Some background: 18 years old. Started running last XC season. About 20-25 mpw with 5-6x1k intervals about three times throughout the entire season, the rest of the workouts just being 6-8x400 @ 1:20-25 once or twice a week. Consistently ran 20's on the courses and a 19:40 TT. Post-XC, averaged 30 mpw with 4xmile repeats @ 5k pace once, 9x300 with 100m jog a few times, and the rest just mileage. Come track pre-season/season, mileage was at 4-12 mpw for a few months and then I just started hopping in with the sprinters on those days, bringing it to 0 before I even started my peak. My workouts started off as 8x400 @ 1:15-18 and ended up at 12x400 averaging 1:18-1:20, 2x/week. This was my only workout, 2x/week. Come late march, workouts changed to things like 7x300 with 4-5 mins rest, 3x300 with 8 min rest, and I did 5x600 @ 1:5x once. Other times I just hopped in with the distance guys and did workouts like 4x800, followed by 3x400. Basically always 800's and 400's with a random number of reps. I went from 2:32 to 2:12(as well as 58.5->54.7 in the 400. Raced into shape for it), but didn't get to run my last race and hit my goal of 2:08-2:10. I feel that's the shape I ended in, though. Despite the improvement, I feel I'm undertrained as I had no coach and had no idea what I was doing. I'll be running for a local JC with a few 1:5x guys for Cross Country/Track, and I plan to incorporate hills, weights, etc into my training. How much can I expect to drop? After two years of college training, is it far-fetched to assume I'll be able to run something like 1:58?
TL;DR:
18, first year running
2:12 800
54.7 400
Undertrained, no coach.
Will be running College XC/Track next year. How much can I expect to improve?