I hope you don't mind this slightly off-topic question, but I am looking for some training advice . In about 5 weeks, August (17th), I have to run a 2-mile time trial as part of my high school soccer tryout. I need to do it in under 12 min. Many of the soccer trainers and coaches I know (not including my HS coach) tell me this is not a very soccer-specific metric for fitness, and they have always recommended that I focus on speed work (10, 20, 30 40m sprints) and high intensity interval work and to avoid long distance running per-se, because it can effect the fast twitch muscle fibers etc and doesn't necessarily help with the type of soccer fitness that includes lots of short to medium sprints with jogging and walking in between.
I have been training consistently since school shut down in March, and last week I ran a test 2-mile at 12:35. My soccer-endurance training over the past 3 months has consisted of 3 "running" session per week which are usually 30 min in duration, and soccer specific. A typical run might be 4 min tempo interval w/ 4 min rest repeated 4 times. Or 60 meter shuttle run in 10 sec, rest for 15 seconds, and repeat for 15 min - rest 3 min and repeat (2 15-min sets total). About 3 weeks ago I ran 12 x 400's at the track at my goal pace, which would be 90 sec/400, will a 100m walk in-between and was able to complete it without a lot of difficulty. However, the past weekend I tried to do 6 x 800m intervals at race pace of 3:00min/800 with 100m walk in-between, and by the 4th one my heart rate was above 190 and I couldn't finish.
My question is... with about 5 weeks to go, can anyone recommend anything thatI can do to try to help improve my 2 mile time? I have no trouble running easy "long" distances. At the end of May when I needed a little soccer break, I took a week and ran 45 min per day at and average heart rate of 155 and felt fine. I ran about an 8 min/mile pace. However, whenever I try to do interval running closer to the 6 min/mile pace, my heart rate goes quickly up to the 80-90+% max heart zone, which is hard to maintain. For example, when I ran his 12:35 2-mile, my average heart rate was 182 and his max was 196.
I am not sure if long slow runs would help at this point, or running in a certain heart rate zone for a certain time would be more effective. I have a heart rate monitor, so zone training is possible. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
thank you