Hey guys. Im a 14 year old runner who has been running for fun for about a year, doing around 2 leisure miles 2-3 times a week; never doing any speedwork before. I've recently started to take a more competitive/serious view on running, and successfully dropped my mile time for a 07:41 to 07:07 in just 2 weeks of training.
Do you have any tips/advice to offer? What kind of weekly mileage do you recommend? Any speedwork ideas?
Thanks
How much are you looking to drop your time, and what gender are you?
Im male, and I want a sub 6 by the end of the year ( if possible ?)
Its really important to do speed work at least 2 times a week. Do you live near a track? You could do interval training on a track, or even timing the intervals on a run. You should be running quite often, but don't rack up too many miles at once, trust me, I know. You don't want to burn out. I think that if you train well and add up the miles gradually, you could go sub 6 (depending on effort level and on how willing you are to stick with it!) Good luck!
Try running a bit more. Instead of 2 miles 2-3 times a week, work that up to 3-4 miles four times a week.
i_eat_fast wrote:
Its really important to do speed work at least 2 times a week. Do you live near a track? You could do interval training on a track, or even timing the intervals on a run. You should be running quite often, but don't rack up too many miles at once, trust me, I know. You don't want to burn out. I think that if you train well and add up the miles gradually, you could go sub 6 (depending on effort level and on how willing you are to stick with it!) Good luck!
How long should my rest be for a classic 10x400m session?
you are too young to be doing "10x400m" sessions. at 7+ mins per mile, you clearly don't have any aerobic capacity. go out and hit the roads and get good, easy mileage in and build up. only then can you worry about speed.
Just run more. Anything over 6 minutes for a 14 year old is really slow to be completely honest and objective. You're obviously not in great shape so just run a lot and you'll get there. Absolutely do not worry about speedwork because it is without a doubt your endurance that holds you back.
Swag Lord wrote:
it is without a doubt your endurance that holds you back.
This.
More miles is the only way at this point. That doesn't mean you can't throw in some hill workouts or fartleks here and there to break the monotony. If you need specific advice on how to build mileage I'm sure someone more qualified than me could chime in.
My 12 year old just ran his first mile race. He doesn't run except for a few times a year, but he did play baseball this Spring. He ran a horribly paced 6:40 (3:05 at 809m).
What was your activity level like before the 2 weeks of training? Were you pretty sedentary? If so, then I say just keep doing what you are doing at the time will fall off. Don't start doing too much or you will likely hurt yourself.
No speedwork required, 20-30mpw should be enough.