: 4:31

3000m: 9:20

5000m: 16:10 (road)

15k road: 52:40

Week Ending in 9/17:

Sunday AM 2.7 miles easy @ 7:45

PM Sprint Workout. 5x50m (all out, standing start). 300m comfortable in 39. Took about 4 min rest between reps.

Monday 3min, 2min, 3min, 2min, then 5 more 2min reps @ vo2 or so pace on the grass. Went through 400m in 72 for all. Tough workout.

Tuesday AM 4 miles @ 7:50

PM 3.2 miles @ 7:30

Wednesday AM 5x800m @ about 2:28 then 5x400m in 72-73. Jog a lap rest for each.

PM 2x10min 'tempo' @ 6:00 pace

Thursday 3 miles @ 7:30 + Core

Friday 4.5 miles easy for Pre Meet + Strides

Saturday Behrend Invite 8k. 28:10. Description below.

Week total: 60 miles.

The sprint workout in the beginning of the week was fun. I actually felt decent accelerating hard for those 50's and was very sore after. I like the trend of doing 1 sprint workout a week or doing some really good quality strides at least.

Monday's workout was a tough one for everyone. Big grass loop and everyone had trouble hitting times. I grinded this one out.

I did the morning workout Wednesday with this kid that goes to my school (he came back to pursue a different career, he's in his upper 20's right now) and he's currently training for Chicago.His goal is sub 2:30 so he can obviously dust me in distance workouts. I did the 800's with him then felt like crap so paced him for 400m while he did his next 5 800's. I ran with the team for their workout but I just ran with slower people and did a nice and easy tempo as to not overdo it. I'm a fan of doing double or biiig workouts and getting ample recovery days rather than a bunch of small workouts constantly. I don't do it often but It is something i'm not against.

Behrend Invite** Our home XC meet. I ran it unattached. There were a few less teams this year. It rained HARD for the couple hours leading up to our race. There were 7 or so races before ours and the course was torn to shreds. I took 3rd with 28:10 and ran with my buddies who took 1st and 2nd for most of it. Last year on the same (but dry) course I took 16th with 27:3X and this 28:10 felt like a cakewalk. I beat kids on our team who ran low 27's the week before on a dry course by a pretty big margin. It'll probably be the only XC race I run but I was happy with it.

Just saw this thread. Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for posting all of the training! They are really helpful for me since my coach admittedly does not know a ton about workout paces and creative workouts. I will be using a lot of these.

Holy shit ur 400 is godly i hope i can be as fast

alabamarunner wrote:

Thanks for posting all of the training! They are really helpful for me since my coach admittedly does not know a ton about workout paces and creative workouts. I will be using a lot of these.

I'm glad I can be of help! If you have any questions about what I did in a certain time of year I can help try to give insight. I know more now looking back at what I did as to why it helped me.

PR's:

400m: 49.9r

500m: 1:06.4

800m: 1:52.7

1500m: 4:08

Mile: 4:31

3000m: 9:20

5000m: 16:10 (road)

15k road: 52:40

Week Ending in 9/24:

Sunday 8.5 miles @ 7:15 pace

Monday 8x400m with 2.5-3min rest

64, 62, 63, 63, 63, 62, 64, 60

Tuesday AM 3 miles @ 8:00 pace

PM 7.3 miles @ 7:20

Wednesday 7x3min with equal rest. Averaged 5:00 pace

Thursday AM 4 miles @ 7:45

PM 3 miles @ 7:20 + 4 good strides and lift

Friday Mixed Pace Workout. mile, 400, 1200, 300, mile, 200, 1200, 100. 90-120sec rest between all

5:23, 60, 5:28 pace, 44, 5:24, 26.5, 5:10 pace, 11.8

Saturday 2.2 miles @ 7:20 + Strides

Week total: 48 miles. Down Week.

Was having breathing problems on Monday's workout, else I would have done a couple more. Wednesday's workout felt really easy and smooth, so I'm glad about that. Friday's workout was a fun change of pace and was enjoyable all around. The longer reps were meant to be abuot lactate threshold effort and were on the grass. The short reps were just supposed to be 'fast' and were on the track.

This thread is awesome. I believe we have raced before when you were a sophomore and I was a senior (I looked up the race, it was at your home course). I am just getting back in to the swing of things for training, and my goal is and has been sub 1:57, 4:20, 8:45, 15:19. I also steeple, however, and would love to go under 9:30. Just out of curiosity, how do you think your training for the distances have impacted your speed? I was hitting 100 mpw for a bit this summer, and ended up injuring myself pretty badly (6 weeks off for achilles after the Boilermaker), and now I am dropping back down to the 50-60 range (currently building back up to that). If you have any advice, I would love to hear it!

Really like the Friday workout idea. Will give it a go. And you should re-title this thread to (do I have what it takes to run a 4:10 mile?) Because that's where you're headed.

Whitt wrote:

This thread is awesome. I believe we have raced before when you were a sophomore and I was a senior (I looked up the race, it was at your home course). I am just getting back in to the swing of things for training, and my goal is and has been sub 1:57, 4:20, 8:45, 15:19. I also steeple, however, and would love to go under 9:30. Just out of curiosity, how do you think your training for the distances have impacted your speed? I was hitting 100 mpw for a bit this summer, and ended up injuring myself pretty badly (6 weeks off for achilles after the Boilermaker), and now I am dropping back down to the 50-60 range (currently building back up to that). If you have any advice, I would love to hear it!

Thank you! And that's awesome that we've raced each other before too!

Those are some solid goals and show some good range.

tbh I have no idea of the mileage has impacted my speed. I never really hit more than 70mpw ever and during track last year it was probably closer to 45-50 mpw for most of the season. So I've never been that high of mileage before. I think if you're doing things like lifting and strides then no amount of mileage will necessarily impact your speed. My speed got better during my 70 mile weeks and that was with like 1-2 lifts a week and some good quality strides. Something I want to improve is my 400 speed because that is one of the biggest determiners of 800m potential. I've been sprinkling in 1 or so sprint workouts a week and trying to do strides after most easy days. I need to really lift more because I am rather lazy with that.

I think if youre worried about basic speed then do 4-8x100m strides twice or so a week. The first couple to get loosened up and then faster as you go. As much rest as you want.

I think people (especially this website) underestimates the quality over quantity thing. I don't really mean intervals on the track (i.e. 5x1k @ goal 5k), I mean all the stuff in the 'tempo' range of paces. Marathon pace longer runs, half marathon pace tempos often, etc. Of course more miles is better, but the more you're running at a good tempo pace the better, especially if you have good natural speed like I do. Make sure you're taking easy days easy too, but when I was in the 70mpw range I would try to do a lot of mileage in ~6:00 pace (when I was like a 28:00 guy for 8k).

It was nice to mix up the workout with different paces. Was a lot of fun. And haha we'll see how the mile goes this season! I still have to break 4:30 technically ;)

letsbang wrote:

Really like the Friday workout idea. Will give it a go. And you should re-title this thread to (do I have what it takes to run a 4:10 mile?) Because that's where you're headed.

PR's:

400m: 49.9r

500m: 1:06.4

800m: 1:52.7

1500m: 4:08

Mile: 4:31

3000m: 9:20

5000m: 16:10 (road)

15k road: 52:40

Week Ending in 10/1:

Sunday AM 4.8 miles @ 6:15 pace on treadmill + Lift

PM 2.5 miles @ 6:00 pace on treadmill

Monday Afternoon Hill Sprints. 6X100m all out, jogged a half mile between.

Night run, 4 miles @ 6:20

Tuesday 20x400m with my marathon buddy. 90 second rest (jog 200 and stand around). 73, 73, 71, 72, 70, 71, 70, 70, 68, 70, 69, 69, 70, 71, 68, 70, 69, 71, 69, 68.

Average (70.1)

Wednesday 5 miles @ 7:40 pace + light strides

Thursday AM 3.3 miles @ 7:40

PM 8 miles @ 7:00 + 4 strides

Friday AM 2 miles @ 7:30

PM Cut Down workout. 20 minute tempo, 1k, 600, 600, 3x200m. 2ish minute rest between all.

5:48 pace, 3:01, 1:41, 1:42, 29, 26, 25.

Saturday 7.5 miles recovery @ 8:00 pace.

Week total: 66 miles

Felt good. I'm surprised I finished that workout Tueday, that was a tough one. The middle reps from rep 8-14 were rough. But i felt good at the end. Friday's workout was fun. Tempo was on the roads, 1k on the grass, 600's and 200's on the track. Slowly trying to get that mileage back into the 70's. It's tough with the quality too, but go big or go home haha.

Where's your long run?

Your workouts are all over the place and don't seem planned out. What are you aiming for? You shouldn't be cranking out 25s in workouts unless you're in the peak phase. It's fun and easy to screw around and race all year. It's hard to be patient and choose times to be in peak fitness. If you want to optimize your performance, choose the latter. Read Daniels.

Past My Peak wrote:

Where's your long run?

Your workouts are all over the place and don't seem planned out. What are you aiming for? You shouldn't be cranking out 25s in workouts unless you're in the peak phase. It's fun and easy to screw around and race all year. It's hard to be patient and choose times to be in peak fitness. If you want to optimize your performance, choose the latter. Read Daniels.

1) long run is usually every other or every third week. I think the weekly long run is a little much.

2) I'm just trying to improve 3k-8k type times. I will be taking a small break around thanksgiving or so. Currently training with my former XC team. (Except for the sprint workouts and marathon buddy workouts).

3) running a 25 second 200 isn't reserved for peak phase. It's fall. I wasn't running all out. Simply looking to improve 5kish times in the fall while working on and keeping top speed. Everything is going well.

400m: 49.9r

500m: 1:06.4

800m: 1:52.7

1500m: 4:08

Mile: 4:31

3000m: 9:20

5000m: 16:10 (road)

15k road: 52:40

Week Ending in 10/8:

Sunday AM 2 miles @ 7:30 in pouring rain

PM sprint workout. Drills and strides, 200m stride in 27. 3x150m with 5min rest in 18.8, 18.2, 18.4

Monday 6x4min with 3:30 rest @ 5:05 pace. Grass loop. 6x20 seconds fast with 40 seconds rest after. Start of a cold.

Tuesday 3.5 miles @ 7:20 + Core. Pretty sick.

Wednesday Long run. 13.5 miles @ 6:30 pace. last 5.5 miles @ 5:45 average. Felt much better today.

Thursday 9 miles easy @ 7:30 + 3x200m strides. 33, 32, 28.

Friday AM Treadmill tempo 3.5 miles @ 5:55 pace. + Lift

PM sprint workout. 5x75m with rolling start. 4 min rest. Glute started getting tight.

Saturday AM 2 miles @ 8:00 pace

PM 3.5 miles while I cheered on the XC team at Houghton Invite.

Week total: 60.5 miles

Wasn't a bad week considering the cold I had. The cold was only bad on one day, though. Otherwise I'm feeling decent. I feel like I need some advice on sprint work. Idk if what I'm doing is going to help with my top speed/400 speed or not.

I did it many times off strides alone

Gnomebe wrote:

I did it many times off strides alone

Broke 4:24?

400m: 49.9r

500m: 1:06.4

800m: 1:52.7

1500m: 4:08

Mile: 4:31

3000m: 9:20

5000m: 16:10 (road)

15k: 52:40 (road)

Week ending in 10/15:

Sunday AM 7.2 miles @ 7:40

PM 4 miles @ 7:30 & 700 yards of swimming

Monday 4x (2km, 400m) with 1.5-2 minute rest.

6:47, 6:47, 6:59, 6:50

63, 64, 62, 62

Then 6x20sec on, 40sec off all out.

Evening Lifting session and a 2.4 mile easy shakeout @ 7:30 pace

Tuesday AM 3 miles easy @ 8:00

PM 5.5 miles @ 7:40

Wednesday Cut down workout. 14min tempo, 800, 400, 200, 200.

5:48 pace, 2:19, 60, 27.5, 25.

2min rest between all. Jogged about 200m during the rest,

Thursday 8.5 miles easy @ 7:30 + 2 strides

Friday AM 3 miles easy @ 7:50

PM 3.5 miles easy @ 7:03

Saturday Ran an open race at a high school XC race I used to do. Only like 20 people run the open race, so I was all alone. Basically a good tempo effort. Ran 17:18 on a notoriously difficult and tough XC course. My high school PR on the same course was 19:10, and I assure you I was trying a lot harder when I ran 19:10, lol.

Week total: 66 miles

Mileage is getting better and better, slowly. My old XC team went to Jersey to run at the Rowan Border Clash invite (they killed it btw) but I didn't want to travel 8 hours for that so I stayed back. The 2k tempos during the first workout were on a hilly grass loop and the 400's were on the track. The 14 minute tempo was also on the same loop.

400m: 49.9r

500m: 1:06.4

800m: 1:52.7

1500m: 4:08

Mile: 4:31

3000m: 9:20

5000m: 16:10 (road)

15k: 52:40 (road)

Week Ending in 10/22:

Sunday AM 8.8 miles easy and an 800m in 2:20 to pace my buddy

PM Lift and 700yds of swimming

Monday AM 3.5 miles @ 7:15

PM 10 miles @ 6:55

Tuesday AM 4.1 mile tempo @ 5:42 + couple strides

PM treadmill 3.1 mile tempo @ 5:58 + Lifting

Wednesday 9.1 miles @ 6:53 + 4 barefoot strides

Thursday 8.4 miles @ 7:20 with a couple in-run strides

Friday AM 3.5 mile tempo @ 5:54 on the treadmill. Lift after

PM 5min, 4min, 3min, 3min, 4min, 5min @ goal 5k effort. Very windy and rainy, so times were slow, but effort was there.

Saturday 5.5 miles recovery @ 7:30

Week total: 67.5 miles

Staying very consistent so far with mileage. I'm actually a lot higher mileage at this time of the year then I ever have been even though my summer 2016 was a good bit lower than 2015. I'm kinda of taking a mental break from constant workouts by adding more tempos and comfortable stuff. I think my goal race is going to be a flat turkey trot race where I'm going to try to get a 5k PR then take a short break before revamping my training for track season.

My knee has been bothering me a little when ever I try to sprint. It feels fine lifting and during other running, but the little tendon thing that sticks out on the back of the inside of your knee feels 'weird'. not sure if its because I'm tight or if its something completely different. But i've been monitoring it.