I'm hoping to break through in cross country this year and I was wondering if anyone could tell me what I could do to better improve my training and/or give me an indication of what to expect for results.
Last summer I trained 60 mpw for 6 weeks around 7:00 pace and ran 28:13 for 8k. I ran tempo runs of about 5 miles at 6:30 pace.
This summer I have worked my way up to 70 mpw, having done some 5 mile tempo runs around 30 minutes give or take a minute. I ran some repeat miles on a cross country course with a friend of mine in 5:30, 5:25, 5:19 with 1 minute rest. I even lowered my 5k pr this summer from 16:57 to 16:25.
My other prs include a 4:04 1500m and a 1:57 800m
I'd really like to break 27 minutes this fall, but I'm not sure if that's realistic or not. Any thoughts/suggestions?