So, I'm a sophomore in high school. I started running last winter and was extremely out of shape. I managed to break a 5:00 mile (cutting probably 1:30 off my time in four months) in the spring before getting a significant injury that kept me out until summer. I had a mediocre sophomore cross country season, mostly because of competitive psychology reasons. I was running in the mid-4:40s (aka 4:44-46) for the mile in early winter, but this was mostly when racing for place and not time. I then got a massive injury that forced me to barely run at all for five weeks. This obviously took a bite out of my ability, and those mid-4:40s went from feeling fine to making me cough up a lung. When my injury improved some I started doing two or three speed workouts a week, never more than 20 or so miles a week. This was mainly to prepare for the state championships. I was only training for three or so weeks, and to my amazement I ran a 4:30. This has led me to believe that I can do very well by senior year. I feel like I still have a fair amount of maturing to do to, so I seriously doubt I'm at my peak potential. A good goal seems to be a 9:00 two mile because I seem to have better stamina than speed. Only a few people have ever done it in my state (slow state, I know). I figured I'd post here since a lot of you have done this in the past. What should I expect for mileage and workouts and what benchmarks should I set for the coming seasons? I feel like I can still improve significantly considering how little training I've done. One more specific question is: what should my ratio be of tempo runs to speed workouts on a track? Did you find it incredibly hard to improve as you neared your goal? So far I've been PR'ing every race so if that happens, I'll have to get used to it.
Just to set the tone, I'm healthy now and building my base. I've never done more than 40-45 mpw for any extended period of time (tried to bump up to 50 mpw quickly just before I got injured). I'll probably peak at 50 mpw this spring, and add on more distance over the summer.
Thanks so much for reading, any input (minus trolling :)) is appreciated. I know it takes time to read and respond and I'm really thankful that people are always kind enough to do so.