Gotta Run...

Karl, I saw you asked Sasha how many miles a week you should be running going into the cross country season? And he basically responded with 60-70 miles a week and nothing faster than 7:00 minute pace, with some improvements coming in the fall, but more gains being realized in one to two years.

In my opinion, you have tremendous talent and no doubt someday you can be great at the marathon distance, but right now you're focus is on the much shorter distances. I think 50-60 miles a week, with maybe a few weeks approaching 70 would be plenty.

The following are ideas taken from Coach Joe Vigil, who has coached several Olympic athletes and had very successful teams at Adams State College.

He states "I have been labeled as devotee of "underdistance" running as opposed to long, slow distance running. In order to run fast, the athlete must be conditioned to both physically and mentally experiencing running fast through their entire athletic career. Speed must never be neglected at any stage of develoment, whether it be in the cold of winter. the precompetitive season in the spring, or the peak of summer. Speed must be sustained from week to week, month to month, and year to year (This is where I do agree with Sasha, you need to approach running as maintaining a lifestyle, not just a season.)

Coach Vigil goes on to say "The skill of running fast is a learned response and, in order to be developed, it must be included in the regimen of the athlete. The more athletes run fast as part of their development the more they expect to run fast and, as a consequence of expecting to run fast they do.

The practice of running fast becomes natural and does not represent an artificial obstacle. When an athlete runs long and slow, he/she will inevitably feel that the pace is plodding and has been lost. Consequently, courage and confidence are lost in a race. Running fast, even though moderate intensity sessions are practiced, makes an athlete feel confident and inspired to run fast in races. The belief of running fast becomes ingrained."

Sorry this is so long. That was all from Coach Vigil.

My take or at least how I worked with high school runners usually included the following:

Of course a lot of things depended on what phase of the season we were in.

Mondays: Speedwork consisting of some types of intervals 800 repeats, 1000m repeats, or mile repeats. Early in the season we would do hill repeats

Tuesdays: Longer recovery run: This is where you have to be the judge of what pace you can run and still give myself the day to recover.

Wednesday: Back to some type of speed. Usually we would have competitive type running games, some times tempo runs

Thursday: Recovery run again

Friday: Pre-race practice easy miles with strides after

Saturday: 5K race or if not racing, longer run with some middle miles at a faster pace.

These are just a few ideas. We can talk a little more and run some together over the summer if you would like.

For long runs, 7:00-7:30 pace would probably be fine for you. 8:00 pace may indeed feel too slow, at least most of the time. During mileage building phases, err on the side of a bit too slow rather than too fast (i.e. injury risk). If you get halfway through a longer run and feel you are going to slow, then pick up the pace a bit.

Based on my experience, the common high school trait you want to avoid is making every run hard or turning them into a race, which is why I think Sasha says to make your long runs very slow. You want your hard workouts (speedwork, tempo, etc) to be very hard, and your easy workouts (recovery days, base miles) to be very easy. Long runs are somewhere in between. I know lots of high school and college runners who go too hard on easy days and so are not recovered for speed days.

70-80 miles per week during the summer would give you a great base. With your lofty goals, I would be cautious to not decrease your miles too soon in the season- if you drop to 50 mpw mid-August, you will lose some of your base fitness gains by the time the races you really care about (state) roll around. 60-70 mpw most of the season would be a lot better than 40 mpw. You may run slightly slower times at the meets early in the season but will do better once you taper at the end.

I don't claim to be an expert in this area. But a slightly different take on the question is in:

http://www.lydiardfoundation.org/training.aspx

especially read the Osaka Lecture.

Jon, brings up a very good point about pushing it too hard, every single day. As he pointed out too often high school and some times college runners, think they have to be impressing the coach every day at practice. Like Jon said, use the recovery day to recover and the speed workouts as the day to push yourself and your teammates. Also like he mentioned don't worry so much about the early season meets. When I was coaching I really only got excited about regionals and state. Most of the other races, were designed to help kids learn how to race and get experience. Sure it was nice to win, but I was more concerned with seeing how the runners were able to improve from meet to meet.

Of course, you know where I stand on this...but AMEN to just about everything that has been said thus far. My Sr. Year was about like this: summer I worked up to 70 miles per week by the last couple of weeks before practice, then went back down to like 55-60 most of the time for a good bit of the season, then C. Womack had us do lots of hills and 800 rpts and at the same time I dropped my mileage for the last probably third to half of the season and mainly got those fast/hilly 5-6 milers in (of course with recovery and stuff) But you know all this already because I've told you but ya. I wasn't as fast as you will be because I had only been running for 3.5 years as opposed to like 10 so ya.