Long Distance Running

Anybody into it?

I’m in my first season of cross country this year and it’s really fun. I finally broke 13:00 in the 2 mile. I ran a 12:34. I crushed my old PR by 26 seconds.

I also ran my first 5k this summer. I ran it in around 25:00. Not the best, but I think I can do better now.

I’ve also ran track for the past 2 years. I run the 1600 and the 800 (not really too long). My best in the 1600 is 5:51. My best in the 800 is 2:41. I’m really hoping to break my school’s record of 2:21 in the 800 this year. I think I’m down to around 2:30 and if I train enough during this winter, I think I can get it.

So, enough about me. What about you guys?

Xcountry takes a lot of determination.

I never really liked it, but man, the feeling after finishing…unbelievable.

I used to run XC, my two mile was 14:00, but that was two years ago.

My sister is really into it though, she has a 21:00 min 5k.

She runs a 5k almost everyday

One time I ran a 5k in the winter. Did no preparation for it. Just showed up and went. Ran a 31:14. Haha It killed me.

My brother, whose run two marathons, multiple 5ks, and several other varied distance races, told me that he’s impressed with how fast I am (I have long legs) and how I can keep a fast speed going for a good distance. I went running with him a while back and he kept muttering “Geez you’re fast.”

I can run a 5:15 mile (the treadmill won’t go any faster) and my goal is to reach low fours or sub fours. I haven’t tried my hand, or feet, at long distance yet, so I’ll probably do a 5k soon just to get a feel for it.

But I think running is boring in general, so the most I normally do are 1/4 mile and 1/10 mile sprints, which nobody in my group of friends can beat me at.

I prefer to use my stamina for mountain and road biking and unofficial soccer. I’m in the gym a lot as well. During winter I do a little Xcountry skiing along with downhill skiing and hardcore sledding.

So yeah, I love fitness as much as I love yo-young, videogames, and my well deserved six-pack.
Not and for someone who used to be the fat kid in elementary school.

I have supper long legs so people always told me I should be doing basketball or running. I tried basketball and didn’t like it so I got into XC. I have never really ran prior to starting this so I am running the 5k at 27:00 but I’m getting better.

I was training for a marathon, started with 5K as my “short” run, and gradually ramped it up to 18K. On the day I was supposed to complete 18K, I came up lame (knee just started to hurt too much) at around the 13K point, so that’s about the furthest I’ve ever run.

Mostly replying to the thread to give credit to my wife: not only did she continue training for that same marathon (decided to ‘just’ do half that year) but went on to train in cycling and swimming as well, finishing two Ironman races and two marathons so far. She loves the distance thing.

I took up kickboxing instead. :wink:

Do you yoyo?

Are you new?

Norwegian schools often use the 3k (3000 meters) run for testing students in PE. To compare, a two-mile is 3218 meters.
My personal record at the 3k, which i did at boot camp during my one-year conscription, was 10:36. And i’m really pleased with that! Though one guy ran a 9:38. Thats just insane.
But really, i hate running.

5k PR is 20:20 although that was in March, but I’ve ran hundreds and hundreds of miles since then, I’m gonna shoot for sub 19:30 in a 5k next weekend.

Lately I’ve been doing about 35-40 mile per week (time allowing anyways) with long runs of 12 miles, but once I get my first half marathon out of the way next month, I’m going to begin full marathon training. Can’t wait!

My X-Country coach and I don’t get along so I quit not too long ago. My PR is like 20 min in the 5k I do the 800m too! I was in the 2:36 range last season but this season I’m going down to 2:10! Determination! And in terms of the best running exercises to get your times down do hill work, tempo runs (google it, its genius), and learning to “push yourself” like when your working out and you do the extra ten reps you probably shouldn’t have done. I’ve gone from sprinting the last 200m in a race to the last 500~600m by doing this. Best of luck in your future endeavors!

Thanks! Hill work definitely helps. Our team did it once per week and I think it helped out a lot. I’ve never heard of tempo runs, but I’ll look into it. Pushing yourself is key though. Sure you can lightly jog 5 miles, and that would be a good workout. But I think if you go pretty hard and try to push yourself you get way more out of it. I think sprints are also great things to push yourself in. One of my coaches told me something for pushing yourself in sprints in practice. He said that if you know you’re doing a set amount of sprints, don’t pace yourself so you have energy. Instead, run each one as hard as you can and you’ll be surprised with how much you have. A lot of X-Country is mental. If you tell yourself you can push it, you most likely can.