My daughter runs currently 6 minute flat mile but just 22:38 5K. By a lot of race estimators a 6 minute/mile runner should run 5K at or slightly below 20:00. Can anyone give me some specific training tips for her to improve her 5K time? She is currently running around 20~30 mpw with a lot of speed work at school.
Thanks.
More mileage. Another 10 miles a week should help.
Manaslu wrote:
My daughter runs currently 6 minute flat mile but just 22:38 5K. By a lot of race estimators a 6 minute/mile runner should run 5K at or slightly below 20:00. Can anyone give me some specific training tips for her to improve her 5K time? She is currently running around 20~30 mpw with a lot of speed work at school.
Thanks.
Run more miles and put away the stupid calculators.
Cut out the speed work for now and do more tempo work / unorganized fartlek runs with some strides and short hill sprints sprinkled in. She needs to work on her aerobic conditioning. Over the next year build her up to running 45-60 minutes per day.
Take contact with JS. He will fix it. I`m sure!
Just to help us help you:
- Is that a 5k XC time?
- Is that 6 min flat actually a mile or is it a 1500?
-Is that 6 min mile on the track?
- If the 5k was XC in the fall, what was her training like over the summer and into the season?
- Describe the speedwork, and what her regular run paces are?
Pics?
She will be garbage if she doesn't immediately start running 100 mpw. This is the key to her success, if she doesn't follow this she will trail behind her peers and amount to nothing in the sport.
For now she s at 20-30 mpw and that is why she is slow, that is not a huge aerobic base. Get her to around 50-60 mpw with a long run of 16-17 miles over the course of a hear, it is very important that you do this gradually and safely otherwise she may end up ill, anemic or injured. 3-4 mile runs at 7:15-7:30 pace will help, as will 6-7 mile runs at 8:00pace. I doubt she can go sub 6 in the mile right now, realistically she is probably around 6:20 so get her doing some 100s, 200s, 300s and 400s at sub 6 pace so she gets the hang of that sub 6 feel. 1 speed workout a week.
She should do her mileage at an easy pace so for her, around 9:30.
6 minute mile is going to be closer to 21 minutes for 5k.
Younger runners generally have less endurance so that may be a factor.
Another factor is poor pacing. Most younger runners run too fast the first mile and get much slower as the race goes on.
Assuming she can run 21 minutes, that is 6:45 pace. On a flat course, she should run the first mile about 6:50. The second mile should be 6:45 and the third 6:40.
If she is running her first mile 6:45 or slower and still slowing down, then she needs more endurance which means more miles/ week.
6 minute mile is nowhere close to sub-20:00, maybe on a track but she seems like she's a high school runner so that's probably an XC time. If she wants to improve her 5k, she can bump her mileage up to 30-40 mpw, but I wouldn't go much higher than that. At that age, mileage should be determined by grade, not time (20-25 for freshman, 30-35 for sophomores, 40-45 for juniors, 50-55 for seniors).
Thanks for the response. To answer your questions:
I took these numbers on local HS outdoor track.
1 mile is 4 laps plus 9 meters.
5K is 12 and half laps.
She trained last summer @ 15-20 mpw.
Her easy run pace is around 8.5~8.6 mpm.
She is in indoor track now and racing for a mile, I guess in school she did a lot of 400X intervals, hill, etc.
How old is your kid?
Thanks for the tips. I will find out her splits to see if this is the case.
she is 15.
More mileage always helps as the distance goes up.
But some people have a tough time pushing through the discomfort for so long. She may be capable of much faster than 6 minute mile, but backs off at the discomfort. This gets situation is compounded as the race gets longer. Hopefully this isn't the case.
Manaslu wrote:
Thanks for the response. To answer your questions:
I took these numbers on local HS outdoor track.
1 mile is 4 laps plus 9 meters.
5K is 12 and half laps.
She trained last summer @ 15-20 mpw.
Her easy run pace is around 8.5~8.6 mpm.
She is in indoor track now and racing for a mile, I guess in school she did a lot of 400X intervals, hill, etc.
Why is she racing a 5k on the track? Was this your idea?
Manaslu wrote:
she is 15.
As others have said, merely increasing volume would help quite a bit. More easy runs. Can you post a sample of her typical training? You want her to go faster, but how much does she enjoy running?
She is in indoor track now so we can't bump up the mileage. However she seems have no problem running 2 hours straight at easy pace if she has to ( we tried a couple of times). So I guess she needs to seriously increase her mileage in the spring/summer.
I would consider biking behind her while yelling into a megaphone.