You’re a talented, strength runner. You’re only a junior, so more physical maturation and accumulation of mileage could get you to sub-8:50 next year. Even though you’re never going to significantly improve your top-end speed, you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished so far.
No, but it will definitely help, and he can incorporate it pretty much right away.
OP, you should start lifting heavy, including legs, and doing plyometrics in the off season.
But hill sprints if nothing else. I was very similar to you in high school but did hill sprints once per week and played a lot of basketball on my off day after the long run, which was like plyos.
Is there anyway you can implement something like 10 x 25 sec hill sprints at 95% effort once a week?
thats not a raw speed workout
Nevermind I didn’t read that closely enough. I would do like 10 x 10 second “all out” sprints will full recovery (3+ minutes). That’s what I did and will help develop speed.
Down the road, speed is inescapable. You need < 50 400 to be competitive nationally.
For where you are at now, pile up more work at <3-3:30/km. Essentially, I am saying train as though your primary target is <24 8k on a track, with flats.
Nevermind I didn’t read that closely enough. I would do like 10 x 10 second “all out” sprints will full recovery (3+ minutes). That’s what I did and will help develop speed.