I ran 4:14 in High School. Hurt in College. I'm 26 now and want to run 4:10

You ran 1600m is HS. No one cares about that distance anymore. Set your goal to 1500m.

Great advice. Thank you. Next.

Wow, this is crazy similar to me albeit I was a bit slower.

I ran 4:19 in high school and only ran a handful of races in college (nothing good).

I'm also 26.

I have no intentions of ever stepping foot on a track again for a race or workout but I really would like to run some respectable times on the trail/road.

Ran my first workout in nearly two and a half years the other day. It was slow, but damn did that fatigue feel good.

Best of luck to you. I know I'll need every bit I can get.

I'm not saying it won't happen, but it's a hell of a lot harder when you don't have the structure of a team, a coach, and obvious competition. Make sure you REALLY want it or you will fail. I hope you do it, and if you do, make sure to post about it as it's a big goal and would inspire others. Godspeed.

I only ran 4:26 in HS, only ran 2 years of college, then went to work. I came back quickly to running but didn't run my mile PR until I was 31 (1500 in 3:46). Because of the time off i think it made my career longer and thus ran pretty good as a masters runner. I think you can do it, just get some good guidance and don't hit to too hard too fast, take your time.

How much did you weigh then? How much do you weigh now? What were the injuries in college?

sactomaster wrote:

I only ran 4:26 in HS, only ran 2 years of college, then went to work. I came back quickly to running but didn't run my mile PR until I was 31 (1500 in 3:46). Because of the time off i think it made my career longer and thus ran pretty good as a masters runner. I think you can do it, just get some good guidance and don't hit to too hard too fast, take your time.

That's impressive homie. What was late 20's to early 30's time progression.

Joe Rubio (currently owns RunningWarehouse, used to coach the Aggies post-collegiate team and several successful runners) wrote a great guide specifically for the post-collegiate middle distance runner. I think you'll find it helpful.

http://img.runningwarehouse.com/pdf/middle_distance_guide.pdf

Broadly, he approaches the 1500 meters from an endurance perspective, which is probably a good idea for you at 26.

Why 4:10? Why not 4:00? Dream big, young man.

cordholdiosi wrote:

Why 4:10? Why not 4:00? Dream big, young man.

4:00 is too easy for 1500m. He should target sub 3:50.

Pretty normal, no big jumps in the mile/1500 (bigger jumps in 10k). I think I broke 4:10 when I was about mid 20's and then a slow progression from there. My 800 PR is from when I was 21 and it never improved. I did a lot of research on the event and really wanted it and took that knowledge to my coaching.

Thanks guys. Appreciate the good messages. I'm about the same weight I was in college. I didn't completely quit running. I worked hard to figure out why I had chronic stress fractures. Few years later, I found the issue and it's cured. Now I really want to get at it. This isn't the first time though. I did come back and run 4:17 full mile post collegiately. I felt good, but real life got into the way and I could not continue the quality of training and anymore racing. I'm ready now though. I really want to give it a try.

I have already looked into Joe Rubio's 1500 guide. I thought it was put together pretty well. Thanks for mentioning it!

If I can make this happen, I'll certainly post about it.

What is your occupation? What's your work situation look like. Also are you in a major city or a suburb?

Four minutes.

I want you to run four minutes.

NO big city. I live in a smaller town in the North East. I work in an office setting for a company.

Break 4? I wish. It just seems so much harder now. I can't believe I ran so fast in high school. Just doing 200's today in 31 seemed crazy. I've run low 420's last year when I was training a bit...and thinking of getting under 4:10 seems impossible.