<p>Well..this guy from a county next to us won state in cross-country..15 mins for 3.1 miles. I'm probably gonna join the team next year, and I'm gonna practice a lot this summer. I wanna go from like an 8 min mile to a 5 min mile. How long do you think this will take? Oh yeah, I'm a girl..so yeah..I know the times are different..and I live in rural country..so that's why the state thing was sorta like shocking..cuz we nor do people near us win anything..=p </p>
<p>I got my mile down from somewhere around 9 minutes, to 6.11 in about 3 or 4 weeks (running 5 days a week), I hate running. And i wasn't trying to get it down, so you should be able to do it in a couple of weeks if you are determined to do so. There's a big difference in running 1 mile, compared to 3. I bet that guy that won state could run just 1 mile in under 4 minutes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info boarder. :)</p>
<p>You sound exactly like me the summer before my sophomore year! You should train really hard over the summer. Try and run 7 days a week, do about 35-45 miles a week. I did that kind of training and it paid off. As far as the 5 min mile pace, I think you should shoot for around 6:10-5:50 per mile. Running that pace for a 5k will put you in the mid 19:00 to high 18:00 range. Most importantly, listen to your body and get really good shoes!
Good Luck!</p>
<p>Good luck getting your mile down to 5 minutes. We have a kid (male) who trained 3 months fairly heavily for track last year and broke 5 minutes his last meet of the season. We have a girl on our team who was around 40th-50th at NY states, and her fastest is around 5:20-5:25. The slower girls that get invited to nationally ranked meets run about 5:05. We probably have about 3-5 girls in NY state that can run 5 minute miles. I'm not saying you can't do it, but you really will have to dedicate your life to running.</p>
<p>In conclusion, it will take you probably 2-3 years, if you can do it.</p>
<p>Being able to run a 5 min mile is great for the mile in track, but for XC-where you're dealing with 3.1 miles-you're probably going to be looking at 5:30 first mile pace anyway, which will maybe slide to 6:00, 6:30 for the last two miles. Rather than focusing on 5 min mile, I would agree with above posters who recommend just getting lots of miles on your legs (even if those miles are 6 or 7 min). Good luck.</p>
<p>Okay..that's a good idea. Lots of miles. But I honestly don't think it'll take me 2-3 years. I mean..if you're running 35-45 miles a week like GARunnerGirl suggests then I truly think you can decrease your time much more quickly. And I'll have about 3-4 months till Cross-Country starts..that's a lot of time plus a lot of running..I think I can do it. Anyone willing to post their times or any awards they won when they ran?</p>
<p>be careful though. you can't start running that much at once. start with a base mileage of just a few times a week and increase no more than 10% a week. if you're not careful, you could end up with a stress fracture, shin splints, etc which would ruin your season. also try to cross train. swimming is great cardio workout for runners, and on days you can't run you can try an elliptical machine or bike riding.</p>
<p>my fastest 5k is around a 21, which isn't bad for a girl, not great, but i've been hurt the past two seasons. honestly, improving that much is very unlikely, but possible. good luck.</p>
<p>how about for a guy who can run a mile in 6:20? how low can i bring my times down to in 4-5 weeks?</p>
<p>Hey, sorry to tell you, but it'll be damn near impossible to run a 5:00 mile if you're a girl unless you're ridiculously talented. Very few girls in the country do that every year, and thousands train very hard every day and don't get close. As of last week, fairly far into the indoor season, only 13 girls in the country have run 5:00 or faster. If you're just starting running, a good goal would be to shoot for 7:00 miles over a 5K course, for next year. That's like 21:40ish for a 5K, which is a pretty decent time for a girl, generally enough to make varsity at most schools. However, it's impossible to tell how good you'll be with some decent training.
If I were you, the first thing I'd do would be to talk to your school's cross country coach, and ask about training over the summer. I'm sure he or she will have a good program to get you started. You should also consider running spring track. That would definitely help.</p>
<p>Pootie is correct. Let us know if you run a 5 minute mile! If you do, you don't have to worry about your SATs anymore.</p>
<p>I am a dedicated runner too...i began running in eighth grade and i am now a junior. you may think i am one of the best runners...well, i'm not. my freshman year, i did not do cross-country, but did soccer; then, i ran about four miles a day or more over the summer. my sophomore year, i did xc and was the best sophomore on the team. i won 10th place in conference, which i was pretty proud of. over the summer, i couldn't run because i went overseas and couldn't run there. i joined xc again my junior year; i was doing bad at first, so i started running A LOT; it paid off in one race (i got 2nd place), but i got injured very bad with muscle strain. i couldn't run the entire season, but i did run conference race with a bandaged leg, and my time was like 5 minutes longer than my best sophomore time. i became very discouraged at the end of xc; at times, i say i give up, but then the next day, i go and run five miles and tell myself i can do it. but i plan on running a few miles (5mi) a day for the rest of the school year. then over the summer i will train very hard (9 mi/day). hopefully i will become better.
i have a friend who is also a runner. she runs 10 miles a day; no matter how much i tell her she will hurt herself running like that during the cross-season, she doesn't listen, and now she has bad shin splits.
also, make sure to lift weights (20lbs or so) and do leg weights too. and do crunchies and sit ups and stuff. keep stretching well to avoid injury. drink lots of water and eat healthy (very important). TAKE BREAKS - DO NOT burn yourself out. well, hope that helps.</p>
<p>quick question: i am assuming that all/most of you are ivy-oriented. how many hours per day or per week do you guys practice. is it something you just do for fun or do you plan to run in college. me...i spend about forty five min to an hour a day, five to six days a week. i run for fun because running rules!</p>
<p>I think that weight training should come after you have a good base. Yeah, it's good to do some sit-ups and push-ups, but when the season starts approaching, that's when you want to start doing sprints and weight training.</p>
<p>my two cents, anyway.</p>
<p>edit: oh, and I second the consumption recommendation: drink water all the time, seriously!</p>
<p>Okay..thank you all for the tips. I talked with my coach, and she's the one who got me interested and asked me to join cuz there aren't many girls on the team and I didn't do too bad in my first year in 8th grade track. I haven't practiced at all lately, so I'm not gonna do spring track. If I started like right now, that'd be about 6-7 months training before cross-country..which is a lot of time. Seriously guys..like back in 8th grade I got my mile down a whole minute and I wasn't even dedicated and this was like in a month or so. I really think I can do it. I won't hurt myself though..my dad is a doctor and he runs & works out..so he can give me some tips too..and make sure everything is going okay. He'll be here over the summer too. And yeah, MomofWildChild, if I ever do reach that goal without like permanently passing out..I'll tell you.:)</p>
<p>it gets increasingly difficult to achieve lower times--think lim(1/x + 5,x,infinity) :P. If you're going for 5 minutes, you should be running the majority of the year, not just 3 to 4 months.</p>
<p>you also need to consider that it is easier to improve when you're not so good than when you are really good and still want to improve. good luck, though. when i really want to do something hard like that, i remember michael jordon and how hard he practiced, and then i start singing that song "I believe i can fly, i believe i can touch the sky, i think about it every night and day, spread my wings and fly away..." i know i am wierd.</p>
<p> Yeah..I think 6-7 months the year counts as a good majority..lol I like to think about random stuff when I run..so I'm not concentrating on the track.</p>
<p>dudeee running is awesome man</p>
<p>6-7 months isn't much. One of my friends who's aiming to run a 4:35 mile this year runs all but about 3 weeks (a week and a half off after both track and XC). Some people don't even take that much off.</p>