Follow my Journey to Sub 15

So 1:45ish?

That’d be 8:45 pace which seems good. Anecdotally, I needed a far larger buffer to break 15 (sub 8:30), but I didn’t do much high end e aerobic work at all

my mile is 4:39, granted I'm likely in closer to 4:28 shape but I'm more of an aerobic oriented runner, so I'd expect 8:35-8:45

Anyone have any advice on racing? I'm a high school freshman so this is going to be my first track 5k.

Is it necessary to run the long run at this pace? Would you get the same benefit if it were at an easier place?

Just reading through this post I am pretty surprised by the intensity of the workouts here for a HS freshman.

20 mile LR hammering at the end?

A 14 minute tempo where you split sub-9 3k at the end followed by 10x300 @ faster than 1500 pace?

A 3k TT at 5k pace is a hard effort by itself. Bundling it as part of a longer tempo with 10x300 (a hard standalone 1500 workout) seems crazy to me. I don't even know how this workout is possible honestly unless you are in WAY better shape than 15 flat currently and capable of going well under 4 flat in the 1500.

I have nothing constructive to provide other than to indicate that I would be pretty surprised if you didn't obliterate you 1600 PR by 20ish seconds and go well under 15 minutes off the posted workouts.

This is when I figured out this thread is a troll thread.

Obviously the 20 miler was a bad idea, I wasted 2 days of training on a run with no more benefit than a 90 minute run, but I enjoyed it, and found it a nice way to celebrate my birthday in nature. I would do it again, because I find it important that no matter how hard training is, it's important to do runs that remind me how much I love running, which is the whole reason I am doing this after all.

I'm not a troll lol, if you don't believe me I posted a link to all my gps data a few posts back. Drop a follow :))

I have had a bad experience with being a workout warrior, so I decided to completely restructure my training to avoid this. I tried to spend a ton of time during the base phase running at relaxed paces off low rest and made it a priority to never overly surpass goal paces. Off experience I knew going slower could lead to more benefit. Coming off the base phase of never overdoing it, I feel noticeably stronger and my speed workouts have been significantly ahead of where I planned at a lower effort, but I'm still trying to stay near the paces. I had 2 workouts this build that I really intended to blow out of the water the first being a vo2 max 4 x mile @4:53 off 90" and the second being 2x(2k 1k) off 90" @3:00 (I haven't done this one yet). Surprisingly enough the prog + 300's wasn't intended to be one of them but it went surprisingly well off of a lighter effort. I wasn't looking at pace, since my watch was on the heart rate setting so I was obviously pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Whilst it always looms in the back of my head that I am still a workout warrior and I have been overdoing it, session after session I am starting to feel more and more reassured by the growing strength and ease that comes with it. I appreciate all the advice on this thread, and hope more people continue to give advice towards my last few weeks and racing strategy. I'm very thankful for everything and will continue to update the thread.

-sub15dreama

No, this guy's legit. Check his strava.

I figured you were a college freshmen based on your maturity of approach and self-reflection. Agreed with HHW, this is big mileage and big work esp for a young guy. I think you are going to destroy your time goals. Good luck, keep it up.

Thank you!

Today's workout: 3 miles slightly quicker than tempo 600j 8x600m@3k effort off 2:00

I'm traveling tomorrow and didn't want to workout after flying for 4 hours so made the decision to push the workout to today despite working out on Monday. When I first wrote up my plan a few months ago I just planned the 600's but after reviewing some of the suggestions on this forum and past experience in racing I decided to add in a short tempo just to provide a slight aerobic stimulus and get the legs used to running fast on slightly tired legs. Hit 15:42ish for the tempo and closed in 5:07 on a windy day. The first couple 600ms definitely felt rough but they didn't really get any worse and I was able to close in just under 1:40. Averaged around 1:42. Tempo definitely did its purpose by putting some fatigue in the legs, but happy with today for a strong effort. 1 more workout next Tuesday and then a 10 day taper with a few easy tune up workouts. Thanks again for everyone following along, all suggestions have definitely been helpful and its great to get advice from people much more experienced than me!

My planned workout for tonight is 2x (2k 1k) and trying to hit 72s as smooth as possible. This has been my big peaking workout, that I've been looking forward to with fear and excitement because after today I'm going full taper mode with nothing but 200's and 2 easy short 5k paced workouts. When I first planned out the block, I planned for this to be the hardest workout and figured if I could get through this I could break 15. At the time it did not seem feasible but here I am and I definitely think I have what it takes. Ive taken 4 recovery days + an lighter long run to prepare for this. Anyways, what would be appropriate rest? I was thinking something like 2:00 after 2ks and 1:30 after 1ks.

You really just need to get in a race at this point. Find one and let it rip.

I'm running one of the Battle Road Twilight meets next Sunday. I almost want to race now but the 5k is the sponsered event at the June 3rd meet so I figured there would be a larger group of people going for sub 15. I do plan on a mile time trial this Saturday.

I am local to Boston and am also running this series. There is no Battle Road twilight meet this upcoming weekend but there is one on 6/3 where the 5000 is the featured event. This would be a perfect opportunity for you IMO. I'll be running the 800 and will definitely stick around to cheer for you!

I woke up this morning feeling sub par. I only slept 5 hours last night and haven't slept more than 6.5 hours over a week so my body hasn't been recovering between efforts. Today felt especially bad, my neck was in a lot of pain because I slept on it wrong and I had a crick in my back. Almost pushed my workout until tomorrow but the next few days are going to rain (today was beautiful weather with no wind) and my brother offered to pace today on the bike, so I took 2 ibuprofen and decided to give it a good effort.

Workout was 2k 1k 1600m 1k off 2:00. Splits were 5;56 2;58 4:48 2:54. Very happy with this and if I got through this workout on a very off day I feel confident I can hit these paces on race day. Felt strong throughout, and look forward to getting some good sleep the next few days and reovering well. I have a few easy workouts planned but nothing challenging and all the work has been done! Very happy with this block!

You got this Josiah

Did a little tuneup before my mile tt on Sunday. 8x200m off of 4-5 minutes rest (basically full recovery). Averaged 28 high with running starts. Defintely got tougher as it went on but overall a pretty easy one. Excited for my time trial! 1 week until race day!!

Solo mile time trial today. Stayed up pretty late last night watching the celtics and was still a little sore from the 200s so I wasn't expecting to much in the 90 degree heat. I went out in 67 high and felt pretty strong so just kept it up and closed in 65 to run 4:28. I feel like I could've pushed somewhat harder if I hadn't ran so safe, but I am overall super happy with this going into my 5k especially coming of 5k specific training.

Yesterday was my last workout of the build. Just a lower volume workout at race pace but goal was for short enough recovery that it felt similar to mid race. Did 5x(400m on/200m float) ons @69 avg offs @39 high avg. Came out to 1.5 @ 4:50. Immedietly followed this with 2 minute of rest and then 6x400m @5k off 45" Averaged 69s again with a 66 last rep. Felt a little spicy but I'm confident I can hold 72s for 5k fully recovered. Ready to roll Saturday!