How can this be achieved? I have a PR of 10:10 from last track season. I am in high school. I need to hit this time to have a chance to make it to my state meet. Not really sure if any more background info is needed. I want to take this seriously, and am mainly interested in the mileage and training paces that would work well for the base season and racing season to achieve this. Any help would be great.
run a lot
I would rather a nice bust any time
Hey buddy, I ran about that fast in HS. I am not a coach, but I had a very good one - he had me bump up my miles (I ran 3 miles before school every day) and I ran lots of hill repeats. I didn't do hardly any track workouts because we didn't have a track at my school. So, I would do a lot of 3 minutes hard, 1 minute easy, hill sprints, hard tempo runs, stuff like that.
For meets, I usually ran the 600, 800, or the 1000 meters to get my turnover up. Then for the big meets I would run the mile until the end of the season when I ran the 2 mile. I don't know if others here will agree with that philosophy, but I think that when you're in HS you shouldn't specialize too much. Don't worry so much about your 2 mile time. Get in your best mile shape and you'll be able to bust out a solid 2 mile, too. Plus, you'll have an extra gear on lap 8. I also think you should race a lot at a variety of distances, but don't race a ton of 3200's. You'll get stale running 8 laps every week.
Good luck!
Are we talking about indoors or outdoors?
Either way, you'll need to be able to run around 4:30 for the 1600m and also have a decent amount of endurance. Running "a lot" is relative. I think 50 mpw should be plenty for a high schooler running those times.
During your base, feel free to increase your pace in the middle or end of your runs and push close to your "threshold." If you're in 9:30 pace, you should be able to throw a couple 5:30s into a run every now and then and never start to breathe heavily. Right now, if your getting a couple of 6:00 miles into a run every couple days then you're on the right track.
I agree, I was just under 4:30 for the mile and just under 2 minutes for the 800. I ran 10:08 my sophomore spring, 9:48 (or something like that) my junior spring, and 9:29 my senior winter. Running twice a day really helped me out, but don't jack up the mileage all at once. Running before school also helped me at school, too, I was much more alert in my morning classes and it forced me to go to bed earlier.
40 seconds could be a big jump, especially if you are going from 11th to 12th grade ran many years and have been physically mature for a while, that will require a lot of work. 40 seconds may be nothing at all and come without any extra work if say you are in 10th grade, last year was your first year running, and you matured immensely since last track season. Because those answers are unknown to me and many are even unknown to you (e.g. level of physical maturity), all you can really do is run your best.
My formula that I would tell any kid that would listen for running your best is this. (1) Do two a days (start with once or twice a week and move up SLOWLY, as it becomes easy and routine), do only 15-30 minutes, start with 15 and move up, again do it as it becomes easy. It is January so you have lots of time to bring in two a days very gradually. Do those things f***ing SLOW. The purpose is to merely "shake out" your legs so that you recover faster and have better workouts when you do them. (2) Increase you mileage, just bump it up a little every couple weeks, if you average going up 6 miles every two weeks by March you will be running some 35 miles more a week than you are now, that will give you a large base. (3) not to be a hater, but 9:30 is 2x 4:45 which is 8x 71+. 71+ is slow as f***. All you need to be good in HS is some endurance, maybe some lactic work so that you can kick in a slow race. So I would just do VO2 max workouts once a week as your primary goal, something like 800m or 1000m with short rest, increase the number as the season moves along. After that, if you are not racing in a week just do something race-specific, i.e. race paced with short rest. Practice makes perfect. Any left over time or workouts (which is rare if you are already working out twice a week you really on need to mix this in once every few weeks) is some lactic work just to be able to kick, so something fast and about 200m with lots of rest (say 5x 30 seconds really hard). Let us know how it goes.
I ran a 8:20 on treatmill with 2% gradient...
I ran 9:13 in high school but I'll give you a sample of my general outline of training, scaled back to something maybe you can do! Hope it helps!
Monday: 50minutes + strides
Tuesday: Cut down 1000's and 800's ( 6x800 2:45-2:40-2:35-2:30-2:25-2:20)
Wednesday: 65 minutes + hill sprints
Thursday 50minutes + strides
Friday: Something Continuous, either fartlek (3min hard, 2min easy for 30-40min or 6 miles @ 5:20-5:40)
Saturday: easy shake out 0-30 minutes
Sunday: Moderate effort long run totally 90 minutes
This would usually add up to be between 45-60 miles.
I was more a of a miler following this training( 4:09 1600 in hs) but best of luck to you!
was this during base or racing
^^
This would be my training from the end of cross country all the way until my big peak in outdoors. I would have a mini peak for indoor but would focus on racing quick indoors, like 800,1k and mile.
Strength training + speed racing = monster outdoors
long term 4 all, what paces were you doing your workouts in when you were running 9:13?
I've done workouts in November-February like 8 miles continuous @ 6:00, 6 miles continuous @ 5:40.
Once I was close to outdoors, They would switch to 6 miles continuous to 5:30 and 4 miles continuous of 5:15-5:20.
For Track workouts, We did 5x1k starting at 3:20 and ending at 3:00. Closer to outdoors, We would do 800's, ending in under 2:20 for the last one. We also did 10x400, or 4,6,8,6,4 at mile pace in the last 6 weeks of the season.
One of the most important thing I did was the consistent long run, at 6:00-6:20 pace once a week totaling 90 minutes. Regular runs I tried to keep around 7 minute pace.
Lenny Leonard wrote:
Either way, you'll need to be able to run around 4:30 for the 1600m .....
Does anyone know of a general "rule of thumb" as to what your 1600 PR should be to run a 5:00 pace 3200?
Can you get by with a 4:35 or 4:40 if you are more strength developed with less speed?
Sure, I think when I ran 10:08 for the two mile, I was running around 4:45 or worse for the mile. There's no rule of thumb except that the faster you run the mile, the faster your two mile time will get.
I think that specializing in the two mile while you're in high school is a bad move. Get your mile time fast and your 800 and 2 mile will improve, too.