HS Girl- Help Me Improve!!

increase miles very very carefully, and i wouldnt recommend you getting up to 60 or even to much above 50 and a few strides a few days a week will go a long way

Do you recommend doing most of my base at a medium pace (8:40s) or slow pace (9:30s) or somewhere in between?

Whatever easy is, it will change depending on the day

Gotta practice above your goal pace a little in the volume you do.

Get on a sleep schedule if you are not on one.

Aim high and don't apologize. Go for it. Not kidding. Try to get some help. It's hard to do alone..

Keep it simple. The basis of a good summer program are:

- Doubles

- 1 x tempo

- 1 x hilly run

- 1 x long run of 8-15mi

- strides on the grass.

Since your current mileage is low, I'd start the habit of doubling to build up to 45-50mpw over say 8 weeks. You can add in tempos and hilly runs after 6 weeks. Do strides every day. Keep easy runs comfortable. You will be tired when you double, but it will pass. Pay attention to niggles and aches. Get setup with a maintenance routine and take care of yourself. Be patient and good luck!

Kruppe wrote:

Keep it simple. The basis of a good summer program are:

- Doubles

- 1 x tempo

- 1 x hilly run

- 1 x long run of 8-15mi

- strides on the grass.

Since your current mileage is low, I'd start the habit of doubling to build up to 45-50mpw over say 8 weeks. You can add in tempos and hilly runs after 6 weeks. Do strides every day. Keep easy runs comfortable. You will be tired when you double, but it will pass. Pay attention to niggles and aches. Get setup with a maintenance routine and take care of yourself. Be patient and good luck!

Thanks! This seems like a good plan to me.

I would suggest speeding up your regular runs. I took my runs from 8:30 to 7:15 min mile pace and my 5k Xc time dropped by a minute. And also try to get up to 40mpw.

Ddsgkgffhb wrote:

I would suggest speeding up your regular runs. I took my runs from 8:30 to 7:15 min mile pace and my 5k Xc time dropped by a minute. And also try to get up to 40mpw.

This bro got it right. Gotta watch that volume though and don't speed up every run always. Increasing miles and intensity at the same time doesn't turn out so good.

Definitely watch the injuries and don't train through them.

Good advice here. I agree...most importantly get the mileage up in the summer. If you can add in hills that's great. If your body feels like its too much, skip the hills, the mileage alone will greatly help you.

You'll get the speed during the season, so the most important thing is strength in the summer which is where the mileage and possibly hills will help.

Trial of miles miles of trials wrote:

This fall is my senior XC season. I'm not particularly fast but I want to do as well as I can (given my mediocrity as far as talent goes) I begin summer base building in 2 weeks. My peak race is in late October.

1) what is a good goal to shoot for next XC season?

2) how many miles per week should I do in a summer of Malmo style program to reach this goal?

This is me:

5k times of 25ish freshman year, 24ish sophomore year, 22 junior year (I know I suck). I hit 22 on about 30 mpw last season. I ran a 6:10 mile in track this spring off of 35 mpw. I was thinking sub-21 would be a good goal. Is this too big of a leap to make?

You don't suck. You are on the brink of being an above-average runner.

The best things you can do (ranked by priority) are:

1) Be consistent - no big jumps and run every day that you plan to, but don't be a hero and listen to your body

2) Don't race your workouts

3) Make sure you do a long run weekly or at least every other week. By September, see if you can get it up to 9-10 miles regularly.

4) Run hills regularly. Start fast and short with plenty of rest. Gradually get longer. Always keep the rest long enough to repeat at the same intensity.

5) Increase your volume - I think you can safely get up to the upper 30s/low 40s per week by the end of the summer.

I like a typical early week for my female athletes in your situation to look something like this:

M - 7 total (usually a fartlek - 1' on 2' off - start easy and get faster)

T - 6 - easy

W - 7 - timed 6 mile run on a familiar route (run a little faster than an easy run, but keep it moderate)

Th - 7 - hill repeats

F - 5 - very easy

S - 10 - long run (some weeks keep it easy, others can be a fast finish)

You definitely have the potential to drop some more time. Focus on staying consistent with your summer running and the times should take care of themselves. I'd aim for 40-45 mpw over the summer. I like to keep summer running pretty moderate in effort, with easy runs in the 8:45-9:15 range for someone of your ability. That will naturally move down as your fitness progresses but don't force it. Make sure you get in a long run (increase by about a mile a month) and 1-2 days a week of threshold work (tempos, fartleks, progression runs). Remember that the goal of summer training is to come out fit and healthy, not necessarily race ready.

Once every two weeks add in an economy workout. 8-10 200s at mile pace with 200m jog recovery. It should feel like an easy workout. That will improve your running economy and make it more comfortable to run at faster paces

A 6:10 miler should be able to run 6:50/mile for 5k if somewhat aerobically developed.

That means sub21:30 right now.

It is May. You have all summer to build your mileage base much larger. Since you're only doing 30, you can probably hit 40 for peak mileage in September safely. 50 will be a small reach but it is doable if you are cautious. Beyond that is probably asking for season-ending injuries.

I would minimize race pace workouts now. I bet you get quite a few of those during the season. Do you do tempo work? Or mostly race pace fast stuff like 400 repeats?

My advice is to focus on your daily pace as your mileage builds. Keep it close to the beginning of the threshold spectrum...

Take 1600 time and add 90s. That is a good target pace for most of your runs. If you're feeling bogged down, go as slow as 2 minutes slower. Once in a while dip down to only 80s slower.

This would mean roughly 7:40 to 8:10 for your typical runs. This IS manageable if you've really run 6:10 and you're coming back with low mileage initially. Then add small amounts of mileage every two weeks or so. We use roughly .75 miles.

So our girls come back around 3 miles every other day. Then 3 miles for 5-6 days in week 2.

Then we do this:

Bump to 3.75-4.00 miles for 2 weeks. Then 4.5-5.00 miles for 2 weeks. At this point some girls will hold that mileage a little longer if it is closer to their peak run. Better safe than sorry.

In the meantime, one run per week is a long run. This is the only run we do that is for time instead of distance. We start with a time that is roughly 5 minutes longer than their current daily run time.

Most girls take about 28-34 minutes to run 4 miles in our program, so we begin with a 37 minute long run. Then increase by 7-8 minutes per week until we hit 60. Thereafter we only increase by 5 minutes per week and we cap freshmen at 75 minutes and everyone else around 90 minutes.

You might want to start at 30 minutes and simply add 5 minutes per week.

We also will begin adding long broken tempos in mid-July. Our "speed" sessions are short hill sprints at the end of a daily run. We also mix in a few 1-minute pickups at the end of a long run since there are some fast twitch benefits to be had at this time. We don't do that until we're past 60 minutes, though.

I know this is a bit jumbled, but I think you will find that your times drop drastically if you become better aerobically.

All great advice, just wanted to add two ideas to your head.

You sound very similar to me at that age. Probably 30-35 mi/wk, around 60 / 2:27 / 5:45 / 22:30 [5k xc] by the time I graduated. (I had a terrible coach for what it's worth -- well, I thought the world of him at the time, but in retrospect he was terrible and later arrested for domestic battery and child porn... but that's a story for another day).

The two concepts that I failed to understand in high school were (1) running relaxed instead of strained, and (2) running through fatigue and pain. These suddenly clicked into place for me in college. After seeing that the fast women were not somehow magical and beyond pain, I "got it" and I dropped under 20 for 5k within a year, off training not much more advanced from what I did in high school. I was never a great runner, but man I wish I had figured that stuff out in the high school. It was a complete mind game.

So... focus on learning how to keep your stride quick and relaxed during workouts, and understand that the girls ahead of you are there mostly because they've learned how to learn to roll with the fatigue better. Decide that you genuinely ought to be up with them -- get in there, stay relaxed, and hang on.

If you want to improve, I will work with you. I assisted Bradley Harkrader,, Angel Tolev and a couple of ladies who improved as well. I am an Arthur Lydiard style coach who had assisted some runners in qualifying for the Olypic marathon trials. If you want more information as to what I might suggest, email me at

runmore@rmi.net

. Good running,

Glenn

You've got some great advice on here for the most part. I read all of it.

*Read all you can on Arthur Lydiard on the internet while realizing that

he was often misquoted. It is also true that everyone is different and a good coach knows how to adjust workouts.

XXX. Avoid over training by doing too many tempo, hard intervals, or races!

Some posters on here suggested running some or all of your training runs fast! That is a recipe for disaster. The rule of thumb is to be able to talk at a conversation pace for most of your runs. Your pace will get faster over time.

+ Do one speed development workout per week. Some sprint coaches do not know what this means! Arthur Lydiard had his athletes do this all year.

Speed is the most difficult thing to build in an athlete, so it is important to be consistent. 2:04 marathoner Ryan Hall used to do at least one speed development workout per week. He was coached by his father in high school.

What is a speed development workout?

This is where you do runs of 80 meters or less at varying degrees of the VO2 MAX (Your top speed) As with anything you have to start slowly.

Perhaps the first day would look like this:

Slow mile jog, dynamic running drills, 6 x 50 meter strides

4 X 80 meters @ 80%, 85%, 90%, and 95% of VO2 Max.

4 x 50 meter strides, mile jog. Static Stretching.

Follow this with a recover day run of 2-6 miles very easy.

Later you can (SLOWLY and GRADUALLY) add more sprints, or

short hills, rope jumping, Fast Dynamic Running Drills, Plyometrics, and

etc. You have to take this seriously and progress slowly with the number of repetitions and intensities!!!

But you do need a coach to watch you. Talk to him/her and tell them

what you think you need. Communicate how you feel about your progress. You are already a good runner or you would not be running. It is crucial that you feel good about yourself!

I've been in the sport for 46 years as a runner, coach, and writer. However there is a lot to learn, and even more to learn about life. You cannot separate the two!

Jed Clampett (A very simple man, but one with common sense!)

Summer training went well. I peaked at 47 miles but most of my weeks in august were spent at 35-40. I had a decent season opener last week of 23:37. I have talked with my coach and he thinks that I am due for a breakthrough soon, based on the summer I put in. My stride has gotten more efficient and powerful, and my breathing has become much more controlled and effortless. Thanks for all advice. I took most of it into account. I will continue to bump after each race this season.

Great! We're all rooting for you. Have a great season.

Ok! Good luck, have fun and wish you the best!