Reasonable expectation of improvement on doubling mileage from last season?

Malmo and some of the others I'd be particularly interested in hearing back from.

On 30-40 mpw I went from roughly 23 min for 5k down to 19 and 610 in the mile down to about 520 before the mileage jump and basically throwing away my watch and running by feel most days.

sub16 within 3-4 months.

ggg wrote:

sub16 within 3-4 months.

Seriously?

I was kind of hoping this would be taken seriously.

Thanks.

I would fully expect sub 18:00 for 5k, if not close to 17:00 after a while. You definitely need to do some faster stuff to maximize performance though. It doesn't need to be really hard or structured, just do a fartlek with 3:00 surges once a week or something. I think your times will drop significantly.

Guppy wrote:

I would fully expect sub 18:00 for 5k, if not close to 17:00 after a while. You definitely need to do some faster stuff to maximize performance though. It doesn't need to be really hard or structured, just do a fartlek with 3:00 surges once a week or something. I think your times will drop significantly.

Excellent, thanks. I do feel as though that is currently a weakness. 17's...or 16's would be great.

Mark78 wrote:

Guppy wrote:

I would fully expect sub 18:00 for 5k, if not close to 17:00 after a while. You definitely need to do some faster stuff to maximize performance though. It doesn't need to be really hard or structured, just do a fartlek with 3:00 surges once a week or something. I think your times will drop significantly.

Excellent, thanks. I do feel as though that is currently a weakness. 17's...or 16's would be great.

I have a mile race this weekend and was shooting for a PR despite little fast work outside of hill sprints, strides, etc. I've done a fair amount of neuromuscular work as well. Anyway, thanks for the reply and I look forward to any other replies, particularly from those who have made similar jumps in mileage and improving the quality of training.

Great that you are running after a long layoff after HS. If I may ask, what were your PR's in HS? That would make it easier to see what your potential is. Also, please do 3 days of quality a week--quality REALLY matters. I'm only running like one day of quality a week with 50-70 miles a week and just barely faster than I ran in HS with 30 miles a week and a lot of quality. (I'm in my mid 20s)Also, I think doing a lot of races, like twice a month is good. Knowing how to race and when to push the pace or drop back is something that can be lost after a layoff.sub 18 soon?

Mark78 wrote:

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone had been in a similar situation to what I've recently trained my body through and can report on how much they improved.

I am now in my third year of training (now 33 years old) after 15 years of inactivity after running in high school. I was running roughly 30-40 miles a week for 2.5 years and was consistently improving but didn't have time to run more until the last 3 months. Over the last three months I've averaged about 70 mpw with some high end aerobic running, hills, tempos, and strides mixed in and was wondering what kind of improvement I should expect when I start racing again. Thanks in advance.

Are you maximizing your tempo runs?

A 5:20 mile means your longer tempo runs (6 to 8 miles) should be at 6:15 if you can.

For your racing, try going out in the first mile at or near your current timed mile pace for the first few races. Then on the fourth race back off 5 to 10 seconds for that first mile and you should really see your time drop. I did this in high school and dropped from 17:20 to 16:50. We call this "race shocking".

high school was a disaster of sorts. I ran two years that were riddled with illness and injury from doing intervals 3 days a week and hard long tempos the other days. I didn't run in the offseason but by sophmore year ran a 5 flat mile, a 11 flat two mile, and three in high 17's and feel I never was really healthy.

justin tyme wrote:

Are you maximizing your tempo runs?

A 5:20 mile means your longer tempo runs (6 to 8 miles) should be at 6:15 if you can.

For your racing, try going out in the first mile at or near your current timed mile pace for the first few races. Then on the fourth race back off 5 to 10 seconds for that first mile and you should really see your time drop. I did this in high school and dropped from 17:20 to 16:50. We call this "race shocking".

Interesting. So maybe go out in a 520 (or close to what I get this weekend in the mile race) and just see what happens?

I have a similar story to yours, except I only took 7 years off after Highschool (PR for xc was ~18:30, never made it through a track season).

~18 months ago started back running, excited about doing a marathon. After three months I was up to 45-50 miles/wk + some track work and ran a 19:00 xc 5k... Then I dealt with a hip injury and took ~ 2 months off. I then spent a month running ~30 min/ day doing fitness trail workouts. I then ran a 17:50 PR... A month later I ran a 36:30 10k.

... Blah, blah too many details; but despite some set backs, I ran 4:47 1600m timetrial by myself and a 16:30 5k this fall (this came after a few months of ~60 mile weeks + specific workouts over the summer, immediately preceding the PR I took a week off b/c of overtraining; I only entered the race b/c I new I had a good chance of winning a new pair of shoes)

Anyways, big improvements are possible.

Excellent thanks.

So this weekend a sub 5 mile isn't an outrageous goal when I ran 520 a few times in the spring off of half the mileage?

Anyone?

Since you ran double the mileage your times should obviously be twice as fast. Expect to run a 2:40 mile this weekend. Simple math.

Sub 5 not outrageous, but setting your sights on an immediate mile pr in December off what sounds like solid base training may be a bit much to ask. Nothing wrong with going hard and getting after it, but if your legs are not used to turning 75s, that pace may seem very fast. Miles, 800s, even 5ks take several races to groove so don't be disappointed if you fall a touch short. Large luck.