Journey to a school record 1600m

I want to become a 4:17 1600m runner wrote:

Info:

School record in 1600 is 4:18, I don't think I'm going to be running 4:12 though

16:15 5k guy in XC this year, down from 17:20 last year same course. Ran 4:37.9 for 1600 in track, didn't think it was a great season - did not work as hard as I should've over the winter and only improved 5 seconds from sophomore year

Last week's workouts:

7 mile tempo 5:54 pace, very hilly, true tempo effort

13.5 miles 6:46 pace just cruising not super hard, also very hilly

My strength has vastly improved, I did a 4 mile tempo at 5:57 pace on this same trail at the start of outdoor last year before I ran 4:37.9

Last week was a good one, not racing in indoor so first race will be outdoor in late February/early march, trying to get to 70mpw. Wish me luck!

You will run 4:24.8. 4:17 is too far out of your range for this spring. Good luck though.

I think that would be a great prediction from an outside perspective, however, you are wrong. I intend to open my season in about that range. My first semester is done and now I don't have to worry about grades, I'm currently pouring 100% into running and am already having breakthroughs, so I intend to make a larger than normal jump. I've wanted this record for years and I'm going to get it, I should've been much faster than 4:38 last year anyways as it was just all around a mental train wreck year.

Synopsis of my running "career"

8th grade joined XC and was a turtle, 12:50 3k in XC or something, but trained some over the winter and ran 5:17. Was very happy with this

9th grade, overall a below average year. In XC, only managed to go sub 20 once (19:4x) - was hoping for more, but things just didn't pan out. 5:00.3 1600 in spring, not improving a ton despite more training, which looking back wasn't optimal... and I had other things going on in my life.

10th grade, my best full year of running (not counting 12th since I'm in it) - training got a lot "better" and more serious, lost a little weight, ran 18:00 in XC (4:54 1600 TT w/ awful splits) and 4:42 in track. Still obviously my 5k time is very slow, but I suppose I'm just not an XC person, my 5k is always significantly comparatively slower even when factoring in XC and additional training before track. That said, still a >100 second PR from year to year.

11th grade I had high hopes for coming off of sophomore year but only managed 17:20 in cross (had a crappy 1600 TT in 4:59), then quite honestly just lost motivation to train super hard, I didn't finish a lot of workouts that winter when they got tough, but somehow managed to improve a little by running 4:37.9 in April.

12th grade, had a baller XC season consistently running 16:30 on a multitude of courses before ultimately dropping 16:15 in my last race in poor conditions, but I gave it everything I had so I think it is a PR representative of what I was capable of. 4:32 1600m time trial w/ decent splits but all by myself, and I was tired going in. There were other people but I went to the front immediately and won by 20 seconds, my school sucks at running this year.

In other words, my 5k PR is 3:30 faster than it was freshman year where I went on to run 5 flat that spring - I think that is pretty noteworthy. Additionally my times mostly correspond, I had a big jump sophomore XC and an equally large jump in my freshman to sophomore 1600 PR's, then junior year only improved 40 seconds in XC and 5 in track

I'll continue to post my training - XC ended a month ago and I didn't take a week off, went straight to base building and am now doing tempos, hill repeats, quality long runs. I'm about to start doing my core regimen again which I've slacked on, and do something I've never done before in plyometrics. January I'll resume the interval stuff, starting with things like 8-12 by 1k moving into 400-800m repeats in february or so. I run 7 days/week and I plan to do an easy double 3 times/week. I've always trained about 40mpw in the winter on 6 days so this is a huge jump.

I've posted here before under different names, but I haven't used my registered handle in a long time because I've a) been trying to stay off letsrun and not overthink things and b) and too lazy to write a log every week... but that changes now. Here's to the beginning of a fun journey... not looking for a "predict 1600m this spring" but this is more just a fun log as yet another data point and to follow some hopefully fairly impressive improvement.

Cheers to all and another for those who also train by themselves!

Don't listen to that jabroni. You can for sure do it.

I went from 2:03-1:52 in one years time, and it's not as if I wasn't training hard the year before. Just be consistent.

What kind of speed do you have?

55.8 400m so pretty average, not really a speedster, which is a literally surprising given my lack of XC ability. I've always raced the 1600 abnormally well for my abilities at other distances

I want to become a 4:17 1600m runner wrote:

55.8 400m so pretty average, not really a speedster, which is a literally surprising given my lack of XC ability. I've always raced the 1600 abnormally well for my abilities at other distances

You might wanna aim for sub 53.

Keep working at it and good luck!

I think you are on route to the 4:17, just work hard and keep believing in yourself.

Keep up the consistent running and you will do your best. Don’t attach yourself to a time too much, for your emotional sake. You can do it

Good luck dude, I’ll be rooting for you!

Do you have a strava?

Highlights from the last 3 ish weeks:

Slow hilly 20 miler on New Year’s Eve just for the hell of it, about 8 minute pace

12x1 minute STEEP hill, got the hip flexors sore

3x(4x400) today 1 minute rep rest 3 minute set rest. On my own in trainers. Great workout, felt great. Averaged 68, all reps but the first one which was 70 were 68 or 69. It was pretty hard. Last year could only manage 10x400 72 1 min recovery in late January

7 mile hilly tempo 5:54 pace

Comfortable 13 miler 6:42 pace

Felt like crap for a solid 8 days other than this and didn’t get much work in

2 more workouts:

10 mile hilly tempo in 59:30 (5:57 pace) really happy about this one

5 mile hilly tempo at 5:37 pace, also very happy about this one

Again, these are true tempo efforts. They’re fairly hard but I’m in no way racing these.

i think you can do it. your endurance appears very good from your tempos and workouts. might need some work on the basic speed though. as another poster said, sub 53 400 would be a good start.

flying 30s, extended to 60s, 80s, 100s, 150s...

Thanks. Endurance has always been a weak point for me so I’m really cranking the hilly strength stuff this winter. I do strifes after easy runs and sometimes do stuff like 5x60m all out with full recovery. I’d like to be around 52-53 for 400 ideally. I’m also about to start a plyometrics program so hopefully that will boost me even more

Highlights from the past three weeks:

6x800m hill jog down recovery avg 2:58, did 5x800 up this same hill avg 3:18 two years ago the year I ran 4:42

5x1200m 2 min recovery on flat 1200m loop average 3:44

Two weeks of not running much due to issues in personal life

16:36 5k tempo (pretty flat), 5 min recovery, 8x200 on 60 seconds recovery average 31

I predict a 4:20 but you could run close to 15 flat for 5k.

That would be incredible... maybe next fall or spring, but I have a longer shot goal of 9:20 for 3200m which would still leave me pretty short of 15:00. Here’s to hoping!

4.4 mile hilly, rainy tempo with soaked trainers and dodging puddles... 5:33 pace

8x800m on hilly-ish trail, 90 second recovery, average 2:33

10 mile tempo before school in 59:55 - felt really lethargic and just not good

good work on that tempo. those longer tempos really make you fit, and make shorter LT repeats feel easier. I can attest.