Improved Sub 5 Minute Mile (Read 550 times)

I'm sure that your son will improve over the next year, but one thing that he should realize is that there are no distance events in high school track. Even the 3200 is solidly middle distance. As you get faster, chipping time off of your mile becomes very difficult. What many runners find is that they can drop a few seconds, but running flat out starts to feel easier, because the differential between their threshold and their max speed is smaller than it used to be. That said, strength is still the best way to go, especially without losing touch with pure speed (100s and 200s, faster than race pace, full recovery, EVERY WEEK or more often). Lots of mileage is important. For milers, it's generally better to run a bit faster, but to cut the runs up into shorter doubles. Ideally, when the track season begins, you want to be close to your PR from last season, except without the benefit of sharpening. Then it's mostly up to your coach to mix the workouts properly. In season, mileage should be around 60-70% of your high from the fall (depending on how high you went), because you don't want your legs to be tired for your track sessions. Weekend long runs can be a bit shorter and slower than they would be for cross season. Again, this is for the purpose of keeping fresh legs for track workouts. A final word about mile workouts: it's important to know when you're supposed to really hurt yourself. A hard mile workout can be truly excruciating, and it's important to practice running hard and fast when you're that tired. However, those kind of workouts can really break you down if you do them all the time. The coach should be communicating which workouts should feel controlled, and which workouts should be really painful. My reference point has always been facial muscles. In really hard workouts, all of my face contorts against my will, almost spasming, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. In medium-hard workouts, I start to fill twinges in those muscles, just as I'm finishing. As your son gains experience, he'll learn to read his own body cues accurately like that. One final possibility is that he has a faster time in his legs, but hasn't gotten in the right race. Sometimes PRs can be big mental barriers. It helps to have a faster runner pace you to a PR. Once you've run a time, it's much easier to keep running it.