3 weeks easy running 4 weeks 2 strength workouts (4-6mi of 1600s and tempos) 6 weeks 1 strength workout and 1 hill (alternate 1600/tempo and sets of 200m hills) 5 weeks 1 strength workout and 1 race specific (alternate 1600/tempo and sets of 200-400 reps)
Ran sub 9:10. Averaged 50-55 mpw with probably ~25% of total miles as tempo. Did a lot of workouts like 10x1k in 3:12-3:15 off 1:00, daily strides, and a weekly easy long run. Only ran it hard (12 miles in 70 minutes) twice.
Wish I had my old logs, and I’ve posted plenty on here before, but winter base was basically an 8 mi run every day M-F and then a long run of 12-14 on Sa. Sun was off but I played a lot of soccer or basketball, so it was active rest w a sprinting/plyometric component. Wednesdays were the only structured workout with a four mile tempo or fartlek, and then Saturday was a progression run, where we were probably hitting tempo pace by the last mile. All other running was as we felt, sometimes super easy, sometimes finishing up the last couple miles pretty strongly. Fast striders probably four to five days per week. I’m not going to lie, I’m sure there were some hilly Monday runs where we pushed the hills. I think we did a couple indoor meets, but ran through them.
I would just plan on doing more mileage, and I agree with the poster who said get on grass or dirt as much as possible. I would probably add some four mile easy doubles in the morning too.
You need to increase your mileage but do it gradually. Not sure what your current MPW is but increasing it gradually with easy runs will go a long way in improving your running times in the spring.
I like to use base to work on personal weak points while also extending the aerobic base. You have to look at what your goals are and make sure you are meeting the prerequisites to achieve those goals by the end of your base phase.
Let’s look at your 800m, 2:04 is a solid time but you won’t run a sub 4:20 mile if you can only handle 4:10 pace for half a mile. You need a stronger speed reserve. You should dedicate one day a week to doing either 50m flys, 150s or 200s. Not a ton, you don’t want to get super lactic and anaerobic during these workouts but you do want to get fairly comfortable running sub 4:00 pace. I’d look at it more like you’re training to run a faster 200/400m on this day, your other work throughout the week will help you transfer that to 800m. I like something along the lines of 4x50m w/ a running start, and then 3-4x150m with a running start. You’ll take like 4-5 minute rest on all of these so it won’t be a super difficult workout but you do need to dial in and run at 95-100% effort with extreme focus on form every rep. It’ll help you find what arm swing, leg drive, stride length, posture, turnover, etc. will feel most efficient to you in order to run the fastest for the least energy cost. Every few weeks you can switch this to something like 6-8x200m looking to hit 28/29 with a 200m walking recovery or a 4-5x300m workout looking to hit 44-46 w/ as much rest as you need. This will give you a good feel for if you are ready to break 2:00 yet and also set you up to be comfortable doing the miler workouts like 8x400m in 63-65 when you are getting ready to attempt a sub 4:20.
Now let’s look at your 5k. You want to be at least a 15:30 guy to run 4:20/9:20 so you really want to set yourself up to be able to do that. You shouldn’t do soul crushing work like 4xmile in 5:00 or 8x800m in 2:25 yet, so you want to do easier work but at a higher volume. I’ve really enjoyed doing Ingebrigsten style threshold work like 10x800m w/ 1:00 rest or 200m jog, but you don’t run that very fast, I’d think 2:45-2:50 would be good splits for you to hit on workouts like that, and even 2:55ish would be fine on a day you aren’t feeling great. It’s basically a broken tempo run that allows you to get 5-6 miles of tempo volume instead of 3-4.
You then want to have Vo2Max stimulus to get ready to run hard for 4-10 minutes in season, but again you don’t want to do that super hard put you on the floor after each rep work at this time in the training cycle. I like to do 12x400m w/ 400m jogging recovery where you’d be aiming to run 1:12-1:15. If that pace is getting you lactic you can take a 2 lap jog rest after rep 6 to shake it out a bit.
You can also do mixed stimulus workouts like 8x400m in 1:14-1:15 but switch to 3-4 fast 200m repeats at the end, or do a 2 mile tempo in 11:00-11:30 and do 4-6 400s at mile pace afterwards.
Push your easy run volume even if you have to slow down a bit, 8 minute miles are fine. If you can get to the point where on your easy days you are running 8-10 miles at 8:00-8:30 pace, that’ll be better for your 3200m fitness than doing 4-5 miles at 7:00 pace.
I like to use base to work on personal weak points while also extending the aerobic base. You have to look at what your goals are and make sure you are meeting the prerequisites to achieve those goals by the end of your base phase.
Let’s look at your 800m, 2:04 is a solid time but you won’t run a sub 4:20 mile if you can only handle 4:10 pace for half a mile. You need a stronger speed reserve. You should dedicate one day a week to doing either 50m flys, 150s or 200s. Not a ton, you don’t want to get super lactic and anaerobic during these workouts but you do want to get fairly comfortable running sub 4:00 pace. I’d look at it more like you’re training to run a faster 200/400m on this day, your other work throughout the week will help you transfer that to 800m. I like something along the lines of 4x50m w/ a running start, and then 3-4x150m with a running start. You’ll take like 4-5 minute rest on all of these so it won’t be a super difficult workout but you do need to dial in and run at 95-100% effort with extreme focus on form every rep. It’ll help you find what arm swing, leg drive, stride length, posture, turnover, etc. will feel most efficient to you in order to run the fastest for the least energy cost. Every few weeks you can switch this to something like 6-8x200m looking to hit 28/29 with a 200m walking recovery or a 4-5x300m workout looking to hit 44-46 w/ as much rest as you need. This will give you a good feel for if you are ready to break 2:00 yet and also set you up to be comfortable doing the miler workouts like 8x400m in 63-65 when you are getting ready to attempt a sub 4:20.
Now let’s look at your 5k. You want to be at least a 15:30 guy to run 4:20/9:20 so you really want to set yourself up to be able to do that. You shouldn’t do soul crushing work like 4xmile in 5:00 or 8x800m in 2:25 yet, so you want to do easier work but at a higher volume. I’ve really enjoyed doing Ingebrigsten style threshold work like 10x800m w/ 1:00 rest or 200m jog, but you don’t run that very fast, I’d think 2:45-2:50 would be good splits for you to hit on workouts like that, and even 2:55ish would be fine on a day you aren’t feeling great. It’s basically a broken tempo run that allows you to get 5-6 miles of tempo volume instead of 3-4.
You then want to have Vo2Max stimulus to get ready to run hard for 4-10 minutes in season, but again you don’t want to do that super hard put you on the floor after each rep work at this time in the training cycle. I like to do 12x400m w/ 400m jogging recovery where you’d be aiming to run 1:12-1:15. If that pace is getting you lactic you can take a 2 lap jog rest after rep 6 to shake it out a bit.
You can also do mixed stimulus workouts like 8x400m in 1:14-1:15 but switch to 3-4 fast 200m repeats at the end, or do a 2 mile tempo in 11:00-11:30 and do 4-6 400s at mile pace afterwards.
Push your easy run volume even if you have to slow down a bit, 8 minute miles are fine. If you can get to the point where on your easy days you are running 8-10 miles at 8:00-8:30 pace, that’ll be better for your 3200m fitness than doing 4-5 miles at 7:00 pace.
I actually like your plan here, would you mind writing a Monday-Sunday plan for me incorporating those workouts you suggested? Would be greatly appreciated!
Actually there are some nice responses on here. I don't understand the down votes, especially the down vote w/o saying what it is that you find wrong with the ideas.
Winter is a great time to get back into base mode. It's so much easier to go for long runs in the cold, than the terrible heat of the Summer.
Personally, I am not big on Indoor track for distance runners. This is HIGHLY dependent on your team situation. IF you have a great team, and you guys are doing a relay or two, competing for team titles, stuff like that; then yeah go in on indoor as much as you can, otherwise I wouldn't give it much attention.
I like what 922 guy and CopperRunner added. All very sound, and all very doable for a HS runner.
Hey, not going to write you a full training plan cause that would take hours on my end, and I also believe in having a loose guideline rather than rigid training schedule during base. This helps to allow for adjustments like extra rest days or easier workouts when needed, in order to keep you injury free and not burnt out.
I would do what I suggested on a 10 day workout schedule.
Within the 10 days, you want to ideally do 3 workouts, 6 easy/recovery days, and a down day, which should be 3 miles or less, cross training, or completely off.
Here’s what it could look like:
Day 1: 10x800m w/ 1:00 rest or 200m slow jog for recovery, goal pace sub 3:00 to start out, eventually 2:40-2:45 and/or 12 reps by late february. OR you could do a 15-20 minute tempo aiming for 5:50-6:10 pace to start off, working to 5:20-5:40 pace by february.
Day 2: Recovery 5-6 miles, 7:45-8:15 pace as a general guideline but anywhere between 7-9 minute miles is ok.
Day 3: Aerobic 6-8 miles, 6:30-7:30 pace if feeling fresh, if not 7-9 minute miles again
Day 4: 4x50m, 4x150m OR 6-8x200m in 28-29. Every 3rd week you can make this a 400m or 600m time trial with the eventual goal of running under 53.0 or 1:27.0. Wear spikes on this day.
Day 5: Aerobic 6-8 miles (notice how I flip your aerobic and recovery run this day, it’s because Day 4s workout won’t leave you super beat up but you want to be fresh for day 7.)
Day 6: Easy 5-6 miles
Day 7: 12x400m in 1:15 or faster with 2:00 rest or 400m jog for recovery. Can also be 8x400m looking for 1:14 for the first 4 and 1:09 for the last 4 with the same rest pattern.
Day 8: Easy 3-5 miles
Day 9: Easy or Aerobic 8-12 miles. There’s lots of variation here, listen to your body.
Day 10: 3 miles, OR 30 minutes bike or elliptical, or take it off.
If you are not feeling good on any particular day, feel more than free to reduce training load by 25%, or take an extra recovery day before working out, or reduce the goal paces a bit, or all of the above. Consistency is more important than anything for a mile/3200 runner, and you can’t be consistent if you are burnt out or injured. It’s better to do less for 2-3 days instead of having to take a week or two off because you’re banged up or can’t mentally handle it anymore.
This post was edited 7 minutes after it was posted.
With 2:04 800 best not clear yet you have the 400 speed for 4:20/9:20 but that can be addressed later … for starters think of these marks as a single goal. Get close to one the other will be within your grasp Few who can hit 4:20 are far off 9:20 on the right day
Next begin adding quality work to your program to bring down cruising speed
50mi/ week at 6’/mi average (5hours weekly run time)is far better work than 50mi 7:12/mi pace though one involves a full extra hour of running
Roughly speaking cap the weekly volume at 50mi cover more ground at <5:40/mi
10x 3:30 1000m w 90s rest will get you much further than steady running at 5’/km
A set of 20x 400 80 w 70a rest a better workout than continuous running for same workout duration
That said, hard workouts are far less useful that medium effort, somewhat hard workouts
No single workout should be so difficult you can’t repeat it the following day
With 2:04 800 best not clear yet you have the 400 speed for 4:20/9:20 but that can be addressed later..
What is a good 800m indication for this? 2:02? Or what 400m? 54-55?
I knew a freshman who ran 8:30 (3k) off a 2:02 800m as his official PR. But he closed in a 58 for the final 400 and ended up running 1:54 a month later. For most people you need sub 2 speed to make running 2:20 800s feel comfortable enough.