Largest improvement (any distance) in less than a month.

My first high school XC race of my senior year I went out hard and faded, as I had in most races during my career. The next week I negative split my miles in a race and PR'd by 56 seconds in the 5k.

I had been running intervals and low mileage for quite some time. I raced and had a baseline for the 8km. Then, I doubled my mileage instantly. Four weeks later I dropped nearly 3 minutes off my 8km time. I was tired as all get out for three weeks and only in the last couple days before the race when I tapered did I start to not feel wiped out. They key was more mileage and not giving up despite the chronic fatigue I felt. Tinman

That is a huge improvement tinman. How much mpw did you run when you doubled it?

I dropped from 28:58 to 26:01 in just a month by doubling the mileage from mid 20s to 50s. My problem was always a love for speed. If I had to do it all over again, I would have limited faster running to just once per week and increased my easy and moderate paced mileage. I have set all my personal bests on just threshold work as my fastest running. Anytime I ran speedwork, aka lactic acid tolerance training, I became fatigued and ineffective at holding pace. It is odd how running much slower than race still makes one very fit. c'est la vie! Tinman

It's not really surprising for the distance that you are talking about. For the 8k and 10k and longer, you are running at (or slightly faster than) LT (whcich is 15k race pace).

Doing a lot of LAT or VO2max training wouldn't influence your ability at 8k-10-15k anywhere near as much as Aerobic running and LT-runs.

Also, you are somewhat of an extreme case and that is why you could "double-your-mileage" for a huge improvement. Most serious runners are talking about 60-100 mpw regularly and starting out with a 24:00-26:00 8km time. I used to start the base period running 27:30 for 5 miles and work down to 25:00-30 by summer's end. It was running 10k pace for as much of the 5 miles as I could.

Oh, I was serious - seriously injury prone. I could not handle hard training, never have been able to without lower leg problems. Three surgeries later and I still have to be careful.

I may be slow, but that doesn't mean I am not serious. I've known 31 minute 10k runners who were not serious. They have so much talent that they can run such times without working hard. I do see your point though: I am running slow times, so 3 minute improvements for the 8k doesn't mean much. When I can drop from 26 minutes to 23 minutes, well, maybe then I can say that I had big improvements in a short time frame. Tinman

I went from a lifetime PR of 12{02 min 2 mile to 10:57.X and all I did was changed coaches I was/am a high milage runner (60-80mpw) and he focused my workouts for three weeks at a lower milage and then just ran easy for the week before my last race. I of course am a girl. I am looking forward to summer racing.

Didn't mean that like it sounded. I meant that you were in that group of "serious" runners, just that in my time we ran a lot of miles, so improvement of more than a minute in anything was something for teenagers or when you ran the marathon.

Also, I wasn't demeaning your ability, I was just saying that if I ran 25:30 for 5 miles and 85 miles a week, I couldn't expect to improve to even 24:30 by pushing the miles up a lot. You improved to 26:00 because you were a 25:00 runner all along, waiting to come out. You just needed to do the running to reach for your potential.

I have also knew many great runners who were not serious, most of them were in HS with me.

My first 5k was 25:20 during my junior year of highschool then less than two months later i ran 18:00 still not good but it was over a 7:00 min improvement

first 5K 26:40 to 17:34 in one season

9:59 to 9:19 in 3 and a half weeks.

beer miler wrote:

9:59 to 9:19 in 3 and a half weeks.

What did you do differently to chop off 40 seconds in 3.5 weeks?

I think he ran faster?