What is an ideal 3200m training week for someone aiming to run in the 9:50s

4 workouts every 2 weeks- 2 @ 3k/5k, 1 @ 800/mile, 1 @ T. Easy running in between. Long run building up to at least double digits. 12-13 miles should be fine.

Run more mileage on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

2-3 workouts a week and a long run is typical of all successful programs.

Try to care less about how fast you run in February and March. Be more concerned with how fast you’re in April and May.

I did it like this:

Monday+Tuesday+Thursday+Friday: 1 hour easy (maybe add some strides if you feel like it)

Wednesday: short reps (200m, 400m, ... reps); 1 week at mile pace, next week at 3000m pace, and so on...

Saturday: 'long run' -> 1h20 - 1h30 easy

Sunday: Tempo run: anything from 1 hour at marathon pace to 15 minutes at 10K pace; the closer to peak race, the shorter and more intense the tempo run becomes. You could also do some training races.

my 3 cents wrote:

Run more mileage on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

2-3 workouts a week and a long run is typical of all successful programs.

Try to care less about how fast you run in February and March. Be more concerned with how fast you’re in April and May.

Just did 4 x 1k at 3:07 each. Since it's early in the season I was thinking of doing longer repetitions at vo2 max. Is this a good workout or should I scrap this for something else. I've already planned to do a 6 mile recovery tomorrow and a 10 mile long run on sunday.

Try this wrote:

I did it like this:

Monday+Tuesday+Thursday+Friday: 1 hour easy (maybe add some strides if you feel like it)

Wednesday: short reps (200m, 400m, ... reps); 1 week at mile pace, next week at 3000m pace, and so on...

Saturday: 'long run' -> 1h20 - 1h30 easy

Sunday: Tempo run: anything from 1 hour at marathon pace to 15 minutes at 10K pace; the closer to peak race, the shorter and more intense the tempo run becomes. You could also do some training races.

What do you mean by one week at mile pace and next week at 3000m pace. All my speed workouts one week should be that pace?

InterestedZ wrote:

Currently, our track coach is giving is a lot of speed and not much distance, and our first meet is about 15-20 days away*. Any suggestions on how to still get that distance and key workouts in order to maintain a strong base.

*we don't have practices on friday, so only monday-thursday

My current estimate of my ability for a 3200m is probably between 9:59-10:10

Your coach sounds like he knows what he's going, unless he told you to run 3 x 1000m.

If you came up with 3 x 1000m on your own, you are undermining what the coach is trying to do.

You didn't list the workouts or times of the interval speed sessions that you thought were 'too much speed' and so it is hard to fathom what you want.

I ran 9:10 in high school on 25 MPW.

InterestedZ wrote:

Currently, our track coach is giving is a lot of speed and not much distance, and our first meet is about 15-20 days away*. Any suggestions on how to still get that distance and key workouts in order to maintain a strong base.

*we don't have practices on friday, so only monday-thursday

My current estimate of my ability for a 3200m is probably between 9:59-10:10

The premise is in error. There is no "ideal" in the sense that one program will work for everyone. You are unique. What training worked for one person is likely to fail another person. Principles are important like hard/easy/rest, but even that varies a lot. Pretty famously Pre and Kenny Moore, both of whom were very successful had very different training routines. Pre could go hard 2 days in a row; that crushed Kenny.

It is going to take some experimentation from you. Even looking at the traditional week might not be the best idea. There is a strong school of thought that for endurance athletes a 10 day "week" (or microcycle) is better than a 7 day one.

I would say that running on the weekends is a good idea, but ease into adding mileage. Think long-term.

Malmo ran 9:10 on 80-100 mpw with a 140 week in there

If you did it off less miles you should be running faster than him in the mile, steeple, and half marathon

False premise that high mileage makes everyone faster. Ask Brazier how many miles he does to run his best mile. Ask Justin Knight how many miles are ideal.

talent beats training wrote:

False premise that high mileage makes everyone faster. Ask Brazier how many miles he does to run his best mile. Ask Justin Knight how many miles are ideal.

+1

talent beats training wrote:

I ran 9:10 in high school on 25 MPW.

And what did you accomplish after? Most of the studs I knew like you could never handle high mileage, broke down, and never did much in college. I ran in the 9:10s in high school off 50 mpw. But I got much faster when I doubled my mileage. So, talent for training matters too.

Anyway, OP, there is good advice on here. For me, it was two hard workouts per week (sometimes 3 if we ran through a dual meet race) and otherwise just running how I felt. I went hard in workouts but never crushed myself. I think that is the key. Also never ran more than 9 miles (I mean, maybe one time), but I could see the value in doing a longer run of 12 miles and a couple doubles per week.

clac wrote:

InterestedZ wrote:

Currently, our track coach is giving is a lot of speed and not much distance, and our first meet is about 15-20 days away*. Any suggestions on how to still get that distance and key workouts in order to maintain a strong base.

*we don't have practices on friday, so only monday-thursday

My current estimate of my ability for a 3200m is probably between 9:59-10:10

Your coach sounds like he knows what he's going, unless he told you to run 3 x 1000m.

If you came up with 3 x 1000m on your own, you are undermining what the coach is trying to do.

You didn't list the workouts or times of the interval speed sessions that you thought were 'too much speed' and so it is hard to fathom what you want.

My "coach" is a volleyball coach that doesn't really base workouts off of me, rather just gives us speed nearly every day and calls our long runs 3 miles. We also do the same workouts every week and have practice mon-thursday. I also run on a team with kids who haven't cracked 6:50 in the mile and I am one of three varsity runners. So I feel like I am in the position where listening to my coach would make it much worse for me

clac wrote:

InterestedZ wrote:

Currently, our track coach is giving is a lot of speed and not much distance, and our first meet is about 15-20 days away*. Any suggestions on how to still get that distance and key workouts in order to maintain a strong base.

*we don't have practices on friday, so only monday-thursday

My current estimate of my ability for a 3200m is probably between 9:59-10:10

Your coach sounds like he knows what he's going, unless he told you to run 3 x 1000m.

If you came up with 3 x 1000m on your own, you are undermining what the coach is trying to do.

You didn't list the workouts or times of the interval speed sessions that you thought were 'too much speed' and so it is hard to fathom what you want.

Monday - 3 x 1 mile at 5:10

Tuesday - 4 - 8 -12 - 16 -12 - 8 - 4 ladder. (400 at 69 800 at 2:25 1200 at 3:45 16 at 5:15 and back down)

Wednesday - 4 x 800 @ sub 2:30

Thursday - 2.75 mile "long run"

Your week should be broken up more, you definitely shouldn't be doing 4 speed days in a row. A 2.75 mile "long run" is just stupid lol. The way I structured my weeks all through high school and up until now as I'm a sophomore in college was:

Monday: 60 minutes easy w/ strides or short hill sprints.

Tuesday: strength WO, tempo/ threshold run or longer intervals like miles or 1k repeats. Tuesdays were my high volume workout days.

Wednesday: 60 minutes easy.

Thursday: second WO of the week was usually a little faster; a few examples might be; 12x400 w/ 90 second-2 min rest or 2x(800,600,400)+2x400 w/ 2 min rest. the goal of thursday workouts is to get comfortable at quicker speeds, you just wanna practice running race pace and faster.

Friday: 60 minutes easy. Saturday: LONG RUN!!! haha 3 miles is not a long run, especially for somebody who's trying to break 10 in the 3200. In High School my long runs were 10 miles but it wouldn't hurt to do up to 12. both my Highschool and college coaches encouraged tougher long runs. you don't have to kill yourself but you should feel tired when you finish.

With this type of training structure I was able to qualify for footlocker nationals, run 9:03 for the 3200 and 4:11 for the mile in high school while running about 45-50 miles a week.

This is all just a basic outline of what's worked for me I've continued to improve, running 13:56 in the 5k and 3:50 in the 1500. There's no guarantee this type of training structure will work for you but I think its worth a try at least. just be SUPER careful about increasing volume and intensity. Make changes slowly and pay close attention to how your body feels. You cant PR if your injured....

InterestedZ wrote:

My "coach" is a volleyball coach that doesn't really base workouts off of me, rather just gives us speed nearly every day and calls our long runs 3 miles. We also do the same workouts every week and have practice mon-thursday. I also run on a team with kids who haven't cracked 6:50 in the mile and I am one of three varsity runners. So I feel like I am in the position where listening to my coach would make it much worse for me

Yikes.

Basics; 6 days a week running. No run longer than 1 hour.

1 day (Sunday for us): 1 hour running at a pace you would struggle at if 1 1/2 hours.

1 day (usually Friday or Saturday): race or TT or few repetitions at high speed.

examples:

500m, jog 200m, 300m.

6 x 200m (training shoes, on the fly) with 200m jog recovery

3 x 400m (training shoes, on the fly) with 400m jog recovery

2 x 500m (spikes, standing start) with 8 minutes recovery.

1 x 1000m

1 x 1200m

1 day (tuesday or wednesday) medium pace intervals.

examples:

600-400-200 with 4 minutes recovery

100-200-300-400-300-200-100 with 100m jog recovery

or do the intervals listed above for the other day, but this day run them at medium pace

3 days medium paced runs of 4-7 miles

1 of those days steady

1 of those days during the run do short sprints of 50-100m and then slow for a few minutes, then another short sprint, keep repeating until nearly finished. Be sure to run steady the 1st mile or so to be warmed up before starting the sprints.

1 of those days do progressions up in pace and then slow, taking about 600m to speed up and another 600m to slow down. Do three such up-and-down progressions during the run.

Try doing 12+mile long runs and add 3-5 miles at tempo pace, either in the middle or at the end of your long run.

Thank you for this, I don't think I'm capable of 60 minute easy runs, probably around 45 minutes max. However, this was really helpful, and I will likely do this next week after my first meet this saturday.

Iamjustsaying wrote:

Try doing 12+mile long runs and add 3-5 miles at tempo pace, either in the middle or at the end of your long run.

Yea, I always tend to drop time as my run goes on and eventually run at a mid-up tempo for the last few miles. Thank you