Looking for Advice on a Summer Training Plan

What will get you as close to your goal as possible is:

1) Run More

2) Race Less

3) Aerobic Development

Get to 55 miles per week this summer. I wouldn't do any races over the summer. From next week to mid-August you have 12 weeks. Spend the first 6 weeks going 30-35-40-45-50-55. Do 4-6x15 sec strides (uphill if you want) after a run 2x per week. And once per week do a long run where you start ripping on the back half. The next 6 weeks should go 50-55-55-50-55-55. Once per week do those 15 sec strides and once per week do the hard long run; but now add in one day a week where you do a tempo run. Alternate a short 4mi tempo one week with a longer 6mi tempo the next week. Run the 4miler at 60 seconds slower than PR mile pace. Run the 6mi tempo at 75 seconds slower than PR mile pace. Don't do anything at 5k race pace --- no 5x1k or 4xmile. Do this and you will be good.

Thanks for the reply! This sounds great but I have three questions. Firstly, what is the reason behind never running at 5k race pace? Secondly, how could I then incorporate speed and track workouts; should I do them in the first six weeks, should I do them once a week or once each 2 weeks? Thirdly, how could I encorporate fartlek running; should they be part of their own session, or an element of a long run?

This is summer base building. Your coach will have you doing plenty of intervals and fartlek during the season. The point now is to run slow, and run alot, so that you can run fast later

If you want to add some short track stuff, like 200s, that is good but don't run them too hard.

Here is a link to summer of malmo. It is basically kjnldfjnd was giving you: lots of miles and a weekly tempo run.

This. Race pace stuff over summer isnt ideal considering how long xc season really is. Tempos and hills are your bread and butter over the summer and set you up for race pace work later, when workouts such as 5 x 1k or 4 x mile really will benefit you and wont completely drain you. Good luck this summer!

Buddy, re-read the first response. You DONT need speed and track work over the summer. You have a whole fall to do race pace intervals, cooking them over the summer will result in a crap season. Build a base first, then add the speed

Cool

Thanks everyone for the advice, i’ll be following it this summer. I’m just wondering how i improved so much last summer. I went from a 18:26 to a 17:28 in a year. My summer running consisted of 4-6 mile easy runs at 9:40 pace , 5-7 mile tempos at 6:50 pace, fartlek workouts from 3-4 miles, and running 400+ miles in total. Did this type of running have its merits, and if so what? How do y’all think this contributed to my overall fitness; did it help or hurt me?

Everything you did helped. You improved so much because you are new to the sport and were running consistently. The ideas offered are great but there is no "magic workout", you will improve if you run at least 6 days every week, and do some faster stuff now and again but not too much.

I agree with the sentiment that you don't need race pace stuff in summer, you will still improve but if you leave it to fall you will probably improve more.

However, what will play a role in your long term development isn't whether you did fartlek or tempo, or whether you ran 15 seconds per mile faster or slower in your tempo, it is stacking the days consistently over a long period of time. Running 6 days a week most of the year and having 2-3 harder efforts/workouts/races in most weeks that aren't early in the season is more important than a lot of the specifics.

You are new so will probably see a lot of improvement again, keep shifting your perspective so you don't limit yourself based off of what was hard last year. And good luck!