3 month improvement

Age and running history? If this is your first time running, and you're already well into your 20s/30s, I would say the increase in mileage by itself won't cut it. Those 25-35mpw would have to be really quality miles.

To give you some perspective, running under 21 minutes for a 5K would qualify you for most high school state championships, and those girls are running a heck of a lot more than 25-35mpw and are younger and developing.

But then I know a girl who just started running in her mid-20s, does maybe 20mpw for the past year, does intervals every week, and ran a 45min 10K (she could probably run a 21 minute 5K right now), so talent definitely helps.

I started running 2 months for the first time and I'm going into my grade 10 year in high school. I think I'm pretty much done developing.

I could increase my mileage to around 40 and maybe peak at 45 but it would take a few weeks to get there. Would that be enough or would I have to go higher? They'll probably mostly be easy miles though because I heard you'll either burnout or peak too early if you start hard stuff too soon.

The girls on my team all ran 21 or lower for the 5k last year, and they only got up to about 35 miles per week. Getting down there in 3 months would be hard, and you risk injury if you do too many miles when you aren't ready.

FastAsDuck,

There's a huge difference between girls on your team who have probably been running 35mpw for several seasons now, and those 35mpw probably include some very tough interval/tempo workouts not to mention "racing themselves into shape" that occurs in the earlier meets in the season. And yeah, if the girls are content running in the high 19s or 20s, qualifying for states, and maybe running D3 or D2 if you're lucky level in college, 35mpw will be sufficient. But if the OP has bigger goals than that, aiming for either D1 (which will require mid to low 18s), got to put in the miles.

The OP just started running 2 months ago, and has a lot of catching up to do. I would recommend building up to about 50mpw of mostly slow running for the rest of the summer, but do 3 "hard" runs a week. By "hard" I mean, 1 fartlek, 1 shortish tempo run (maybe 1 mile easy followed by 2 miles hard followed by 2 miles easy) and 1 long run of around 8 miles each week. The rest of your miles should be spread around and in between these "hard" workouts - don't be afraid of 2-a-days. Don't go straight up to 50mpw mind you, go for a nice easy 10% increase in mileage per week, 50mpw should be the mileage you hit the last week of your summer before XC season starts.

Frankly, I would consider this fall's XC season a loss since you're really starting from a low point. Use that to get yourself into shape, then really hit the winter hard with building a solid base for track.

Make sure you eat well, lose some weight if you need to. After fall XC you will know whether you're talented enough to go further or whether running will be nothing more than a recreational sport for you.

Ok, I'm going to say something that will probably be a surprise to many of you here because USUALLY people don't have much room for improvement.

The OP though has only been running for a few weeks. Unless she was a soccer player who ran a ton playing soccer or some other such similar thing, being at 25 minutes already is pretty good and I could EASILY see her shaving 3+ minutes off that time in the next three months. Increasing the mileage to 35 MPW isn't even necessary (and actually could end in injury).

OP, if I were you, I would slowly increase to 25 MPW and then MAYBE get to 30 if you are still increasing it once the season starts. I think 35 is too much this year. After CC is over, take a week off and then start adding mileage. Run track if you want and then be ready next summer to do 45 MPW.

I've seen LOTS of girls run super slow times early on and then take 4+ minutes off during a season even...simply because they started running for the first time.

I think 3 minutes off is a reasonable goal.

I don't agree with this. Maybe you'll get up to 50mpw by the end of the summer, but probably not and trying to force it could definitely be risky. I feel like few people's bodies could handle such a quick ramp-up, mine definitely couldn't have when I had first started running.

I think maybe 30 miles per week is a reasonable guess for what would work well for you by the end of the summer...but honestly I think the more important advice is just to gradually build up. Be consistent, run every day, keep building and see where you can get. Do strides, consider running twice a day, run hard sometimes when you're feeling good, but remember that the summer is more about building a good base of steady mileage than about pushing workouts really hard (that will come later, during XC season). Maybe by the end of the summer you're running 30 miles a week, maybe 40, maybe even 50. But work hard, be consistent, and you'll definitely see big improvements.

Um, what? This doesn't make any sense. If you run consistently over the summer I think you'll see great improvements by the end of your XC season.

Good luck!

That's why I said build-up mileage using the (moronic) 10% increase per week guideline, and split into doubles and take the runs nice and easy.

Let's be honest here - 25 minutes for a 5k is a really slow time. Yes maybe OP is a very talented girl capable of much faster, but she has some major catching up to do. My guess is that she'll end up somewhere in the 23s, maybe 22s by the end of the season, assuming she is reasonably talented and takes well to the in-season training.

Let's be clear, 22s/23s as a sophomore is not a good time (maybe OP will feel good, maybe she'll make varsity, but she's completely off the "track" for running a time that will get her a college slot). After this she will only have 2 years left of running. To have any hope of running D1 or D2, you should be in the 19s your junior year, and break into the 18s your senior year. Going from 25 to 22 may seem like a big jump but it's not - it's just the difference between being out of shape to being in good shape. Going from 22 to 19 is a matter of talent and training. 19 to 18 is where they separate the college-bound athletes and the also-rans, and is intensely competitive at that level. Sure, some people are very talented and can get to 19 or 18 with minimal prior experience, then I've never seen a very talented runner run a 25minute 5k even with little training background.

We need to hear from OP what she wants out of running. If her goal is to continue running after high school, she needs to make some big changes to her training and plan for hitting a strong mark 1 year from now. Running a 23 or 22 5K as a sohpomore is meaningless if her goal is to run in college.

2/10

I agree with Flagpole. We don't know whether the OP will improve by 3-4 minutes or not, but it's definitely possible. And aiming for 25-35 mpw by the end of the summer seems like about the right range.

Thanks for all the replies.

I've already started building up mileage and I'm at 28 miles this week so I'm pretty sure I can at least get to 35 but wouldn't I get injured if I increased to 50mpw so fast?

And wouldn't my mileage be too low to run twice a day since then my runs will all be really short and have less benefit than if I just did one longer run?

As for my goals, I would want to run in college if I can become fast enough in time.

Well if your goal is to run in college, ignore everything that is written by the other responses here, as they seem to have no idea what running in college seems to entail or what it takes to get there.

You really only have 1 shot at this. Colleges start noticing you at the latest your junior year. Sure there are a few phenoms who appear out of nowhere in their senior year, but pretty much by the end of your junior year all the major prospects have been identified. Plus you will be making your college applications the fall of your senior year, so you have even less time than you think.

If you increase your mileage to 50mpw using the 10% rule, and splitting up most of your runs (other than your weekly long run) into doubles will significantly reduce your chances of injury. In my opinion, doubles are useful at ANY mileage. If you're only doing 25-25mpw, you would probably only do doubles on your "interval" workout days. At 35+ mpw, doubles can be used for not only your interval days, but also your tempo days. Since you're a fairly slow runner right now, the doubles will be fine because even an easy 3 mile run in the morning will take you quite some time to run, working your aerobic system for a sufficently long enough period.

But yeah, if you want to take the safe route, stick with 35 and "see how it goes" next year. After that you will only have 1 year left to get yourself into the 18s/19s to run at the college level, which frankly probably isn't going to happen. The girls who run in the 18s have been fast since they were freshman or sophomores.

I guess your final fall-back option is NCAA D3, because pretty much anyone can "walk-on" to the team. But I'm talking about scholarship, recruited athletes at D1 and D2 schools.

I ran a 25min 5k off of running 10-15mpw for a few weeks. Is it possible to shave 3-4 minutes off my time in 3 months if I increase my mileage to 25-35mpw?

Also, I'm a girl so I won't be physically maturing (or at least not in a way that'll benefit my running).[/quote]