HS Miler winter workouts

5x800 with a lap jog. Start slower than 5k pace and finish close to 3200m pace. Over time if you can push that 400m jog a little the workout will be better

keep the tempos and stuff

600-200 drill (Oregon 800-300 drill but modified)

run it like this 600m fast, 200m jog, 300m quick, 300m jog. Maybe do 4 reps. Cut down every 600 and keep the 300s generally consistent.

5x10 sec hills with good recovery post run. Builds pure speed.

mix this stuff up in the week and have fun.

No need to do Vo2Max workouts now, unless you want to modify them.

Shorter reps (300-500m) than a typical Vo2 session. Longer recovery than a typical Vo2 session. So like 5 x 500m with 3:00 rest. Still run them at "Vo2max" pace or only slightly faster, but this is a transitional workout to doing longer work with shorter rest at 3K-5K later in the spring.

No reason to come off base training yet imo.

I'm a firm believer in avoiding super race-specific intervals at this point in training. You can hit race paces, but in a context that is very different from a race.

For example, a very race specific mile workout (to be avoided at this point) would be 4x600 @ mile pace w/ 1-2 min rest (depending on the desired intensity). This workout will build lactate in a similar manner to a mile race while allowing the runner to accumulate more than 1 mile at race pace.

At the point in the season, I would hit mile pace, but without accumulating those high levels of lactate. Some examples:

Alternations of 200/600 with the 200 @ mile pace/600 steady (slower than LT pace, about 90 sec/mile slower than mile race pace)

200s at mile pace w/ 200 meter jog (easy)

Ins and outs (1600 effort or a bit harder on the straights, jog the turns)

I agree with the poster who said to do "transitional" vo2 max work.

8 x 400 at 3k-5k pace w/ 3 min rest

4 x 800 at 5k pace w/ 5 min rest

Steady run w/ 3 min pickups at 5k pace

Mix in some aerobic work, like standard tempo runs, min on/min off fartleks, 5 min cruise intervals w/ 1-2 min rest

I would also have an aspiring miler work on all-out speed at this point (assuming they've done some transitional work at 800-mile pace)

4-6 x 10 sec hill sprints

4-6 x flying 50s

Building base by slogging endless easy miles is a myth. It works for some runners, but most can safely get a lot more out of winter/summer. Just don't make it too intense since you want them running their best in May and June.

Good points. I like dividing the seasons into XC and "track", and treat indoor typically as base-building for outdoor. However, if you're in a midwestern state where it's typically really windy in spring, there are some coaches who prioritize indoor more, but they also don't take 2 weeks off from XC.

One coach whom I respect has his athletes race once in our indoor league to get qualifying times (they're not impressive at all - varsity is just under 5:00 and 11:00) so they can be put into any event, and then they would just train through the winter with an eye on indoor nationals, with a race effort occasionally in practice so they don't forget that feeling. However, his team always had very strong sprints and a very large roster, so they could put up multiple high 9's, mid 4's from their 6-7 and lower which would almost always be enough to score a lot. "Fast" guys (i.e. those who could run, and place pretty highly, at indoor nationals) would likely be entered in one additional meet to get the qualification, but they'd never go all out.

He's a very good coach, but if you have multiple athletes who can run 9:30 (which is what I believe the 2 mile championship standard is) at slightly slower than track 5k effort, you're always going to do better than 99.x% of teams who don't have that talent. On a slower scale, I guess it's sort of like Newbury Park - they'd still do quite well off of about 50 mpw and a "standardized" (let's say one tempo and one interval session) program, but having Brosnan helped them get to the next level.

Here are some coming off of base staples I really like:

6-8x200m @ 800m pace, BUT, rest until you feel ready to go again. This will start with like 2 minutes rest and naturally progress to 5-6 minutes of rest by the end. It starts getting your anaerobic and speed endurance systems firing without too much physical or mental strain. Can be complimented by a couple 800s or 1ks at a good aerobic pace at the start, probably around 10k.

12x400m starting at 5k pace working down to 3k/3200m pace, with 1 lap jog for recovery. Good intro to Vo2Max work, solid workout volume, and isn’t very difficult if done at the correct paces.

12x100m w/ 300m slow jog, 100s starting at mile pace and working down to a nearly maximal sprint by the last 2-3 reps. This is a great workout for feeling out paces, getting some pop in the legs, and also is a surprisingly good aerobic stimulus. Also not extremely challenging

Hills are also great. My go to hill workout as an 800m guy is 6x50m and then 4-6x150m. Every rep should be a good 90-95% effort, let your athlete walk back down, grab a drink, shake the legs out a bit, rest time isn’t too important on this one.

I see no mention of indoor so I really depends on where your athlete is in their training. If they did XC and then took a break and have put in many weeks of mileage that’s different than an athlete in the middle of indoor. My team doesn’t have an indoor season so basically we had 10 weeks to get work done after XC. So with my team we have been doing a modified version of Summer of Malmo. Building mileage, hitting tempos, doing some 200s. But if you have just one athlete it kind of depends on what type of athlete they are too.