Breaking 11

run more, swim and lift less.

alan webb was a swimmer turned runner. you know how he turned out. crank up the mileage and leave the swimming alone for the season. you have plebty of time to swim summer meets.

I disagree with all of these guys, if you only have about 3 wks, then bumpong up your mileage from 20mpw to say 50mpw will hurt you.

You are not used to the impact of hitting the ground for miles and miles. I say hit your track workouts hard, and keep moving your mileage slowly up, try 5 a day.

Also, try pool running or swimming just for fun, or drills in the pool.

The last thing I have to say is play ultimate frisbee, do something fun aerobic, with good turn over.

My high school team played Ultimate all the time, and we turned out to be conference, state, and new england champions.

Good Luck

You are stupid to take the pace out that fast especially if you just want to break 11:00, you did not start slowly dieing after the mile but the first 400 meters which was insanly fast. your lap splits were like 70,81,then prolly 89,91 and slower and slower.You might have the fittness to break 11:00 since you can run at least a 2:30 800, but you got to pace yourself evenly 81-82 second laps from the start.

I agree....instead of taking it out in 70 take it out in 80-82. that would get you between a 10:40-10:56.

I've got about 7 weeks left not 3. Should I try to up my mileage to around 30-35?

yes. train your butt off over the summer and through the fall. make a commitment. i think you can crack 10 min next year with good training and natural body growth. good luck!

We know little about your background. What year are you in school? Were you new to swimming this winter?

Let me suppose that you are a sophomore in HS, and that you have at least several years background in swimming. This is a bit of a leap on my part since your post doesn't indicate this, yet you seem to have some athletic drive (guts). You're new to the sport, certainly new to an eight lap race, and you went out with the leaders. That is good.

Please disregard the first response to your question. He is an impetuous 15 year old punk (most 15 year olds are not punks) with some apparent talent, but no humility. He thinks he is bright. I think so, too. He is definitely careless with his use of our language. I do hope he exceeds his stated goals for this season and continues on to do great things as an athlete and person. He does not know enough to comment on your situation.

If my suppositions are close, do not change much. This is a game of patience and time. I am an advocate of lifting and swimming. The lifting should be more of a circuit training regimin, as opposed to power oriented. It should be full-body (working both the upper body and legs). Orient the swimming to distance free. No kickboard, no pull-buoys, just swim. The cardiovascular enhancement you can get from swimming is amazing, and it does carry over to running. If you can three or four stroke/ breath, do it. But, your primary game is running now. The other activities must be secondary and designed to further your running.

If you are 15 or younger, 25-30 miles/ week will be fine for now. Maintain what you are doing. Be confident. Go out slower next time, hopefully running your last mile faster than your first. Running 1600 and 800 races will help you run a better 3200. Run consistently through the summer. Do not beat yourself up each day; just train. Each day is money invested in the stock market, athletically. Don't miss a day. You will be pleased with your progress seven weeks from now. You will be amazed where you can be by this October.

All the best to you.

Why can't he use a pull buoy? You maintain good body balance w/ a pull buoy.

You maintain great body balance with pull-buoys. I love them. They allow you to focus on your stroke, especially when using paddles (you can't pull out too soon). They also make you lazy if over utilized. For our purposes, developing a better runner, I will advocate straight free. It is a better full-body integrated workout. That said the forward propulsion break-down is probably 90% upper body, 10% lower body. One is definitely working harder without pull-buoys as opposed to with them. Try 1000 with them and 1000 without. It doesn't matter which you do first. You know which is harder. My advocacy stems from aerobic development...

what's your background? are you a coach? triathlete?

the first reply was right if this guys primary goal is to run fast. why swim and lift if your main goal is to run? the best way to get better at running is to do just that, RUN. now if he has other aspirations in swimming and such then i can see implementing workouts in the pool. lifting should still be optional.

20 miles per week isn't going to do shit for you.

Swimmer turned runner wrote:

I took it out with the lead pack in 70, 2:30, and 5:31, and then I started slowly dieing.

You started to slow down well before that point. You could probably run 11:20 right now if you ran smart. Try going out in 85/2:50/5:40 range.

As for getting faster...with 6-7 weeks left, your best bet is to increase the length of your longest run 1 mile per week until you get to 10 miles. Also, run a sustained 4 mile tempo once a week at ~6:15/mile.

I'm new to the 3200m race in track. I swam during the winter and wanted to try something new with track. I have run an 11:45 so far. I took it out with the lead pack in 70, 2:30, and 5:31,

You need to get much, much better/smarter at pacing yourself. As others pointed out, you were actually running pretty slowly after the second lap (you averaged 90 seconds/quarter in laps 3-4, that's on pace for 12:00).

You haven't said much about your training, but I'd suggest there isn't much you can do about increasing milage at this stage. Run almost every day of the week, that should get you about 25-30 miles. Don't try to do more than that. Cut back on other exercise, it's counter productive. Better to go for an easy run than a swim.

I think the most important thing is to focus on being consistent your speed work. I'd suggest two workouts: (1) goal-pace intervals: 800m reps at goal pace (2:45 or so), jog 400m between each rep. Do 5 of these. On the first rep, check your watch at the 200m mark to make sure you're not starting too fast. Do the first one at 2:30 and you'll blow the workout. The second workout: steady-paced 5k tempo run. Do this on a track so you can check yourself on pace, and start by trying to hit each lap in 96 seconds. Don't go all-out on this workout -- it should be hard but controlled, it should feel like the first half of a race.

Another point -- 2 workouts may be better than 1. Don't get into the trap of thinking that 3 must be even better, and 4 must be better still. But it's not. Beyond a certain point it increases injury risk without providing much additional training effect. So get in those two workouts consistently, bust your ass on the goal pace intervals, but

go EASY on your easy days (jog your easy runs at about 8 minutes per mile).

Good luck.

I'm actually 18 years old and a senior, also a male. I'm not really that new to the running scene as I've ran cross country since my freshman year. I had some severe asthma and was told that exercise could help it out. I also ran track my frosh year, running about 15 mpw. I went from a 25:33 5k to a 21:36 and I ran track where I ran a 6:04 1600 and a 2:30 800. My summer before my sophomore year I really started to train. I overdid it, running hard about every day. I had a major hip injury that kept me out of track and cross country. The hip also put an end to my junior campaigns. Last summer, before my senior year, I ran off and on but swam quite a bit to remain fit. I had my best season, running 18:51, still only doing about 25 mpw or less. This was my first year of swimming and I did pretty decent at it, swimming a 2:20 200yd free and a 6:50 500yd free. I think I may do a little better at the 800/1600 meters as we do a lot more speed oriented work in practice rather than hills and strength work. I've had a very depressing athletic experience until my senior year and I hope to run some good times to end on a good note.

Bump

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there's nothing else to say.. just run the race as even as possible. Try hitting 83's every lap & dig in hard the last 800. See what happens from there.