I want to run a sub 4:30 mile junior year

There is still time left in the season, see how close to 5:00 you can get. I know you’re young and improving a lot but 4:30 is a lot harder to cut down to in a short time than 5:50 to 5:09, even with a year. It may not be what you want to hear but I think your A target should be something more like sub 4:40. That’s 30 seconds, a huge jump already. You can’t bank on continued extreme improvement.

That being said, your speed is good and you have improved fast, so you obviously have at least a little talent. What is your current mileage? We need more information on your current training to have an idea of what you need to build to this summer.

I have made a pretty similar leap between junior and senior year. For me the trick was keeping really consistent mileage and having a few bread and butter workouts every few weeks that I could track my progress on. You should talk with your coach because different things work for everyone, but this got me from ~5:00 to low 4:30s currently. I was hitting 55mpw (pretty heavy duty for HS, talk with your coach!). I ran 16:45 in XC on a pretty tough course and was sick the week of our fastest meet of the year, but I estimate I had around 57s speed like you. Over the winter, I was completely in charge of my training, so I took a week off after State XC and then started up with the same mileage and consistent work in several pace ranges. I was doing a tempo/Vo2 and then a speed workout every week as well as a long run. My main workouts looked like:

4 mile tempo. 5:50 start of winter, 5:40 by track season

5-6x800 on equal rest (slightly faster than 32 pace). 2:32 average start of winter, 2:27 by the end

8x200, flat or hill, jog back (60s) rest. On track, 31 at the start of winter, 28-29 by the end.

These weren't the only workouts I did, but I would throw some of these around fairly often to make sure I was still moving forward in training. I also very often did 4-6 strides at the end of every easy run to work top speed that I lacked after doing slow twitch work for so long. A month before the season I did 10x400 75 sec rest averaging 68 (predicts 4:32 mile) and while I debuted the season at 4:51, I eventually worked my way down to that low 4:30 time. Before the end of the season, I think I will break 4:30. You may not have to resort to doing intense self-training on your own, but lacking a lot of teammates and a thorough support system, this is what I came up with. I'm sure many coaches on this forum will point to obvious flaws in my training but it worked through guts I guess. Some mistakes I made:

-Not doing much top-end work. I think I should have done some sessions like 5x60m top speed fly with 5 min rest which would have improved my 400 speed greatly (necessary)

-Once I got in-season and stopped training myself, I was hardly being told to do any speed work. Reintroducing some fast 200s has helped in the last couple weeks. Make sure you touch on some consequential speed work fairly often

-I was frequently running into recovery and overtraining/injury issues. You should be hydrating, stretching, and probably rolling yourself out.

-My training, though I updated my coach during the offseason, was not very coordinated with his philosophy, so once I got in season, he started training me completely differently and I lost a lot of shape right off the bat. Coordinate more with your coach and if you do train yourself, talk about how your workouts are going to change going into the season.

-No weightlifting. I think my 400 speed also didn't improve much because I didn't progressively overload the muscles with resistance training or specifically attack the 400 as much as I should have. Having made a lot of improvement in the 16 and 32, my 800 time hasn't budged much and the lack of 400 work (long rest and very fast intervals) is the culprit.

Here are some things I think I did well:

-I didn't peak too early. I tended to stay away from those really big race-specific sessions like 3xmile @ 3200 and it's led to me having a lot of room to grow during the season.

-I stayed religiously consistent. Fell asleep afterschool and it's 8 PM? I ran (including workouts). Emotionally bad day? Still ran. I can truthfully say that barring illness, I haven't missed a single session in a year and rarely ever had to cut mileage. This included family travels and doing a lot of treadmilling at the local rec center. If you're injured, ellipticals and stationary bikes are great non-impact cross training too.

-I was able to keep my cool. This being my last season (no college running most likely), things mattered a lot to me and that's the reason for this ridiculous journey. But still, I never mentally burned myself out or suffered major race anxiety. I think this has been very beneficial to still being in it and willing myself through tough workouts even today.

This is all pretty basic stuff and I screwed up in several areas, but that's life, especially life being young and learning. For being my first time really self-coaching, it has turned out alright. To answer your post directly, 6 days a week with good mileage (maybe a shakeout on the 7th day) for a year was the way I got here. While you're base building in early summer, it's good to get those 4 mile tempos but don't sweat much else as you get closer to competition. Best of luck!

First of all thanks so much for the in-depth explanation!
This is my average training that my coach gives every week: Average training plan
So according to you should I do this every week?:
Monday: 4 mile tempo @5:50/mile? (this is my 5k race pace idk if i can even do this)
Tuesday: 6x800 on equal rest
Wednesday: 8 mile long run, 4x100 strides after run
Thursday: 8x200 jog back 200s rest
Friday: Weightlifting + 3 mile easy run
Saturday: 5x60 5 min rest
Sunday: Easy 4 mile run
In XC last year I had a 18:37 as my pr

The image is on the above reply

Definitely don’t do all the workouts in one week! I would do two per week (usually Monday and Wednesday) then a long run on Saturday and take Sunday off. All of the other days were easy runs and it’s very important to take your easy runs actually easy when you’re pushing yourself hard 3+ days a week. A sample week would be like

M: 2 mi warmup, 6x800, 4 mi cooldown

T: 8 mi easy

W: 2 mi warmup, 8x200 hill, 5 mi cooldown

Th: 9 mi really easy (legs usually fried)

F: 9 mi easy

Sat: 12 mi long run mostly at easy pace

And it’s also important to highlight that I threw other workouts in there. Others include 6x1k with 1 min jogging rest (tempo/threshold), 3x(3x300) going mile pace, 800 pace, all out on each set, and some 200 -> 800 -> 200 ladders

HS coach here. It’s still so early in the spring season. Even if your season ends, keep training (alone if you have to) through June… find some “all-comers” meets. Focus on building aerobic strength. Youll keep getting into better shape and setting PRs.

Then take a few weeks off and get ready for XC. Look up “summer of malmo” on the message boards and do that.

So basically what u said but interchange mon and wed with 6x800, 8x200, 6x1k, 3x300, ladders, 5x60m?

The last meet for our season is at tuesday of next season, where do I find all-comers meets in NC?

Don’t want to be a downer but I started my freshman year at 5:46 indoors, got down to 4:54 outdoors, then haven’t broken 4:40 yet and I’m a junior. Sometimes improvement gets stagnant and don’t get discouraged if you can’t make the improvements as quickly as you think

Not intending to be a downer, but I think it might be a good idea to set intermediate goals that are more achievable. You may have 4:29 potential, you may have 4:49 potential, you may even have 3:59 potential. My first year of serious training I went from 5:40 over the summer to 4:35 the next spring. I thought I might break 4:00 if I could keep progressing. After more than a decade of hard training, I failed to even drop 30 seconds, and the last 5 seconds I dropped took over 10,000 miles. A good friend of mine started at 5:15 that summer, only dropped to 4:45 our freshman year, but is now a professional runner and could probably run my mile PR (4:07) twice back to back.

My point is that progression is rarely linear or even predictable, and the best thing you can do is just focus on the fundamentals. Train all aspects of your running ability - your speed, your strength, and your mind - and train hard enough to bend, but not break. As far as specifics go:

- Increase your overall volume, and your tempo/threshold volume every single year until you can't go any higher. This is the primary driver of long-term progression.

- Hills are a cheat code. You can do more volume at a higher intensity uphill without injury, simply because the impact on your joints and tendons is significantly lower.

- Listen to your coach, if they are good, and find a different one if they aren't. A good coach will listen to their athletes and provide the right combination of motivation and control for each one. As far as training goes, there are many ways to skin a cat, but you will not improve if you don't have a coach that listens to you and inspires you to be your best.

- Race, race, race. You're young, you can recover fast, and you have a lot to learn, both about race tactics and your own potential. Race to win, race for a fast time, race to beat a local rival. Try going out super fast, try going out slow, try pushing a different 400 each time. Learn how to push yourself to your limit and beyond, learn what it feels like to really, truly, give 100%. Don't neglect the 800 or the 3200, you may find you run a crazy PR there that gives you confidence to run a better mile - or you may switch over entirely. Whatever you do, push your limits every time you go out there.

Good luck.

As you can see from the upthumbing, this is the best answer. Summer is for aerobic development, so you need to focus on lots of easy miles and just a touch of faster stuff to keep yourself well rounded. In the fall you can start doing more/faster workouts.

The image that you posted may not be the absolutely perfect training plan for early track season, but I don't see anything that will prevent you from going into the summer with a PR under 5:00 given the fact that you have been slashing big chunks off your times this year under your coach's tutelage.