Training to Make College Team

I've been in your situation and the best piece of advice I can give is run a mock cross country season and track season. The half might be fun but your goal race will be 8k and 10k and you need to get used to running those distances. Try to run at least 3 or 4 of those if you can't run races with your team but just train through the season only doing tempos and some speed just to maintain turnover but do strides like 2 or 3 times a week(these are key! Do not neglect these because I did and lost a lot of speed and had to work a lot harder at maintaining good form). Also why can't you try out in track?

I've been in your situation and the best piece of advice I can give is run a mock cross country season and track season. The half might be fun but your goal race will be 8k and 10k and you need to get used to running those distances. Try to run at least 3 or 4 of those if you can't run races with your team but just train through the season only doing tempos and some speed just to maintain turnover but do strides like 2 or 3 times a week(these are key! Do not neglect these because I did and lost a lot of speed and had to work a lot harder at maintaining good form). Also why can't you try out in track?

what are your goals, what do you want your season to look like.

Build a good soild base, do your long runs and make sure to do some tempo runs in between. Everyone has there own method and sometimes it works for most of us.

Remember, you have to be willing to sacrifice and feel the pain.

With no speed work, just distance i pulled off a 1:12 half. Not the fastest, but i was happy.

Get the 90 min long run, 2 tempo runs, 2-3x strides/hill runs, and 60-90 total miles(more if you can handle it) of work in every week. Start adding in long intervals (1k-2k at 3k-10k pace) as you get closer to the time you want to race. I would try to run some 8-10k races in the fall to break up the training and to hopefully boost your confidence.

MY ADVICE IS:

FIRST, Twice a week put $5 in the pocket of your running shorts and go to lunch. If the dinner you choose is more than 15 miles away from where you start, have someone come and get you after you've eaten. If it is 15 miles away or less, run home again after lunch.

SECOND, Twice a week put yourself into extreme oxygen depravation. I suggest a 10 mile run with the first mile as close to 4 minutes as your legs will allow. Pain and agony are the forrunners to achievement and if you will put yourself beyond aggression you will grow as a runner very quickly.

THIRD, I think you are working too hard. Take three days of long slow recovery running.

I tried that first piece of advise before my senior year of high school. I ran 12 miles, had something to eat, and then ran 12 miles back. Couple days later, I was off for 3 weeks with an overuse injury. Keep the long run to a distance you can handle.

My advice is stay away from the high mileage recommendations. People on this site think that more mileage = faster times. You can run pretty damn fast off 30 -40 miles a week. Do your speed work intelligently & diligently and you'll get a pretty good idea of what distances you think best suit you. Do as many races as you can & make sure you have fun. Contrary of popular belief you can race yourself into shape. I was injured my senior year during cross & didn't run until 2 weeks before track season. I ran 1:51 off less than 20 miles a week. Good luck & have fun.

clubber lang wrote:

I ran 1:51 off less than 20 miles a week. Good luck & have fun.

But what did you run for 8/10k? Because his post implies he is looking to make the XC team. You have to be very very talented to run a dec 10K (<32 minutes) off of 20 miles a week.

27:30 for 8K off 40 miles a week. Never have run a 10K.

100 mpw for the next year. Start now.

This might be true for some, but not for anyone I know personally, and certainly not for me. I ran consistent 70-mile weeks the summer before I finally broke 17. I was running in the 60's for weekly mileage the winter before I broke 5 in the mile. And this was without major injuries and with good taper/workouts. This year I'm running 75-90+ for base mileage, and I'm hoping to break 16:30. If I was running 20 miles a week (with no prior base), I wouldn't be able to break 2:40 or 6:00.

Might as well talk about your 100m time. 800m is all about power and efficiency with aerobic capacity far behind. Your 800 time will let you run at most colleges. A 27:30 8k will not. The link between mileage (up to ~70) and better distance performance is pretty clear. The evidence for mileage above 70 is more hit and miss. Some guys do better by cranking up the intensity while others do better cranking up the volume. Most people are pretty stupid about increasing mileage (it just goes up every week until they get injured.) and do OCD things to make sure they hit a number.

clubber lang wrote:

My advice is stay away from the high mileage recommendations. People on this site think that more mileage = faster times. You can run pretty damn fast off 30 -40 miles a week. Do your speed work intelligently & diligently and you'll get a pretty good idea of what distances you think best suit you. Do as many races as you can & make sure you have fun. Contrary of popular belief you can race yourself into shape. I was injured my senior year during cross & didn't run until 2 weeks before track season. I ran 1:51 off less than 20 miles a week. Good luck & have fun.

idk... wrote:

This might be true for some, but not for anyone I know personally, and certainly not for me. I ran consistent 70-mile weeks the summer before I finally broke 17. I was running in the 60's for weekly mileage the winter before I broke 5 in the mile. And this was without major injuries and with good taper/workouts. This year I'm running 75-90+ for base mileage, and I'm hoping to break 16:30. If I was running 20 miles a week (with no prior base), I wouldn't be able to break 2:40 or 6:00.

what?! that's waaaay too much mileage. It's likely that you need to reevaluate how you're training, because you're waisting time and effort. You're probably running too hard on your easy runs, not practicing goal pace enough, or you need to work on your basic speed (100-200m speed)

In other words, you couldn't come even close to the 32 min 10k that the other poster suggested was the time needed to make a college team. You weren't within 2 minutes of that time. So I guess your own example suggests that a lot of miles are not needed to run a good 800 but are probably needed for a good 5k/8k/10k. 20-40 miles won't cut it.

clubber lang wrote:

27:30 for 8K off 40 miles a week. Never have run a 10K.

My senior year i was able to run 20:32 for a 4 mile tempo. I dont know what I could have run for 10K. My mile/1500 pr & 3K time lead me to believe that I could have <32 mins. That being said, talk is cheap. There have been more than a couple of guys who have run 13:20 to 13:30 off of 40 miles a week. My point was to try and give the guy some advice & let him know there are different paths to getting fit & running/racing. I hate seeing people falling into the mileage trap & stunting their development.

Well that makes some sense.

clubber lang wrote:

My senior year i was able to run 20:32 for a 4 mile tempo. I dont know what I could have run for 10K. My mile/1500 pr & 3K time lead me to believe that I could have <32 mins. That being said, talk is cheap. There have been more than a couple of guys who have run 13:20 to 13:30 off of 40 miles a week. My point was to try and give the guy some advice & let him know there are different paths to getting fit & running/racing. I hate seeing people falling into the mileage trap & stunting their development.

Very well put po poo poo.

Not sure what doesn't make sense. Again just trying to help someone out with some different suggestions.

I wasn't being sarcastic. I was saying I thought you were making a good point