My Off-Season Training Plan for Spring Track 2011 (Read 2393 times)

XC is officially over and I am now resting from XC. Our team didn't make it to regionals so I will begin to run and build up mileage on Nov 15th. That's a break of 10 days. I am in need of advice because I wasn't satisfied with how my XC season went. I wasn't able to race good during districts because of a sinus infection so my PR was only 23:26 this season and that was from October 8th. That is really dissappointing to me because 9 months ago, I ran a 22:54 in a 5k road race and i've maintained consistent training even though I didn't train smart for the February road race since I didn't have a coach at that time.
 
I really want to be the captain of my team next year so I have to beat just one person that is running for it. I will be running the 4X800 and the 1600 for track. This will be my second track season.

During XC base building, the highest mileage I ran was 30 mpw, not including the warm up. I will begin conditioning for track on November 15th and the first practice for Track is on January 17th, so that gives me 9 weeks of conditioning.

I would really appreciate everyone that can help me come up with my plan because I really want to be competitive this season. I was not satisfied with my times during XC and the reason for this was that I was training harder during my first season of Track. For XC, I only ran up to 30 mpw in building base and during the actual season it was only around 25mpw.

Since I have 9 weeks of conditioning, how many miles should I run the first week? Should I start with 20-25 miles for the first 2 weeks and then start increasing? What do you guys recommend I should build up to? I am thinking of building up to around 45-50 mpw and running 35-40 during the actual season with speed workouts but I would like to do more if my body allows me to.

I am aware that conditioning is all about easy mileage, I don't want to peak until April. My XC PR was only 23 minutes and I believe it is because I ran little mileage when my body was accustomed to harder workouts during spring track of this 2010. I want to be super competitive for the 2011 Track Season in the mile. I would really like to specialize in the mile but I also want to be good in the 800 and 2-mile if I ever run it.

Is it okay to run high mileage for track? Wouldn't high mileage be good only for XC? There is more speed involved in Track events than the 3.1 mile race. During my last track season I ran many intense workouts and that only got me to running a 6:06 minute mile while for XC, I wasn't running that much intensity so I only ran a 7:30 average for 3.1 miles. I was actually running the 2-mile during track so I only got to run the 1600m once, at districts.

Basically, should I build up to 45-50 mpw from week 3 to week 6? I would like to have the same starting mileage in weeks 1 and 2 to become accustomed to the new training. At week 6 or 7 should I be at my peak mileage for conditioning? We will probably still be conditioning when the first practice starts on Jan 17th so I might actually have 10 weeks.

I feel like I let my team down this XC season so I want to come back strong and impress my coach so I can become captain.

I run for a very small school with only 1200 students and my league is 2A. The fastest runner on my team ran an 18:49 5k this season. He will probably break the 5 minute mile this season. We haven't had anyone break it yet. We have 5:03 for the 1600 and the one who has the record got injured during base bulding so he only ran a 19:30 5k this XC season.

I would really like to break the 5 minute mile this season so that's why I want to train smart during the off season without peaking.
 
My questions are: How many miles do you guys recommend I build up to? I have never gotten injured and I feel that I am capable of running high mileage without becoming injured. The alternative would be to run low mileage but faster workouts. Any recommendations for this?

Should I run 2 times a day during the track season? When we get into the speed workouts, i'll probably be running 5-10 mpw less than what I'm going to do during conditioning.

Besides running easy mileage, what other workouts should I do? I know i'll add strides in the middle of my runs and definitely work on my core. I will probably start running a tempo run every week on week 5 of my conditioning.

Do others recommend winter of malmo? I am willing to do anything to be good for track. In all the races i've been in, I haven't been satisfied with any.

Is it good to run hills during track conditioning or is that only for XC?

Are there any good workouts for 1600 runners for conditioning? I don't have an indoor track season so that's why I'll be running on my own.

I think building up to the highest my mileage without becoming injured would be a smart thing to do this season.

I'll also add plyometrics and drills to contribute to my form.

Thanks to all that can help!

Pompano Beach High School? You have a new track coach who should be able to help you develop a training plan.

Be careful what you wish for.  Typical XC race conditions for this area are heat indexes in the mid-nineties.

Do you do any strength training or weights?  I wouldn't go crazy with the mileage...extra miles are good but you don't want to undermine the training schedule set out by your coach.  Make sure to communicate your intent.  Hill training can help you develop strength but in FL you are hard pressed to find good hills so maybe some weight or other resistance training is in order. 

Oh, and make sure you are fueling up properly for your workouts and races.

Here is a nice article on base training.

http://206.214.217.133/articles/base.pdf

I agree with Hannible, you just need to run to build that  base. You are way out whack with your speed vs endurance. Your mile time should have you easily under a 7 min pace for a 5K. I can run a mile in a little under 6 min pace and can hold a 6:25 5K pace. You are training yourself to work anaerobically too much. You need more slower controlled runs - probably no faster than 8:45-9:00 min pace if not slower. One day per week mix in some fartleks like 8 X 2 min at 10K pace effort. You need these Fartleks so you are kept in tune with a bit of speed so it is not such a shock when you get back to harder work outs. Do quick striders at least one other time per week also. The rest of your running should be easy increasing by around 4 miles per week. No need to do double yet.

During track season, I think you were hammering and actually lost fitness. During race season if racing weekly, you only need one moderate work out per week like CV reps. You don't need to hammer on other days when racing hard. I think you have conditioned yourself to run anaerobically that you cannot hold pace which is evident from your mile time compared to 5K time. Build the foundation. The harder interval work is the icing. You get more bang for your buck with more miles vs more speed work.

Tornado - I certainly wish you luck.  One of the biggest things you have that others lack at your age is planning ahead, focus, and a desire to improve. 

Take it from someone who has been there.  The two mistakes that will limit your ability to progress and increase your chances of injury:   1) not building a sufficient base in the offseason and 2) hammering all your easy runs, especially in season.

Others have already touched upon what you need to do.  The best period of running I ever had, I did nothing but easy runs during the winter and was averaging 62 MPW.  (I was 19).  I did 4x100m strideouts twice a week.  No intervals.  Despite not running any fast stuff, I was within 1 second of tying my mile PR and wasn't even training for the mile.

Depending on your fitness level, 40-60 MPW during the winter, after you safely build up to that point (its going to take you several weeks since you're at 25-30 MPW now) will do wonders.  During the season, if you are not getting in enough mileage at practice, supplement by running a couple miles in the morning very easy a couple times a week (not on meet days though).  I had to do that freshman year of high school.  I switched schools after that and averaged 40-50 MPW during cross country and 30-40 during track...which probably still wasn't enough for a distance runner. 

I hammered easy runs pretty much every day for nearly 3 years.  I was hurt frequently.  My times did not improve at all until I backed off the intensity, was able to increase my mileage and not carry dead legs day to day.  If you are getting in the mileage but feeling shredded and the next day very sore and sluggish, your easy pace is too fast.  Do that too much, and you will soon have an injury or illness.

Put in the mileage and you'll be surprised how fast you improve at 17 years old.  There were several examples of kids on my high school team who ran 21-22 minutes one year and were down at 18-19 the next.

Good luck!

From someone who made the jump from 20min at age 16 to low-17 at age 17, you need to increase your miles.  I can't tell you the number and it's not important.  Just get out there and run, if you are really tired the next day back off and don't beat yourself into the ground.  Push it one week and challenge yourself on volume, then back down a bit the next week and recover.  Repeat through the whole 9 week phase.

Mileage is not just a 5K thing.  The mile is >90% aerobic and that is what you are building.  Also, you are very light for your height so I am guessing you can use the strength that mileage and hill work will create.

People confuse speed with running fast.  They are not the same thing.  "Speed" comes from what proportion of fast twitch muscle fibers you have and how well you have trained your brain to fire your muscles and propel you quickly over a short distance.  Running fast requires you to have the aerobic capacity and endurance to carry as much speed as you can over a long distance.

Sprinter have terriffic speed but cannot run fast over longer distances.  The mile is a longer distance.  You need a good balance of speed and running fast.  Work on the ability to run fast (aerobic endurance) now, when you start doing track workouts your speed will come around.

One of the first things you'd need to do is to evaluate your past seasons.  You keep saying that you were disappointed but I don't believe (sorry, I just skimmed through) you stating HOW you were not happy with it and WHY.  It is quite obvious, as other had commented, that, for a high school distance runner, your weekly mileage is probably 1/3 of what most aspiring teenage runner should be running.  I don't know if it's because your are not interested; or worried you might get injured, poisoned by all those junk articles in various media; or simply you can't because you run all your workout too hard...I'm not sure.  If you can't evaluate your own past, there's no way you can positively construct a plan for a future.

As someone else had already mentioned; then you'll need to work on planning.  One thing you'll need to be very careful with, and not just try to follow any so-called "established" schedule is; (1) the fact you "only" have 9 weeks to prepare and (2) you're dealing with, to me, monstrously long season, starting in January and peaking (hopefully "peaking") in April.  Not too many elite runners with 100s of miles for a several months may not even shoot for such a task.  So you really need to plan well particularly in the early "season" not to get sucked in with all the competition and excitement.

Hate to say but 6-minute for one mile shows extremely low fitness level at your age.  That is a sort of time you should be able to achieve by simply running a lot.  It shows you either lack basic fitness or basic speed (though it's hard to imagine you don't have the speed to run 90-second 400m...).  Regardless of the fact that you only "ran it once" or not, you need to realize that, if you're hanging around 6-minute-mile level, there's no way you can achieve 17-minutes 5k.  I don't know where you get the ideal of 17-minute-5k goal but, in order to achieve that goal, you'll have to do some serious thinking about how to achieve it.  It's certainly not going to happen by sitting around or doing the same thing you had been doing in the past 2 seasons.  It is true, however, as someone else mentioned, at your age, a huge leap can happen.  But, if those examples show anything, it happened because they had done something quite drastic.  While the chance of getting injured had to be carefully avoided, at young age, you may be able to observe quite a bit of work and the jump in the workload.  Think seriously, if you are serious about achieving your goal, jumping up the mileage during this winter.  If anything, I'd throw "being cautious" out the window and try to run twice a day; seven days a week; and triple your weekly mileage.  That's what being 17 is all about.

It could happen.  So be courageous and be smart with your approach.  Good luck.