I just finished up my eligibility running for a D2 school, after three years of horribly inconsistent training, our program finally developed and the team and I really started training seriously. I improved from my sophomore year pr of 4:19 in the 1500 to 4:04 this year. I also ran a 9:23 3k indoors and 16:08 5k in our first outdoor meet.
The first 3 years of college i averaged about 35-45 miles a week, with little to no structure in terms of progression or peak, also did no strength work.
This year I was averaging about 55 miles a week during cross and ran a 28:20 8k but was dealing with a knee problem all season, after the time off from cross I built up my mileage to 70-75 miles a week in the winter and saw dramatic improvement.I also added strength and core workouts 2-3 times a week. Another key factor was that my friend and teammate developed a workout plan aiming for a peak in late april/may.
After a succesful indoor where i pred in almost every race starting at 4:50/9:52 for mile/3k and getting down to 4:33/9:22
outdoors i ran 16:08 5k and then focused on the 1500 running 4:14, 4:09 and 4:04 in consecutive races.
So just wondering how much you guys think i could improve after another full year of training specifically for the mile/1500 i know its not going to be another 15 second pr but just curious.
also do you think i would benefit from running higher mileage? maybe 80mpw at least during the base phase