Hey I'm a senior in high school and we're starting workouts this week. Our first meet is the first week of February but the first meet that actually matters is Districts in the first week of April. We've had a history of people burning out at the end of the season and people setting early PRs but not at the important meets.
For example, the first workout we're starting this week is 2x2000m (6:30 @ 5:12 mile pace) and 1x1000m (3:07 @ 5:00 mile pace) and I'm wondering if this kind of workout at this point in the season is too early and could lead to early peaking/burnout.
Other workouts we've done before in the early preseason are:
6x1000m @ 5:10 mile pace w/ 2 min rest.
5x800m @ 5:00 mile pace w/ 2 min rest
1600, 800, 1600, 800 @ 5:00 mile pace w/ 2 min rest
Workouts during season:
6x200m @ 28s and 200m jog recovery
8x400m @ 65 w/ 2 min rest
4x800m @ 2:20-2:26 w/ 2 min rest
2x(400, 300, 200) with 2 min rest between each rep and 4 min between sets @ (60s, 45s, 30s, 56s, 42s, 28s)
The team typically has a weekly mileage of 40-50 miles but I've been doing 60-75 miles a week with a weekly 15 mile long run on my own cause the coach lets us do whatever during base phase. I've recently (last week) added in some hill work for strength building (Lydiard hill bounding) and am thinking that would be a better way to go for the time being before implementing more serious intervals as I'm more of an 800/1600 guy.
I've read into a lot of training articles and am currently using "Liquori's Guide to the Elite Runner" Class A runner as a general guideline for base phase (pdf @
though I also have the book) . I'm wondering if I should just continue to carry out that schedule and train separately from the rest of the team, starting interval training (phase 3) the week of or before the first meet and not preparing to peak until the week of districts.
PRs:
800-1:58.9 (junior year)
1600-4:41 (only one race junior year)
3200-10:10 (raced once sophomore year)
3 mile-15:30 (XC on accurate course)
5k-16:30 (XC during Junior year. Struggled with consistency during Senior XC season and only good race was the 3 mile race above in the middle of the season)
Previous Experience:
Started Sophomore year. Training at 40-50 miles a week with 10-12 mile long run. All miles @ 6:30-6:50 during base phase and had various injury issues up until 2019 Summer base training. Senior year XC I went from #1 to #5 (the others didn't get better, I just got worse and multiple teammates also got worse towards the end) on team due to struggling with consistency and possible overtraining from being forced to race teammates during workouts (Coach thinks its good to give 105% in every workout).
Recent base phase (60-70 miles a week) I've just relaxed most runs with most runs at 6:45-7:30 depending on feel and the occasional progression run down to 5:40. Feel stronger than ever and would rather not do pointless workouts with the rest of the team where everyone just races and then kicks on the last rep straining all the way only to fall off in the second half of the season.
Summary of Questions:
Are the preseason and midseason workouts poor and likely to cause premature peaking and falloff in the latter half of the season?
Should I stick to the Liquori training guide?
Should I run with the other guys 40-50 miles a week with runs between workouts @ 6:30 pace or just maintain my 60-70 miles at a more relaxed pace between workouts (Basically just the Liquori Guide)
Last question is probably the least important and most useless: Time predictions?