Running potential

Looking at your PRs and playing guesswork on how you trained...

Miles.

Agree. Run a lot of miles. Your 800 PR is very far ahead of your other PRs.

Definitely more miles. You don't even need any workouts, in my opinion. Just consistent easy paced runs, everyday. I am your same age with high school PRs 202, 445, and 16:55 in the 5k. I have achieved post-HS PRs of 4:57, 17-low 5k, and a 56-high 15k by doing nothing but 8 mile runs around 7-7:10 / mile. A year ago I was running about 6 miles per day at 7:30. I put in 6 days per week usually, with an occasional 6m/6m double on the weekends.

I didnt run a step in college, but I have been running 45-50 easy miles per week for a year. I am 3+ years out of college. The only fast paced running I do is at a road race every 2-3 weeks, save the occasional 3-6mile tempo run maybe once per month.

If you examine my current PRs, you'd see that STILL my 15k is weaker than my 5k. My 5k and mile are close, but I just ran my 5k PR a couple weeks ago. Just keep running, it shouldnt matter how fast, just that you are putting in consistent work day-in, day-out.

Like the earlier respondents said, run miles. Our 5k HS times are very close, but you're 10 seconds ahead of my HS 800, then over 5k I was significantly faster. I'm 25 now and have run all of your goal times just by running about 60 miles a week and including one track workout of something like 4-6 x mile @ 5k-10k pace and regularly racing. You will do this too if you try. Good luck.

I agree, put in miles and be consistent. I'm 25 and ran in high school, ran a couple years in college, took about 4 years off and I was back at ground zero so to speak so I know your position. I started back up in July just doing a 2mile easy run every day and then after I could do the 2miles without struggling I moved on to attempting 3 and 4 mile runs. After just 3months I worked up to doing a 16mile long run and can solo a 4:40 for a mile. What worked for me was after about 2months of nothing but distance runs everyday throw in a session of 8-150s fast once a week to start developing your speed , and also a fartlek run. The 150s though I feel are key because my quarter time is now at 54.9, and before I started running the 150s I was only able to hit a 60. So keep at it, put in the mileage, and then once you have a good base start the fast running

All these answers are great but one thing no one is mentioning is how many miles is too much for you? With all runners, especially 'average' runners there is a point you can reach in your mileage where you start to lose benefits from all those miles.

I tried running 80 miles a week this whole summer and although I built up slowly and training with a heart rate monitor, I became fatigued and worst of all, a slower runner!

I dropped my miles to 55 and now I feel fresh everyday and am seeing a lot of progress. So... it sucks but running isn't a science.... yet. A lot of it is instinctual and you have to experiment and feel out what helps you the best.

For me, I cut out those 25 miles and replaced the time that I was running with cross training on the bike. Now I feel like I have a third lung. Also, be aware of what surface you run on everyday. Running on hills everyday (if you live in a hilly area) isn't the best thing. The flats are important for your turnover and pacing.