tempo pace for sub 19

You should be training to your current fitness level, not goal fitness, in order to avoid injury. Tempo will be roughly 5K + :30/mile.

Based on current fitness of 20:00 (6:26), tempos will be in the range of 6:50 - 6:55.

Once you get to 19:00 fitness (6:07), you'll be doing tempos in the range of 6:35-6:40.

At 20:00 5k fitness, your tempos should be in the ~6:40 - 7:00 min./mi. range.

At 18:59 5k fitness, your tempos should be in the ~6:20 - 6:40 min./mi. range.

The McMillan calculator spits out a bunch of other useful info. too:

https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

My teammate and I ran tempos at 6:40 early winter and he ran a 5k in 17:11 the year prior at a road race

He ended that season running 4:27 and 1:58 junior year

If you are to get your pace down to 6:40 for a 4 mile tempo (26:40) at the same effort you're currently doing the 28min 4 mile tempo, then I'd say that's a good indication that you're in shape for sub-19.

On a side note the 6x800m workout is very promising!

fromexperience wrote:

My teammate and I ran tempos at 6:40 early winter and he ran a 5k in 17:11 the year prior at a road race

He ended that season running 4:27 and 1:58 junior year

That's pretty amazing!! Unfortunately things tend to play out a bit different for guys than for girls for whatever reason.

I'm not understanding 20 min when you ran 6 x 800m with 1 min jog, all around 2:55.

4 miles at 7 min/mile is a great pace, especially for only a soph.

I am not a fan of workouts like 6 x 800m, especially in HS, but not even in college..

I don't use terms like tempo runs, or LT, or VO2max or any of the current trends.

Right now you should be able to break 19 min for 5k.

It doesn't matter whether you do, perhaps you are really more of a 800m/1600m runner.

I don't understand the fascination with CC in HS.

We ran to win, not because we loved running 3 miles fast.

"CC is for show, track's for dough."

I would stick to your current training pace, stay away from long runs (once a week, 1 hour at a pace that you could talk with your teammates while running, but not dawdling).

You can slowly improve to 6:30 min/mile for 3-4 mile runs.

Once a week interval sessions:

1. 600-400-200 with 200m jog, all at expected 1600m pace. 2 sets, 2 lap jog between sets.

2. 500-300-150 with jog equal to interval (500m jog after 500m interval, etc.). 2 sets, 2 lap jog between sets. At expected 800m pace.

Run (1) one week, (2) the next week. Repeat once and that is a month of decent intervals to combine with your solid distance running.

beachbum wrote:Right now you should be able to break 19 min for 5k.

It doesn't matter whether you do, perhaps you are really more of a 800m/1600m runner.

Thanks for the help! The person who I run all my runs with recently ran 19:30 but my practices don't translate into XC races that well (cross country is hard!!). I definitely prefer track 800s-3k

hi school wrote:

My goal for the 5k is 18:59.9 by the end of high school, so just basically sub 19. I'm a girl. What pace should I go for a 4 mile tempo to run that time? I do 7 flat (28min for 4 miles) right now so I don't know where that puts me for fitness. I have 2 years left though, I'm a sophomore, and I know I still have to improve. I think my fitness right now is probably about 20:00 or maybe barely sub 20. Any feedback and tips would be appreciated.

(btw speed-wise I ran a 6x800 with 1 min jog at 2:55 during a workout)

You're closer than you think.

I was going to say 6:50 ish before I read that you are already going at 7:00. Tempo is very subjective. I'd say that if you're going 6:40-6:50 and it's really comfortable and you're still able to run the 6 x 800 comfortably, then you're just about ready.

As a point of reference, the last two girls that I had who went in the low 19 / high 18 range would do 3 mile tempos at around 7 minute pace during the off season and during the season threshold type stuff was done more as CV type reps of 4-5 x 1200 on a kind of slow loop in mid 4:50 to low 4:40 (so 6:35-6:15 mile pace). The average for those sessions throughout the season was usually right around 20 min 5k pace.