What's your biggest drop in 5k PR in one year?

how long had you been running, I went from 20s to 17mids junior to senior year but senior year for me was also about 50 per week, but I started my junior year

I once dropped my 5k PR from 28:30 to 27:25 in the same year. I thought that was pretty good. I think it was the extra gel-pack I took with me that day.

But seriously people, where am I? mabrunner...are you a real person? What's going on around here?

Beginning of 8th grade (the first year I ran) I went from 21:20 to 18:47 by the end of that season.

8th grade to 9th grade was an 18:47 to 16:53 jump.

From the end of junior year I went from 16:16 to 15:37 my senior year.

Don't know mileage increases, I just ran.

I went from 22:40 to 19:10 in one year. I was 35/36 years old, started at zero miles per week when I ran the first (third run ever), and about 10 months later ran the 19:10 while averaging around 28 mpw. I have never bettered it in spite of running multiple half marathons in the 1:25 to 1:30 range.

My freshman year of high school I went from 20:40 to 17:53. I didn't run over the summer and then probably averaged about 35 miles a week from August until November.

yeah my 16:51 my junior year was my first year ever running

18:23 ~ 16:47, same mileage but added track work and hill repeats each week. About 50-60 miles per week.

Thanks for the encouraging stories of big improvements following mileage increases. Over my high school freshman cross country season I went from running around 25 minutes for a 5k to about 21 minutes. Unfortunately, I have only made small improvements since.

I didn't race much for 12 years after high school and started focusing on running again a couple years ago. My best 5K is 20:39 off of about 20-30 mpw two years ago. Although these miles included a weekly 5k.

Last winter I ran several 5k races in the 21:1x to 21:2x range off of running about 15-30mpw. Aerobically, I was really strong as I was racing almost every weekend, but I was having some issues with chronic tendonitis in my ankle and dead feeling quads. I hadn't really taken a break from racing in a year and a half. Usually I take time off from running or at least racing during the winter. Typically there are six-foot high snowbanks and a coating of ice on the sidewalks of narrow residential streets during Boston winters. I have a terrible sense of balance and don't like running on ice and am not a big fan of treadmills. But it was such a mild winter in Boston, and I was approaching my PRs, so I just kept running until I was forced to stop running by a stress fracture two months ago.

After taking off 6 weeks off for a stress fracture, I pretty much jumped into a 5k last week and ran about 24:50. I ran 23:50ish a couple days ago after a 10-mile week, hope when I get my mileage up to 40 mpw I can break 20 minutes.

From the spring of 8th grade to XC in 9th grade I went from 19:08 to 16:55. No mileage increase - I did ~50/week the whole time.

In high school and junior college, I ran maybe 30mpw and my 5K PR was 19:30. After one month at my D3 school, I was running 50-60mpw and my first 5K was 18:25. One year later I ran 17:24 after getting injured and only doing 40-50mpw for that year. 6 years later I am knocking on sub-16 after running several marathons with lots of 90+ mile weeks under my belt.

Junior Year of High School (first year running, no base):

22:05 to 18:40 from 0 mpw to 25-40 mpw in season

Now after a year and half (graduating now):

18:40 to 15:31 from 35ish mpw to 65ish mpw

I went from 16:48 to 15:56 in one year at age 32 by increasing from 55 mpw to 70 mpw.

I went from 19:15 my junior year to 16:25 my senior year just by increasing from 25 to 50 mpw

MuzLz wrote:

Now after a year and half (graduating now):

18:40 to 15:31 from 35ish mpw to 65ish mpw

Wow that's a huge drop.

15:54 FR

15:23 SO

14:52 JR

14:28 SR

2010 - 16:28

2011 - 15:01

2012 - 14:08

Jumping this much at an already fast pace once seemed impossible.

What kind of track work/hill repeats? It obviously was effective. Also: did you see steady improvement, or did it come in fits/starts? Thx.

My sophomore year in high school (first year running) i dropped from 22:40 to 18:40 haha. Junior year i dropped from 18:40 to 17:01.

I would like to know the specifics of your off-season training that brought you from high 16's to mid 15's your senior year.

Age 30 - been running since 2010.

In 2011 I went from:

May - 18:55

October - 17:40

I think that's pretty decent progression for guy who isn't in his teens/early 20's.

I did a six week block of 65-70mpw of really easy running, followed by 3 weeks of speed and lower mileage.