How much did you improve after your first year of running?

The only thing that I will point out is that when you say half the distance in half the time, that just means that instead of 80 miles, they run 40 miles, but at the same pace. Therefore less impressive than what you are doing.

i think i may have misspoke.

What i intended on saying is that ive read of many people being able to run (for example a sub 1h25 half marathon) off 40-50 mpw for 5-6 months whereas im not in that kind of shape at all

Starting point (march 2013): I went from a DNF mile to finally being fit enough to run a mile nonstop and got 10:20. My 5k was 38 minutes.

September 2017: Managed to get down to a 7:45 mile and around a 27 minute 5k. That was my peak for that year.

middle school xc I joined to get in shape for baseball (never made that team) and did a TT mile in 8:48. Tried to quit the team but the coach wouldn't let me. That spring in track I ran a 5:30 mile and now I continue running

39 year old male, was ~170 lbs. about a year ago, ~145 lbs. today. April, 22, 2017 I ran a 5k charity run at 7:49/mile pace. I ran the Love Run half marathon today at 7:08/mile pace. I was doing ~10 mpw average for three week when I ran that 5k. I didn't average much more than that (maybe ~15 mpw) for April through October of 2017 (though I was cycling a decent amount as well) at which point I started running 20mpw increasing slowly to ~38 mpw for the past 8 or so weeks, peaking around 45mpw.

If I just look at my basic pace for a given run the progression doesn't look nearly as 'impressive.' But I used to run about as hard as I could every run when I started out. My hard pace is now my easy pace and my hard runs have a mix of 'fast' pace and slow pace so my average on those runs is fairly mediocre, though still faster than my old hard pace. All out efforts tell the true story and going 10 more miles at a 0:40/mile faster pace shows me that I've made some big strides.

My first year I only ran for 9 months. I stopped after my kid was born (and picked it up again 8 months later). I went from a 48:21 10K 1 month in (I played soccer once a week and lifted prior) to an 18:27 5K. Max 35 mpw. Lots of quality. 754 total miles.

That's a big mileage jump in just your first year running. It took me a year to hit 50 max, with a lower average (35?) due to down weeks for injuries. I got up to 19:30 for a 5K. (What's your target race distance, by the way? What are your race results?)

I think things got a lot more fun the second year, when a gradual mileage and tempo run buildup and some 5K workouts got me down around 18:00. And the third years was just a hoot, with my first 60-mile weeks and first 10K/HM races (36/1:25).

Have you taken any down weeks lately? Maybe you're overtrained and could use a rest before getting back into it.

That’s tough man, sounds like you are really trying hard. You are building up a good aerobic base that will help you get faster in the future. Stick with it and hopefully you will make bigger progress this year.

I started out barely able to run 1 mile in 9 min. After 1 year of sporadic 20-30 miles per week, I ran a 5k in 21 min. The next year I got up to 30 mpw with more quality (hills, speedwork) and got down to 18 min for 5k.

5:03 to 4:31

After having raced a couple 5k's for fun early on in training, I put in a 5 month training cycle for the marathon which got me into 3h30 shape.

Then I took a few months off to just run slow aerobic miles. Didn't do any workouts and I think I stagnated because of it.

I dont have any recent race results

My improvement was weird.

I did not run track or cc in my first 3 years of HS, even though my best mile in P.E. class in my freshman year was 6:23. Nobody told me it was good so I did not care.

In 1991, a friend and I decided to join cross-country. Practices were difficult, hills were difficult, and it was so....much..running.

My friend dropped out but I stayed and my first ever 5k was in a "blazing" 27:57 in a race.

4 weeks later, at 3 miles, I was down to 21:41.

That season, my best 5k was 22:02.

By spring 1992, I was down to a 19:56 5k and had a best of a 5:30 mile and a 2:30 800 and a 66 second 400.

Not great but for one year, I liked it.

It led me to love running

I started when I was 16 back in 1985. Before that, I had run the big local 10K two or three times without training, running 58:xx, and 56:xx (and maybe 54:xx?). In the Presidential Fitness Test as a freshman or sophomore, I ran just short of a mile for the 6-minute run on a dirt track - maybe 6:01 or 6:02 for the mile. I was a road cyclist since junior high, riding more than an hour per day, usually on a route that had a steep 1.7 mile, 775 ft climb, before starting running.

I started out running 9 miles a day (8 miles the first day) starting out, just doing what I could to get through my route (slow slog), which was mostly the same every day. It was summer, so I didn't have coaching or hard workouts, though I had some occasional get togethers with the high school cross country team that I was about to join . Three months later, I was running varsity on the cross country team, and was 2nd runner for the team in my first race. We didn't do 5Ks in cross country then. Mostly they were 2.83 miles for the course that we used for the dual meets/league finals. Started out 16:30, then 16:00 and then maybe under because I remember sub-5:30 pace, though that might have been a year later. Later in the spring, I ran 4:57 for the mile my first time in a high school track race, but only got down to 4:48 (dirt track mile) before the first year was up. I didn't have the best coaching. I was really killing myself in intervals, and wouldn't feel right for two weeks after a session because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. So was mostly overtrained, with sore lymph nodes, etc. my two years of high school running . With better (easier, more controlled) training, I think I probably would have been around 4:30 the first year. I think I did a 10K that first year (same road race as my previous 10Ks), but it was a easy controlled tempo in 36:xx because it was in middle of track season.

Your issue here is pretty obvious imo. If you want to make improvements don't do it doing these crazy mileage weeks (crazy for you)

Cut mileage down to 50 mpw. Run a 20 min tempo @7 min pace once a week, a long run of 10 miles @9 min pace, and easy runs in between of about 7-8 miles.

Sun - easy

Mon - 20 min tempo

Tuesday- easy

Thursday - 8x400 w/ 2 min rest @1:30-1:35/lap

Fri - easy

Sat - 10 mile run

I started at 37 years old, with no prior exercise, but not overweight (thank you, genes).

I probably started off too fast, because the first six months were mostly about fighting aches and pains and transitioning to forefoot running.

This is how what my first 2 years looked like:

5 months into running: 5k in 20:27 minutes (with heavy wind).

8 months: 10k in 42 minutes.

12 months: a 800m in 2:15

14 months: 10k in 39:30

16 months: 15k in 1:00:30 (with blister on the ball of my foot from previous training)

22 months: 400m in 58, 800m in 2:11, stayed the same whole summer :-(

25 months: 15k in 58:50

I'm pretty content with how I'm developing in the longer distances, but starting to get a bit frustrated that my 800m doesn't get better. (Maybe I should do more short intervals with 30s rest, or long all-out intervals with full recovery.)

It goes to show you that mileage isnt everything. People tell me they wish they could run as fast as I do (at the mile) on as little mileage. but I run as much as I want to and they run as much as they do. try measuring your runs by time instead of mileage, 50 minutes is one marker of an average run, at least 90 for a long run. but youre not rushing the pace that way to squeeze more miles in. for workouts try 800s, 1000s and 2000 meter repetitions.

now to answer your question there are two diffferent answers. I started out training minimalist and started track in about 6 minute mile shape, but not able to run much more than two miles. I was treating the mile like the 400 basically, ending it in complete fatigue. once I could run a 5k withour stopping that was around 23 minutes, then I improved that in one year to 19. which is where I still am. Ive been in 17 minute 5k shape before but never raced one then, I know that from breaking 18 on training runs over flat ground. usually I train hills. do I wish I upped mileage more? only if that running mileage replaced bad habits such as drinking. no rather I wish I were more consistent and carried over training year after year after year. mileage is like a medicine, you adapt to a higher dose. best to keep a tolerance so 50 miles per week is still a lot. for the average joe I mean. or non 5k and up specialist. 4 minutes in the 5k in one year, that was owed to consistency that I meant to keep up, but mileage was part of why that wasnt possible. id be limping around after track, running long runs on the road keeping up with 130 lb kids who had been doing this for years, when I should have been running slowly for time on the grass at that level.

Don’t quit wrote:

That’s tough man, sounds like you are really trying hard. You are building up a good aerobic base that will help you get faster in the future. Stick with it and hopefully you will make bigger progress this year.

I started out barely able to run 1 mile in 9 min. After 1 year of sporadic 20-30 miles per week, I ran a 5k in 21 min. The next year I got up to 30 mpw with more quality (hills, speedwork) and got down to 18 min for 5k.

You don't mention your age, but your progression seems similar to mine as a mid-forties aged guy. I started in November last year, but have had a bout of heavy flu and recently a big problem with my knee, so I've only had maybe 12 weeks of being able to run and less than 50 miles under my belt. But in that time I've managed to go from struggling to finish a mile in under 10 minutes, to being able to run 5K in under 30 minutes. On Friday I ran for the first time in nearly 3 weeks after hurting my knee, and was trying to jog as slowly as I could and yet I was still going at a faster pace than when I started in November. I wanted to run a 5K race this summer with a target of under 25 minutes, but I think it was causing me to push too hard in every run leading to my knee problem. But I think spring/summer 2019 I could reasonably expect to run around 22 minutes for 5K if I don't have further problems with my knee.

How soon does rapid progression tend to start to tailor off for an average person? After 3 months or so? 6 months?

Geez, what is with that hobbyjogger fest going on here?

Sophomore, Age 16: improved from 6:36 mile to 4:59 (dirt with 63 first lap)on 30 miles/week; Senior year put two of those back-to-back and ran 26.2x 6:36 with 0 sec. rest off of 49 mi/week Eventually got to 2:38 marathon and 2:05 800 as a 43-year old

Geeez wrote:

Geez, what is with that hobbyjogger fest going on here?

Well you might have a point if the OP was talking about improving from a 7 minute mile to 5 minutes in his first year, but as he is clearly a hobby jogger himself, why don't you STFU?