3200 and 1600m run??

by Jesse
(Laredo, Texas)

Hello, well my 3200m run is a 10:40PR. I would really like to go to a low 10 by the end of my sophomore year...

Should I run more distance or speed workouts???.........

For the Mile run I am struggling with a PR of 5:06 and I need to get to the sub 5!!!! I don't know why I can't get that speed out of me that I need.

What can I do to improve my mile??

Answer by Dominique:

Hi there,
Thanks for your questions about your mile and your 3,200 metres.

And thanks for including a photo, it is always fun to get a view of the people behind the question.

One thing: if there is a running coach at your school make sure to discuss any of the below with your coach as well....

You have got some pretty decent times for those distances already. As such, it becomes harder to give you really targeted advice without knowing what your current training is like, how you have improved over the last few years, etc.

For most people the answer lies in increasing their mileage as they need more stamina. I am guessing that the answer for you lies in a combination of both speed and distance. Your mile and 3,200 metre times are pretty well aligned (see Race Conversion Calculator) so it is not just a stamina issue as it is for 95% of runners.

For the distances you run there are a number of important ingredients:

1) Intervals; you can do these over different distances, a tough one is 6 x 5 minutes with 5 minutes recovery in between.

2) Repetitions; these are tough efforts over shorter distances, e.g. 200 and 400 metres

3) Tempo Intervals; slower than intervals, meant to increase your lactic acid threshold

4) Long Runs; these are done at easy pace.

See my Running Training-section if you need any extra explanation about any of the above.

Any other running during the week should be easy runs, possibly with some strides at the end of your runs.

As you are young and eager, I would really advise you to keep in mind what each run is for. Your easy runs are done to get mileage into your legs and/or to recover from hard workout sessions. Treat them as such. Make sure you take the recovery on easy days, so your hard days / quality sessions can be really hard.

Without knowing much more about you that's probably all I can do.

A book that explains everything about different running speeds and when to do which type of running is Daniels' Running Formula. You may want to get it, it's worth its weight in gold, and is really targeted towards high school / university running seasons.


Best of luck.
Cheers,
Dominique