Follow my Journey to Sub 15

So close it hurts but I'm thrilled nonetheless. Going into this I knew sub 15:00 would be an insane goal and improvement (my indoor 3k pr was 9:18) and I gave the race everything I had. I may give it another shot in 2 weeks but no matter what I'm super grateful and thrilled with how this build went. Thanks to everyone for following along!

Trying again in 2 Saturdays because I am not quite ready for my (overly short) season to end.

Plan is just to bump up mileage a little this week at a super easy effort and copy my taper week next week. Workouts look like Tues: 6xk Thurs: 3 mile threshold 8x600m off 2:00 Sat: 10k race/tempo Tuesday: 5xk Friday 4x200m. 65 miles this week and 30ish next week just trying to squeeze the extra fitness in. Hopefully with better weather I can get it (it was 50 and rainy with 15mpw winds last time) but if I end up running 15:30 I won't care to much cause I had a good cycle.

ANYWAYS... todays workout was successful. Hit 2:59,2:57,56,57,57 for the k's off 2:00 and then 29 28 28 28 for the 200s. Felt nice and smooth, had to dig a little deep bud enjoyed this workout. Excited to give it one more go!

another solid one, 2.5 mile progressive threshold (5:13,5:02,4:58) @5:05 avg, 5' rest and then 8x600m @VO2 off 2:00. Originally intended on 5k (1:48)pace but my first rep was a bit quick so settled in at 2 mile pace (1:45) and slowly progressed down the last few.

This is always a tough session because the threshold put more fatigue into your body than you would expect and I knew that going into this week I would sort of be pushing the limits with 2 workouts and a 10k race Saturday so I've made an effort to but screens away before sleeping and sleep 8.5+ hours and eat a little healthier. Glad to get this one done and felt strong once again. With 1 more session on Tuesday, I am optimistic that I can squeeze in the 5 extra seconds of fitness that I need!

Splits:1:45.6,1:44.1,1:44.7,1:45.0,1:44.1,1:43.9,1:42.5,1:41.5

You got this. What 5000 are you going to run?

battle road meet 4 in a week

nice little road 10k today. coming off a week of hard training and I haven't done any tempo work in a month so I planned to just give it a tough tempo effort. Went back and forth with eventual 2nd and 3rd until the end and then just cruised it in - about 33:10 (16:40/16:30). Decent effort today, felt strong on a tough course and I was surprised at how good I felt considering my training. Excited to try again next week in the 5k with hopefully better weather!

Last workout of the season yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't feel awesome but on my previous pre race Tuesday session I felt the same and ended up running well. I think I also forgot how short 90" was. The workout was 1k 8 6 4 2 off 90" @5k and then 2x200m full rest (8-10 minutes). I just tried to feel as smooth as possible at 72s for the longer reps and then push really really hard the last 200m of the ladder. Split 2:59 2:24 1:45 69 28 and then 28 29. The 28 felt super hard coming off the first reps but I'm decently happy with it since I couldn't run sub 29 fully recovered spiked up a few months ago and this was in trainers. Basically a long way of saying I'm ready to give it one last go Saturday!

Last Post :(. Ran 15:12. It was a good season and excited to get really fit for xc

Don’t sweat it dude. Really awesome time for where you’re at in high school. Building off what you have now into a good summer training block, you definitely have a shot to be a top guy on a potentially national scale. Let that 15:05 fuel you for xc and you should be able to break it on a grass course this fall season :) good luck dude

YOUVE GOT THIS

you run sub 15 yet lil ninja?

revival of the old thread, so if yet again you're bored and looking for a way to pass some time, enjoy...

I had a pretty similar year to last. Cross and Indoor both went bad and though I felt growing fitness, I got plagued by sickness at all the wrong times. I pulled off a 8:57 3k (embarrassing) and a 20:00 4 miler but still was unhappy because I knew I was fitter than this. I decided to take some time off and do the same thing I did last year and try to get super fit for a 5k. I finally feel healthy and am confident if I can stay this way, I can pull off a fast 5k. Although I have no set time goals yet, I would be very happy with something in the vicinity of 14:40.

Workouts so far:

Week 1: Thurs: 12 x 3' on 2' off. (Ons @5:15 ish. 5:30 average for 10 miles) Total: 70 miles

Week 2: Monday: 6 x mile off 60" (5:18 average) Thursday: 5 mile tempo in 26:40. Total:45 miles (rough travel week)

Week 3: Monday: 12 x 800m off 60" @2:33 average + 2 x tempo mile @5:30 (experimenting with this). Thursday 5x 2k @ T (6:30) off 90" jog @ 5:55 (7.25 miles @ 5:20 avg). Total: 70 miles

Week 4: Monday 6 x mile off 90" @5:05 avg. Thursday: 6 mile tempo in 31:45. Total: 70 miles

...

Planned for the future

Week 5: Monday: 5 x 2k off 90" (6:25) (on track) Thursday: 3 x 3k off 2:00 jog

Week 6: Monday: 6 x mile off 90" (5:00). Thursday: 6 mile tempo

Week 7: Monday: 5 x 1200m off 90" (3:40) Thursday 3 x 3k off 2:00 jog

Week 8: Monday: 7 x 1k off 90" (3:00) Thursday: 6 mile tempo

Week 9: Monday: 8 x 800m off 90" (2:20) Thursday: 5 x 2k off 90" jog

Week 10: Monday: 3 mile threshold (5:10) + 10 x 600m off 90" (1:43) Thursday: 6 mile tempo

Week 11: Monday: 4 x mile off 90" (4:45) Thursday: 3 x 3k off 2:00

...

start cutting mileage

Week 12: Monday: 3 x mile @ 4:40 off 2:00. Thursday: 10 x 400m (65sec) off 90" Total: 60

Week 13: Monday: 15' progression + 10 x 300m (46.5) Thursday: 3 mile threshold + 8 x 600m off 90" (1:41) Total: 50

Week: 14: Tuesday: 4 x mile (4:40) off 90". Friday: 8 x 200m hard. Sunday: Mile TT. Total : 40

Week 15: Tuesday : 8 x 400m (70) off 90" Saturday: Race

My long runs are around 14 miles and I've found I respond very well to this mileage range so keeping it the same. I add on 4 x 200m to the end of all my workouts and have been getting down to low 28's on them lately. I don't race until June, but I'm excited to see where my fitness can go now that I am finally healthy again. I will probably make a few tweaks and the paces in parenthesis are soft goals but not stone cold. Additionally, when I wrote this plan, I planned on racing 2 weeks earlier than I will be racing, so I need to find 2 weeks of training to add. If anyone has any recommendations, those would be greatly appreciated as well as any other advice. I know last time, I implemented some of the advice I got from this thread and it really helped. Thanks to everyone who read this far and I will keep this thread posted weekly.

Start doing Double T's

week 5 update:

Monday: 5 x 2k off 90" standing rest (first 4 @threshold, last one prog) 6:36 6:35 6:34 6:28 6:04 (1:16 1:15 1:13 1:12 68) + 4 x 200m (28.5 28.4 28.4 28.5)

Thursday: 3 x 3k off 2:00 jog @5:55 (on treadmill @.5%): 9:43 9:39 9:32 = 4 x 200m outside 30.5 30.1 29.9 29.5

Mileage: 70

Thoughts: Another good training week. The 2ks felt a little stiff to start but body woke up as it went on. 3ks felt good although I'm sure the splits were slightly faster because of treadmill. Effort is all that matters though. Lifted 3 times this week as well. Feeling strong and excited to get fitter.

Your workouts (and work ethic) are incredibly impressive.

Not sure if you want advice - but here is some:

Racing is part of training. Both mentally and physically. In addition to your smart, controlled workouts I think you would find benefit in another 1600 TT, plus a 3200 TT, plus even something like a very hard 4 mile tempo.

Those efforts could literally only come once per month.

You remind me a lot of one of my younger guys - absolutely loves the training mentality of getting in the work, but not leaving everything he has in the workout. So smart - but he underperformed in races until we practiced getting (very) uncomfortable at least some of the time in practice.

Best of luck!

I appreciate the advice and am very grateful for your reply. I know last time, I got a lot of helpful stuff that I noticed a difference when I incorporated it into my training.

As of right now, I have 4 races scheduled, a 10 miler in early May, a local 5k road race (for fun) in mid May and then the 1600m TT and 5k. The 10 miler fell perfectly into my training and I think I'll be in peak aerobic shape around then so would love to run around 51:30 and then the 5k and mile are rust busters.

In conclusion, I think adding 1 more race would definitely be beneficial and a 3200m seems like a great idea because I would love to see what I could run in that. Based on my load and progression, I think it would make most sense to put that 2 weeks before my peak race. Thanks again for the advice.

You need to run more. Add in 3-4 35-40 minute easy runs to add aerobic volume. Try to get your mileage at around 85 to 90.

So with the runs from Friday (3/22) and Sunday (3/25), more suspicion should be cast.

The Friday run is missing cadence data for a huge period. I’ve never seen anything like it.

The Sunday run is even more suspicious. There are no cadence drop outs all day while he’s running accompanied by local runners. AS SOON as they leave, the cadence drop outs start and his HR lowers significantly. Very, very strange.

I’m not saying he planned some elaborate fraud. But the guy clearly has an air of narcissism to him and due to a completely inability to be wrong, it would make sense if he couldn’t admit defeat.

I want to echo what 'lap3' said above. If you want to race a fast 5k, you're going to need at least 3 to shot for.

Do not: continually 'build up' and race off distance, leaving your goal to the end. Racing itself is a thing, you need to practice it at your goal distance.

Do: keep training smart, but schedule more than one 'target' race (if possible). You might need more than one 5k to reach your goal. You might surprise yourself and run your fastest on the first one.