How fast of a 3200m TT pre season to break 16 in season?

Pulled out my log from my senior year of high school.

Ran a 10:26 3200m time trial at the end of the summer. Ended the season running 16:12 5k.

So I would say 10:10-10:15.

5k xc? you need probably need a 9:45?

5k on the track ? a bit slower, 9:55

These aren't the official conversions, but high schoolers are usually weaker as the distance increases, so that's why the 3200 times are a bit quicker.

Thanks, I have a TT on Saturday and will be aiming for 10:20. I still have 9 more weeks of true summer training so if I run that I think I may have a chance.

Really hard to answer as you don’t provide much info. Lots of factors here like fast or slow twitch, previous mileage, how long you’ve been running, even the weather where you live.

If a kid who only ran 1 year at 20 mpw recently increased mileage and ran 10:30 in preseason it’s not unrealistic to assume he might improve that much

If a kid has been running for 4-5 years and did 50-60 mpw last season and is doing the same this season, he would need to run more like 9:50 in preseason to expect that kind of a time

I've been running for 2 years, but only like 20 mpw, and only running in season. So about 1 year total of actually running consistently. I am going into freshman year. I have been running 40-45 mpw for the past 12 "track weeks" but not actually racing or doing track workouts. My realistic goal is sub 16:30, my reach goal is sub 16:00. I have been improving a lot recently and havent trained seriously in the past. Is sub 16 attainable off of 40-45 mpw and an early season 3200m TT of 10:20 ish?

Man I think you guys are selling it short, particularly if the OP is not very well developed aerobically, as many HSers are.

9:55 is 4:52.5-4:57.5 pace. 15:59 is 5:08 or so. I don’t think I most younger runners can run 15:59 off 9:55-10:15. Think they need 9:45, 9:50 at worst.

Sounds like OP has little

Idea of what it takes to run under 16min.

I bet he runs 10:40s

Off the top of my head, running your 5k pace for 3200m solo before the season would be very promising. If you have a faster friend to help you out, maybe 10:05-10:10. But even if you run it quite a bit slower, it's no big deal. Young athletes tend to have big breakthroughs towards the end of the season.

We run a 2 mile TT at the beginning of every season on the first week of school. It is not uncommon for kids to be able to race at that pace for 5k by the end of the year. We run the TT at 3:30 in the afternoon so it's always hot as hell, but it's a road course and pancake flat and possibly a little bit short (because kids will cut some corners).

The kids that can run their TT pace by the end of the season are usually the ones who have put in a decent summer, but have not gone too crazy with either the mileage or the hard efforts. Some kids will have that TT circled on their calendar all summer and train a little too hard leading in to it. They'll put up good numbers in August then kind of plateau or even fall apart by the end of the season.

So, put in good mileage but don't kill yourself, run some easy tempos and some mile race pace 200s once a week and you should be ready to roll once the season starts.

you can put your 3200 tt in a calculator. but what you could run for 9 laps (3.600m) on track you should run in a flat 5k race

so 3.600m on track is your 5k race pace.

birdbeard wrote:

Man I think you guys are selling it short, particularly if the OP is not very well developed aerobically, as many HSers are.

9:55 is 4:52.5-4:57.5 pace. 15:59 is 5:08 or so. I don’t think I most younger runners can run 15:59 off 9:55-10:15. Think they need 9:45, 9:50 at worst.

End of August is a lot different than end of October. I was assuming the 3200 would be at the end of the summer and he is trying to hit this 5k by the end of the season.

birdbeard wrote:

Man I think you guys are selling it short, particularly if the OP is not very well developed aerobically, as many HSers are.

9:55 is 4:52.5-4:57.5 pace. 15:59 is 5:08 or so. I don’t think I most younger runners can run 15:59 off 9:55-10:15. Think they need 9:45, 9:50 at worst.

I agree with this. Sub-16 in XC is no joke for a 9:45 guy on the track. I would even say 9:40 to be sure. Even in August. After the sub-16, they'd be running 9:30 or maybe just under 9:30 in track season.

For instance, there was a guy that we raced against in HS whose 5k PB was 16:0x or 16:1x in XC. His senior year in track, he ran 9:2x in the 3200.