Sub5Hopeful wrote:
Hello all. I've bit of a long story to share with you.
I first started running in the fall of 2016. It was my sophmore year of high school, and I needed a P. E. credit desperately. So, I joined the cross country team.
Actually, calling it a team is a bit of a stretch. I go to an inner-city school where long distance running is simply not appreciated. The coach was ecstatic when I expressed my interest. At the time, one freshman boy and one senior girl comprised the entire team. The coach, though a nice man, knew very little about running. That season, our mileage probably peaked at around 15 miles per week. I consistently ran 24 minutes for 5km, regardless of the course that season. At our final meet I achieved a personal best at the time of 23:08.
I grew to enjoy running, but I had no intention of running track in the spring. The girl I ran cross country with was adamant that I join the team, however. (The freshman had joined the wrestling team.) I timidly asked the coach if I could do long jump, but he took one look at me (5' 8" and 120 pounds at the time) and said that I would be running with distance. By "running with distance" he meant being the only male distance runner. So I ran. Three events every meet: 800m, 1600m, and 3200m. Due to the sprint-focused nature of our track program, I was only ever running 5-10 miles per week.
Here are my PRs for that season:
800 2:54
1600 6:10
3200 14:17
I know. I was very slow.
I ran cross country again in the fall. This time, we (It was still just me and the one other guy. The girl had graduated.) had a new coach, but he was just as clueless as the last one. he only signed us up for four meets. At our final meet I ran 21:43.
I decided to do track again, and I was determined to improve. A lot. I bumped my mileage up to 20-25 miles per week during the winter. I'm still running about that now. This season we now have a total of four male distance runners. None of us are very good, though.
I started out the season with these times:
800 2:38
1600 5:55
3200 12:46
In my most recent meet I ran:
800 2:30
1600 5:28
3200 12:18 (This would be faster, but every meet I have to run the 4x800, 1600, 800, and 3200 in that order.)
So, my question for you all is: can I break 5 minutes for the 1600 my senior year? I am willing to bring up mileage a lot this summer and train hard in both my off seasons.