How many MPW when you first broke 16:00 5K?

I ran a somewhat controversial 15:59 in a 5k road race off 20 miles per week.

Rumours of dodgy timing were offset by rumours of a long course so it's going down as sub 16 in my books.

This was my only 5k. I ran it after 2 years of consistent 20 mile weeks. I started running 20 mile weeks when I 'retired'. However before that I was doing 50-60 mile weeks and probably would have ran sub 15 if I had ever ran a 5k.

Tempo, day off, easy run, day off, repeat. That was my training for the 5k.

Hobby Jogger 4 Life wrote:

When you first broke 16:00 minutes:

1) How long had you been training?

2) How many miles per week were you consistently doing?

3) What types of workouts were you doing?

1. I was in HS, probably ran since 3 or 4 years

2. around 50 on avg over the year

4. lots of easy miles, intervals, hill sprints, short rep stuff

15:40's my freshman year of college at an early indoor meet.

1.) Started running in 8th grade, started taking running seriously before my junior year in HS. I am going to say 3 years of training.

2.)Consistantly in the 70's at the time

3.)Mostly running miles, trying to keep up with the juniors and seniors on training runs. A few longer interval workouts. It was February at the time and we pretty much trained through indoor and focused on outdoor.

Hobby Jogger 4 Life wrote:

When you first broke 16:00 minutes:

1) How long had you been training?

2) How many miles per week were you consistently doing?

3) What types of workouts were you doing?

1) Did it as a senior in high school. Had been running off and on since age 8, so about 10 years. Definitely wasn't "training" all that time though.

2) 15 MPW. VERY common to run about 15 MPW in the mid 80s. I wish it weren't so, but it was.

3) Typical week. Mon - 3 miles; Tue - 5k dual meet race; Wed - 3 miles; Thu - 5k dual meet race; Fri - OFF; Sat 5k invitational race; Sun - OFF So in this case, it's 15.3 miles. Sometimes one of those 3 milers would be a 2 miler. Sometimes we'd have no Sat. invitational and I wouldn't run all weekend. Before anyone says, "what about warm up and cool down?" We hardly did either of those. Our coach wasn't big on "running around a lot before the race; save it for the race". No internet then, so not really a way to know that I should have been doing more. MOST high school coaches had a "less is more" attitude then.

Oh well.

Flagpole wrote:

2) 15 MPW. VERY common to run about 15 MPW in the mid 80s. I wish it weren't so, but it was.

3) Typical week. Mon - 3 miles; Tue - 5k dual meet race; Wed - 3 miles; Thu - 5k dual meet race; Fri - OFF; Sat 5k invitational race; Sun - OFF So in this case, it's 15.3 miles. Sometimes one of those 3 milers would be a 2 miler. Sometimes we'd have no Sat. invitational and I wouldn't run all weekend. Before anyone says, "what about warm up and cool down?" We hardly did either of those. Our coach wasn't big on "running around a lot before the race; save it for the race". No internet then, so not really a way to know that I should have been doing more. MOST high school coaches had a "less is more" attitude then.

a) what did you do off-season?

b) this looks like the master recipe to get injured

i graduated HS in '88. We probably averaged 40-50 miles per week, most of it really easy. Races were basically the speedwork. The HS i went to has always been top tier in the state, so really don't know how our competitors trained, but i find it hard to believe they were only running 15 mile weeks.

I started running when I was 18. I had a good aerobic background in cycling.

1 year after starting training I ran 16:34 off prob 30 mpw. I carried on with the same mileage for another year, had some injuries, and ran 15:58.

Up to 40mps again for another year and ran 15:29.

Then it took 10 years to get back to that for different reasons.

Then in 2010 I got down to 15:15.

Always felt I would get under 15 but I dont think its going to happen now as less time to train again.

1) I broke 16 in the beginning of my 7th year of running, my freshman year of college. My first two years were consistent but not serious training (15-20 mpw in middle school, one fartlek and one two mile XC race per week).

2) I had consistently been between 50-60 for the two years beforehand, and was doing a peak of 60-70 that summer, and got a single week in at 80 the first week of college XC, which was a few weeks before I broke 16.

3) No workouts over summer except fartleks and short tempos, was doing typical XC training in the fall, longer tempos, long moderate intervals with short rest, a little bit of hill work.

I did no off season training to speak of. I would run a couple of races in the summer (a 5k, or a 10k), and I would run a little bit in preparation for them, but I probably averaged about 9 miles a week in the summer, and there were a few whole months in there when I didn't run at all in the summer.I was only injured one time in high school, and that was my freshman year.

15:47 in XC senior year of high school. Started the summer before 7th grade. Probably 50 MPW, going as high as 70 over the summer. Workouts were mostly 1-2 sessions of intervals of 400, 800, 1600 totaling about 3 miles of volume and a 5k tempo (i.e. dual meet against undistinguished competition) once a week.

We've had threads on this before here, and there are others who have said their weeks were very much like mine - 15-20 MPW every week with hardly any training over the summer. Less is more was VERY common in early-mid 80s.Your school was top tier because you actually trained enough. Trust me, there were LOTS of even very good HS runners who weren't running more than 20 MPW in the mid 80s. I went to 2 different high schools, and the mentality was the same at both.

I've been thinking about this for a while because I couldn't remember it. Now I got it.

1. Sophomore year of college. I know that sounds funny.

In HS in FL back then, we ran 3 miles, with only the occasional 5k at FSU and UF invites (which were the same weekend back in the early 90s). Not that I ever even broke 16 for 3 miles, though, so really that's not a good sample.

Fr yr of college, I certainly could have, but never ran a single 5k. 8-10k xc, and mile and shorter on the track.

Sophomore yr of college, we hosted a dual meet on our course and ran the 5k arrangement. 15:11.

2. At that time I was probably around 70 mpw, after a freshman year of around 60 mpw. Only ran two years in HS, usually 30-40 mpw.

3. We killed ourselves in practice. Lots of longer intervals (1k-1200-mile) with short rest. VO2max type stuff. Tempos that turned into races at worst, grind fests at best. "easy" runs were no such thing.

Hobby Jogger 4 Life wrote:

When you first broke 16:00 minutes:

1) How long had you been training?

2) How many miles per week were you consistently doing?

3) What types of workouts were you doing?

Sophomore in college (fall) and had been running 3 years. I was averaging 60 but spent as much of the summer doing Lydiard’s 100 mile weeks in singles as I could tolerate. I was quite devoted to Arthur at the time. I have a signed letter and mimeographed training plan from him somewhere (I think he sent quite a few of these out, actually). I would add hill repeats one day and 3 one miles just under 5 min with one lap jog between. Just before the sub 16’s I ran with the team and almost every day was hard except Friday and Sunday. Quarters, hills, 10 mile tempo’s. I had a streak of 8 or so sub 16’s through the spring but developed PF and simply quit running after dropping to 15:42. I was more into college life than running at that time.

still haven't broken 16:30

1.8 years

2. took 6 years to run 3000 on an annual basis, on pace for about 3500 this year

3. none... i just run, maybe that's my problem?

I ran 15:58 off of around 50-60 MPW, high school junior

I ran 15:55 two weeks in a row (which was the first and second time i went under 16).

i had been training for about 4 years at the time, and i was 23.

Ran a few months averaging under 60mpw, then 8 week training block of 72,82,79,68,75,50,40,30

Ran two workouts a week pretty much like clockwork. one track intervals (where i tried to do 300-1000 meter intervals ~5:00 pace. Usually ran about 3-4 miles of quality with fairly limited rest). And one fartlek style min on min off or 30 seconds on minute off for turnover. Didn't do any real tempo work, tho probably should have.

sample week:

m-8 easy

t-10 w/ intervals 6*800 (2:28-2:32)

w-4/8 double

r-8 easy

f-10 w/ 10*minute hard

s-8 easy

su-14

total 70

Usually doubled friday too because i didn't work that day.

KISS

I ran track in 7th and 8th grade but never ran farther than the 880. Started distance running when I was 14, trained for a month and ran a 42:20 10k. I just went out every day in the summer and ran increasing my distance. By the end of the summer I ran 37:12 10k. I broke 16 for 5k a couple years later. My soph year after playing basketball, I ran 10:02 3200 at the end of the season. I was around 16:30 for 5k. By the end of xc the following season, I ran 12:28 for 2.5 miles. I ran 15:56 right after that at a roadrace. (no more basketball) For the most part, I never did speedwork except during the season. I tried to run 50-60 miles per week. During the season, my mileage dropped to the 40s with races and workouts.

junior year of highschool 15:52 on 15-20 miles a week. Took every summer off and all breaks for that matter. But ended up running very fast in college on low miles as well.

3 miles a week ran a 15:55

Did xfit though