erarsenault wrote:

 

This spring I can't swing outdoor track, so I decided to work I would my 5k for next XC season, so I have spring and summer to do extra training. Spring will be training for summer, which will be training for cross country. My 5k needs some serious work and next year I will be close to the head of the team as a junior, since all our seniors graduated and no juniors are on the team.  My 5k PR from this year is a 18:30, is it possible to go sub 17:00 by next fall? like 16:55-16:45ish? my other PRs are 2:09 for the 800, 4:52 for the 1600 in this indoor season.  Need some help for how to train!! Please!!

Yes it is possible, but it wont be easy. First thing I would do is talk to you coach and let them know what your goals are. They should already know your strengths and areas you need to improve on. There are a lot of different training plans out there. Hopefully they will be able to give you some training plans to get down to where you want to be.

How many miles per week are you running now and how much track work are you doing? Also are you incorporating any hill work? Just by your PR's I would say you will want to up your miles per week at the least.

Based on your 800 and 1600 times, you should be able to go under 17:00 right now. Check out the McMillan Running Calculator for more info:

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm

If you have that kind of speed and it isn't converting to equivalent times in the 5K, you probably need to do some more mileage and more tempo runs.

What does your average cross country training week look like?