My Quest for sub 16

You have absolutely no speed

Running aerobically can only get you so far.

Do more speed work and hill repeats

Let him post his training before you guys aimlessely say "more speed" "omg ur slow". Yeah maybe sprint workouts can be included, but I'm sure he needs to keep or improve his endurance workouts.

Your PR's are interesting because your 800m is a little slow compared to other times...your mile and 3200m are comparable...and your 5K is quite slow. But for all I know, the 5K is XC and the other times are on the track...in which case, it's apples and oranges.

Ignore the references to "no speed" which is absolute nonsense. Just post your training and see what kind of feedback you get.

By the way...these are brilliant times for someone going into their sophomore year of HS. You are doing really, really well...so take what people say with a grain of salt.

July 2-8

Sunday= off

Monday= 6.01mi @6:43

Tuesday= 6.01 @6:28

Wednesday= 2mi warm up

4mi tempo @5:35 1mi cooldown

Thursday= .67mi warmup

7.05mi @6:41

Friday= 5.04mi @6:42

Saturday= AM 6.36mi @6:46

PM 3.11mi @6:46

Weekly total= 41.25mi

Thank you for your support but I must admit my speed in the 800 is lacking when compared to my other times. Also I forget to mention that my 16:33 5k is from xc which is why it seems slower than my other times.

You seem to have a pretty solid schedule. I would say work in a long run, but you probable have that planned for later on in the summer. Instead of that double on saturday it may benefit you to take the long run, or go for a medium-long steady state (7-10 miles @6:00-6:20 pace).

Other than that make sure you're doing the things off the track too. Core, plots, weights, nutrition, sleep are all very important in cross country and track. You seem to have a decent grasp so just stay consistent and keep us updated! Best of luck!

Your "easy" days are not easy enough. You should have 6-10mile runs in the 7-7:30 range.

I agree, easy days should be slightly easier

Like your Saturday short double.. I think 8miles at 7 pace is a better stimulus than what you ran. I am learning that easy days should be easssssy so you can run hard on hard days.

Dude you literally have to do nothing other than go to XC and just train pretty normally. Theres no "quest". Unless something is wrong with you, most HS kids improve by a significant amount each year in XC. Literally the amount of extra testosterone you get from the age of 14 to 15 to 16 to 17 and the growth in your muscles, height, bone density, etc. will get you below 16:00. What "quest" ? It's automatic

The amount of mileage per week is good but do more LSD runs. 8-11 mi

It works on your endurance for slow twitch muscle fibers.

Also add one or two shorter days with a lot of speed work.

Try doing Intervals at goal 5k pace.

400m, 800m, 1200m, 1600m, 1200m, 800m, 400m

If your goal is 16:00 minute 5k

Do

400m- 75 sec

800m- 2:32

1200m- 3:50

1600m- 5:05

Take a min. or min. and a half rest in between.

Do a mile warm up and a mile cool down.

Make sure to work hard at it but not to over train.

yah dude your easy run pace should be 7:00-7:40

July 9-15

Sunday= off

Monday= 7.46mi @6:44

Tuesday= 5.85mi @7:02

Wednesday= Am 5.01mi @6:32

Pm 3.13mi @6:40

Thursday= 7.04mi @6:29

Friday= 2mi warmup 4.01mi tempo @5:44

2mi cooldown

Saturday= 9mi @6:45

Weekly total 45.5mi

Thanks for all the advice I'm working on making my easy runs slower so I can really do after it on the hard days.

dude what wrote:

Dude you literally have to do nothing other than go to XC and just train pretty normally. Theres no "quest". Unless something is wrong with you, most HS kids improve by a significant amount each year in XC. Literally the amount of extra testosterone you get from the age of 14 to 15 to 16 to 17 and the growth in your muscles, height, bone density, etc. will get you below 16:00. What "quest" ? It's automatic

+1, just don't do anything stupid and get injured or burn out during summer training and you should get your sub 16 during the fall.

There's this kid who competes in my division who brags on instagram about running these frankly very impressive times early in the summer, and then he shows up to the first couple of meets and DFL's them. Then he imporves a little by states and does mediocrily.

Don't be like him. Run respectably in the summer, get a base in, save your good running for the competitive season.

fr3ed2 wrote:

I agree, easy days should be slightly easier

This was my first thought. Aim for about 7:15 (or slower) for your easy days. You could run your easy days at 8:00 and literally get all the same benefits as 6:40. 6:40 pace is just making you tired, so your body cant realize the gains that you should be getting from your workout days. Ive read plenty of people say that they finally started getting faster when they slowed down their easy runs