Forums >Running 101>How to improve 2 mile/mile
I have just started running track competitively this spring as a junior, having an okay cross country experience behind me from fall and going to Nike Regional and a long winter filled with mileage and few tempo runs given by my coach to help me lower my time for cross next fall since it will be my last year. Previous to running I was a baseball player at heart but I moved toward running my freshman year with one year in winter track which I do not consider to be anything spectacular and one year of xc as a sophomore where I would come home and drink a can of Mountain Dew after every practice. Now that I'm running track and xc competitively this year, I only have one year to improve before I leave for college since I'm a junior. My coach is worried I will burn out putting in extra miles or increasing the pace during workouts but annoyed with my pr's in the mile 4:53 and two mile 11:00, I no I have a long way to go until I can qualify for anything on a national level. What extra things do I need to do to improve, I do core everyday and push-ups like my coach suggested but I can't go against my coach's workout since I'm in high school which people seem to neglect. Since I'm not born with this extreme running gift, I want to put in lots of effort to get to where I want to be, the unrealistic part of it my mind can counteract but I need the workout behind it as well. Sorry for the long background but I feel it's necessary to get an understanding of where I'm at and what I've accomplished in nearly one year, give or take, less.
What extra things do I need to do to improve, I do core everyday and push-ups like my coach suggested but I can't go against my coach's workout since I'm in high school which people seem to neglect.
Run lots; mostly easy and sometimes hard!
Seriously though, you have not given enough information about what you do for training currently, etc.
When I see a 4:53 and an 11:00 two mile though I wonder about endurance. That 4:53 converts a lot faster than 11 minutes...
And you can quote me as saying I was mis-quoted. Groucho Marx
Rob
Frankly, it sure seems many HS coaches are worried about burning kids out with mileage, yet see no issue with the tons and tons of speed work they do. Easy mileage, at least it was for me, was the least stressful thing, and quite enjoyable to do with friends and teammates. Most of us had a love-hate relationship with speed days because it meant lots of pain. Learning to love running, and mileage is one of the most important things you can do to develop as a distance runner.
As Herm* pointed out, run lots, mostly easy, sometimes hard. When it comes to training for XC, and since you're new to the sport, you will make your most and longest lasting improvements by gradually increasinng your mileage week over week, and month over month. Pick about 2 or 3 days out of every week and include some hard running. It could be short 2 to 5 minute segments as part of your run for one of the days, and the other hard day do continuous hard/brisk running for 20 to 30 minutes. For a 3rd hard day, do some hill sprints, working up to 8 to 10 sprints fromm 8s to 20s in duration. Also include a long run each week. On the one or two of the easy days, it's wise to include about 8 to 10 100meters strides (these aren't sprints -- they are short pick ups at 1 mile to 5K race pace) at the end of the run. To save time, and to ensure I don't do these too fast, I tend to include them in the later half of a daily run, and will do something like 20sec pickup, followed by 40s easy. If you run them too fast, you won't recover in that 40s.
I'd also encourage you to become a student of the sport. Most HS kids just blindly do what the HS coach says (which is understandable), but don't stop to think about the "why" of it.
Good luck! With some decent training over the summer, it's possible to surprise your coach late summer, early fall!
Based on the PM you sent me it sounds like you are hammering all the time.
In the week you described to me, you basically had 4 quality sessions (which includes your races). Just some general comments:
Tuesday was our "easy day" because we had a meet Wednesday so we did 30 minutes on our own with 4 striders and drills at the end of the run.
How many miles do you think you got in? I am guessing at least 4.5 in that 30 minutes.
Q2 -- Wednesday was our meet at one of the local schools where I ran a 4:59 mile and a 11:06 two mile, slower than I normally run and I'm heavily concerned with that.
What is your warm-up/cool-down like?
I look at what you are doing and it is basically you racing even your recovery. Give yourself permission to run easy! Give your body some time to adapt to the training by running easy on easy days.
Of course this is just my opinion -- some random guy on the internet...
Good feedback on this sample week.
Based on the PM you sent me it sounds like you are hammering all the time. In the week you described to me, you basically had 4 quality sessions (which includes your races). Just some general comments: Q1 -- Monday, 10 400's and I ran about 70 secs and gradually dropped to a 68 toward the second half of the workout Why 70s and getting faster? With a 4:53 mile PR, that is a pretty ambitious number. Tuesday was our "easy day" because we had a meet Wednesday so we did 30 minutes on our own with 4 striders and drills at the end of the run. How many miles do you think you got in? I am guessing at least 4.5 in that 30 minutes. Q2 -- Wednesday was our meet at one of the local schools where I ran a 4:59 mile and a 11:06 two mile, slower than I normally run and I'm heavily concerned with that. What is your warm-up/cool-down like? Q3 -- Thursday our coach gave us a designated run down a local highway of sorts that added to be about 5 miles in which I ran at 6:40 pace per mile, feeling very comfortable despite the pollen. I would call this a "no-man's pace run." Too fast to be about recovery and not fast enough to have any real training benefit. Friday Prom Easy day -- no running... Q4 -- Saturday I did a tempo run, 10 min warmup at like 7 minute mile pace into 15 mins of 6:20 pace which I ultimately ran faster at 6:05 pace, then did about a 25 minute cool down at 7 minute pace. Slow down on the warm-up and cool-down. The paces are too similar to your tempo paces. I look at what you are doing and it is basically you racing even your recovery. Give yourself permission to run easy! Give your body some time to adapt to the training by running easy on easy days. Of course this is just my opinion -- some random guy on the internet...
Excellent feedback here! Not sure why you would have four quality sessions in a week - three is usually the max. Not sure what this "designated run" is meant to be. In my opinion the day after a meet - especially with two races - should be an easy day, but that is between you and your coach. Is it possible you misunderstood the purpose of the workout?
Are we there, yet?
My coach is worried I will burn out putting in extra miles or increasing the pace during workouts but annoyed with my pr's in the mile 4:53 and two mile 11:00, I no I have a long way to go until I can qualify for anything on a national level. What extra things do I need to do to improve, I do core everyday and push-ups like my coach suggested but I can't go against my coach's workout since I'm in high school which people seem to neglect.
I've seen a lot of burnout with talented HS runners quitting after they graduate. It seems to me it's more because of intensive speed work and frequent racing than it is extra miles. You have the summer coming up when you aren't under your coach's supervision or running with the team. Start logging those extra miles, but keep the summer easy. Once a week run some quality and have some fun with summer road races.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Easy mileage, at least it was for me, was the least stressful thing, and quite enjoyable to do with friends and teammates. .... Learning to love running, and mileage is one of the most important things you can do to develop as a distance runner.
I just liked these statements. Excellent points, both.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
I've got a fever...
You have the summer coming up when you aren't under your coach's supervision or running with the team. Start logging those extra miles, but keep the summer easy. Once a week run some quality and have some fun with summer road races.
The Summer of Malmo
Also, great comment by HemosaBoy about the 6:40 pace being in no-man's land. I had a high school coach who warned me away from the 6:10-6:50 pace range when I was running similar times to the OP, telling me that medium miles are most of pounding and stress of running hard without the benefits.
Bottom line: the OP has an endurance issue which can easily be rectified by running more miles, most of them at an easy, conversational pace.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
Feeling the growl again
The posted sample week is too much intensity, period. You are also running what easy miles you have too hard in the midst of that. When I was racing 10K at sub-5 mile pace my easy runs were 6:30-7, often towards the upper end of that. I ran the same times as you are when I was your age, and made the same mistake of running too fast when I should have been running easy.
The result was I peaked early and burned out towards the end of the season.
It is not what you do during the relatively short track season which makes you faster....those workouts just sharpen what is already there. It is the higher mileage and other work you do off-season for months on end which gets you there.
As for running at the national level, it is good to have dreams and big goals but you should also make the ones you are chasing reasonable so you can actually reach them and set new ones. While I ended up running under 31 for 10K, at any point up until 6 months before I did that if you told me I would run that fast, I'd have laughed as it was so far outside the realm of realistic. But I had a ton of interim goals that got me there.
Honestly, to be national class you just have to have the inherent talent. For most that become national class that is obvious early and your times don't show it. But there are some sleepers. Nobody would have ever picked me to run the times I ran, but 100+ mile weeks and 10 years of post-HS training got me there. But it still wasn't national class. I wouldn't get hung up on that, you can have a heck of a lot of fun in this sport without ever being national class.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
I really don't believe in no man's land. I have multiple threads, articles, and sections of books on this topic. It does not even make sense that it can be of no benefit. That is a good pace for you, and it will help. Taking easy runs too hard will limit your ability in the real workouts. Too slow, and you're just not getting much accomplished.
You said you do core and push ups a lot. Honestly that, along with a solid summer, is where I would start. Strength training is where almost every high school fails.Working in heavy lift weight sessions 1-2 times a week is a big help to muscle recruitment. It should be put o your workout day, after the run. Doing it before the run gives limited benefits because the mTOR is shutoff. This essentially does not give the muscles a chance to properly grow and recover.
For the summer, do not neglect neuromuscular speed. The typical high school summer goes: easy mileage easy mileage,.... extremely slow or long long run. Start out with short hill sprints like 8x8 seconds with 3 minute rest. Progress it to flat sprints with the same reps and duration. Along the way mix the two together. Hills and sprints really help increase muscle recruitment. It's what everyone forgets to do in the summer. On your other workout day, work in progression runs and fartleks to get quality general endurance in. Also, keep a long run.
This will transition into longer sprints, and shorter endurance workouts. So you'll be doing the standard tempo and steady state runs, and on the other end, doing 200's-400's. BUT that is usually done incorrectly. The rest has to be there, so don't do 20x200 with 200m jog. That is not anaerobic work . That will take you threw your summer, and then just listen to your coach.
I coach college athletes for a club team, and this is really improved them. Also dropped to 16:35 5k and 4:40 mile after 2 years removed from high school, where I ran 18:10 and 5:06.