I have a race every week for the next two months...how do I structure my training?

I like how cute your 12-14 miles long runs are. Cute!

Given your recent 5K success, and your upcoming race schedule, I would suggest skipping the remaining phases, and "racing yourself into shape". Here are some sample schedules for how to continue racing, taken from the Lydiard Foundation:

Continuation of Racing - 2 races

Monday: Easy fartlek 3/4 to 1 hour.

Tuesday: Relaxed striding 200 meters by 6.

Wednesday: Race or time trial.

Thursday: Easy fartlek 1 hour or Jog 3/4 hour.

Friday: Jog 1/2 hour.

Saturday: Race or time trial.

Sunday: Jog 1 1/2 hours.

ROAD (Race Week) - 1 race

Monday: Windsprints 6-10x100 meters.

Tuesday: Easy Fartlek 1/2 to 1 hour.

Wednesday: Time trial 1 mile.

Thursday: Fast relaxed striding 4-6x100 meters.

Friday: Jog 1/2 hour.

Saturday: RACE.

Sunday Aerobic running 1.5 hours or more.

ROAD (Non-Race Week)

Monday: Repetitions 3x1 mile or 6x880 yards.

Tuesday: Aerobic running 1.5 hours.

Wednesday: Time Trial 3 miles.

Thursday: Aerobic running 1.5 hours.

Friday: Fast relaxed striding 6-10x100 meters.

Saturday: Time Trial 3 miles.

Sunday: Aerobic running 1.5 hours or more.

I wouldn't worry about peaking/ starting sharpening until April.

You seem to have a pretty good handle on how to do that. Especially if you are doing something like the 2 mile, you can race them without going all out and still be fine for the later points of the season. I would say to just "race" and not worry about time, especially if this means just sitting on some chumps, great! Learn some racing tactics without forcing yourself to hammer a PR pace from the get go, from the sounds of it you should be able to run PRs right now without going 100%.

Try to keep the maximal efforts to a minimum in march, although 1 or 2 solid races wont hurt you too much. The biggest thing here is that you aren't going all out in more than one race a week, or every week.

I had a similar schedule in high school where we had 2 or sometimes 3 meets on the schedule per week, just absurd. Luckily for me my coach understood this and I just didn't run anything at many meets. Try talking to your coach and see if you have to race every week. Explain the importance of this and how it will help you score points in the meets that matter such as conference, regions/sections, and state.

just run your march meets as an extended workout. Do a long warmup. Maybe find an adjacent field where you can run some intervals before and after your race. Don't go all out on more than two meets in March.

I didn't read completely through everything, but my advice is to not worry about speed work and do mostly threshold type stuff with a little bit of long intervals worked in. If you're racing every week, you're going to be getting plenty of lactic acid work in, so don't do any hard fast workouts until the very end of your season. To develop pure speed, do stuff like 8x100m @ 400-800m pace with FULL recovery after your workouts once or twice a week.

You're running very well right now. The key is to not get injured or overtrained. It takes very little to maintain fitness. You could just do one workout a week plus your race and probably still improve over the next several weeks. Be patient. I know it's your senior year, but if you're already setting 3200m PRs en route during a 5k, you can afford to just cruise at your current intensity and volume for a while (or even a little less intensity).

Good luck, and congrats on your recent success.

We also had an intense race schedule in high school. Dual/Tri/Quad meets were common on Tuesday or Wednesday, then an invitational on Saturday. I was a 1600/3200 guy, but I often ran only one event at meets, or sometimes I'd race short events as workouts (400/300H/800/4X400). Don't be afraid to dog a 2 mile (you already plan to it looks like) and as the other poster said, work on race tactics, especially in smaller meets where you can sit and kick. Plan to peak at state, but treat meets like workouts. Also, you can probably start lowering your long runs, and take a day off once in a while.

Thanks for all the great responses. It seems that the general consensus is:

-treat meets like workouts (at least in March)

-mostly threshold workouts

-experiment with racing tactics

I'll definitely take your advice into consideration when I schedule my workouts for the next couple of months.

In response to "mountain legs johnson", I decide to take a day off based on how I'm feeling that particular day, which usually works out to be around every 10 days.

Thanks again for all the awesome responses.

The money is in the bank from what you did this winter. So don't stress out on your schedule now. Also, I think you have to much hard stuff mixed in your schedule. Here is how I would approach it.

1. I would do 2 long runs a month of 90 to 105 minutes. You don't need one every week to maintain what you have already put in.

2. I would only have 2 hard days a week (intervals/races). So if you have two races, thats it for the week! Also, don't do a workout on race days! It is unnecessary, just treat the dual meets you can win easily as workouts. Sit on the leaders the first half of the race, throw in a surge, and cruise into the finish.

3. Every other run is EASY mileage. You need to recover!

4. Keep your mileage up. Don't drop below 40 mpw until the end of April/early May. Then cut it in half.

5. Hopefully your coaches have you do form drills, pushups, ab work, etc... If not, ask if they would include them in practice.

Sample Schedule

Mon- 40 to 60 minutes easy

Tue- Intervals or Race or easy day

Wed- 40 to 60 minutes easy

Thu- Intervals or Race or easy

Fri- 40 to 60 minutes easy

Sat- Long run of 90 to 145 minutes or race (probably invitational)

Sun- Rest or 40 to 60 minutes easy

*This puts you anywhere from 40-50 miles per week. Good luck!

I'm with Keep it simple. This is almost the exact schedule I used in high school 20 years ago, which led to three state titles.

One thing though, every mid-week meet I would run four events -- 4x800 leg, 1600m, 3200m, and 800m. None of the races were particularly challenging, but it was four miles of hard running each meet -- so it certainly was a workout.

I would rarely go longer than 90 minutes on Saturday and almost always took a rest day on Sunday.

I would stay with the schedule you put up first. Whether you are following Lydiard or any other plan, you cannot keep advancing your condition continuously for 12 weeks (March-April-May) and I assume you want to be in your best shape for Late-May/June meets.

you probably should have done base-training for all of Nov-Dec-Jan-Feb and then done the hill-phase to transition to interval work/racing. But I doubt it will matter. Like others have said, your work in the last 3 months has done it for you.

I would recommend this though: when racing your "B-meets" instead of just going slower do a drill. If you are forced to run the 4 x 800, 1600 and 3200 or worse ... you are going to be tired no matter what. Say you want to be a 2:00/4:20/9:20 runner by the end of the year (these are just easy numbers), then if you are in 2:05/4:30/9:40 shape say right now or whenever you start indoor racing then instead of running less-than-max effort and getting a a steady-paced 2:10/4:40/10:00 in your "easy" meets try this:

first few indoor meets:

800 in 30/35/30/35 = 2:10 - goal pace for half

1600 in 32-33 hard lap/37-38 easy lap = 4:40 - not too strict

3200 at 35/40 each 200 = 75 = 10:00

The idea is to work at VO2max pace or harder, but not for the entire 3-4 miles of racing. You also gain a feel for what 4:20 pace feels like to your body without the usual 62-67-70-69 fade that most high schoolers do.

Step it up by lengthening the hard part, but still keeping it at goal pace. By mid-season outdoor you could be at ...

800 in 300/200/300 at 45/35/45 = 2:05

1600 in 600/400/600 at 1:38/75/1:38

3200 in 800/400/800/400/800 at 2:20/80/2:20/80/2:20 = 9:40

Don't worry about your finishing times, just your segments at goal pace. You can also keep the fast segments the same length (like 200 or 400) and keep them at goal pace for that race, but just speed up the "slower" segments over time.