Need Serious Training Advice

what's your email address? what kind of mileage have you been doing in the past?

Here are 2 good cut down workouts for summer training:

Out and back course. 3 miles out at relaxed pace (7ish pace) 3 miles back each mile faster ie 6:40-6;20-6:00

1-2 miles walking, jogging and drills as cool-down.

5 miles at relaxed pace (7ish pace) ending at a track. 5 continuous laps with each lap faster ie 1:40-1:35-1:30-1:25-1:20 Easy 1-1/2 mile cool-down.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks for these workouts. Times can be adapted depending on skill/fitness level, but these are nice workouts to supplement summer training.

Thanks for those workouts will def give them a go.

Last summer I got up to 60 for a few weeks. Over the winter I had just gotten to 50 and got hurt (not running related) and couldn't run for 5 or 6 weeks, but I cross trained on the bike and elliptical and got back up to 50 for 2 weeks during track.

keep it simple. you don't need to train the speed right now, the aerobic capacity is kind in endurance sport, and especially so for the HS athlete, whose anaerobic capacity is smaller due to not being fully developed yet. the early season races will give you your speed/anaerobic workouts, but do strides a couple times per week over the summer. over the summer you get in as much volume as you can without breaking.

40% of the miles comes in the morning, 60% in the evening. in the morning you run slow to shake the legs out for the evening run and keep the metabolism high. keep the pace in the 7:30 - 8:30 range, very very easy for you, slower is fine too, but not faster.

evening run you should feel warmed up very quickly after the AM run. you want to start around 8:30 pace or even slower and ramp it up to about 6:30 pace over the course of the first mile or so. bring the pace down as low as about 5:50, but only if you can do so with zero straining, you want to run as fast as possible while staying completely relaxed and with zero lactic acid burning sensations; this should be in the 5:50 - 6:30 range for you. faster is not better, more is better.

Do you think I should do a cut down once or twice a week?

I would start reading/learning how to properly train for a goal race that is now months away. It's a shame you have a coach who doesn't know what he's doing. You need to step back and look at the big picture. Training is not complicated, but most people get lost in the details (what workout, what pace, how much rest..etc)

Summer training is only one phase in your build-up to XC in the fall. Map out a periodized plan to account for all training variables and the different energy systems at play in 5000m racing. The next 8-12 weeks should be geared towards aerobic conditioning, speed maintenance, and threshold running. Overall volume is the main objective.

What do you think is the best way to maintain speed? I feel like I lose it during base training.

strides will help maintain some speed... bring your mileage up to a peak in the high 60's or 70 you should start doing tempo runs, 1000's... as the summer progresses... what I've seen work with our kids is a twenty minute tempo run early in the season once a week and thousands once a week, usually that's Tuesday and Thursday... tempo run for a sixteen thirty guy your probably looking at 5:45-6:05 pace in the early season, as season progresses increase the time your running for your tempos 5 minutes every other week, max out around 35 minutes... transition thousands to 800's, last six weeks 800's go to 400's... every four weeks instead of a temp run switch things up and do 4x 1 mile with three minutes rest... there are plenty of ways to run fast, but whatever you do stick with the program... you'll get where you want to go

grass strides, hill sprints, cut-down work-out (1/wk) and fartlek work-out

Feel free to get Jack Daniel's book and just follow it as much as your body can take. That book gives you the template to reach your potential.

but it's not the bible - you must listen to your body and change if things aren't working or you feel run down.

You're there now.

70 mpw will kill off your high schooling legs.

Let the XC races take you there.

Run conversationally all summer. Run once a day. Do a long run. Do nothing quick. Don't count miles. Run for an hour or hour and a half most days and 2 once a week. Try to do some running off road. In early fall, run hard perhaps every third or fourth day--5K race pace, progression runs of 6 to 10 miles, some milers (4 or 5 x 1), maybe a few quarters or halfs. Run these days hard and run very easy the next couple of days. Again, no doubles. Take days off if school and running/racing make you feel overtrained. There are 2 keys in all this: become an aerobic animal this summer by disciplining yourself to run conversationally and bust the early-fall workouts (followed by easy days, plural). Many don't have enough aerobic capacity and many don't run their hard workouts hard enough (or easy easy enough). Don't follow a program; just experiment and see what works. Google linear and non-linear periodization and reflect on these very different approaches in light of your goals. Do not be a slave to mileage totals. Don't let coaches or schedules do your thinking for you. It truly doesn't matter how fast you run your summer base miles or, later, whether you run 330s, quarters, 660s. Experiment. Build a base and then practice going into debt. And then put them together. As for tempo, forget you ever heard the word! The idea of a % of VO2max is silly. Run by feel.