For the summer leading into my sophomore season, I did not run 1 mile, as I was not on the team. For my first race, I ran 19:05 for 3 miles; 17:27 at Newton Park a week later, and 16:48 3 days later.
I believe that each week of training I was able to put in, I was in hence, putting in my summer miles. Just happened to be races along the way.
By May, when I ran 9:21.7 (yards), it had been almost 9 months of running. Then over the next 3 months (June, July and August), I loggede 1013 miles (although, probably only 800's as all my courses were short.
To give recommendations:
1. Long run, once per week. Long run is any run over 45 minutes
2. Do the training your coach asks you do do.
3. Use races and double races on the same day as a strength building day. Don't be concerened about how fast you run, but know you are getting strong.
js