runnin

Question
HI, I'm going to be a senior in high school and I've been a girls varsity cross country runner for two years.  I have about 14 weeks until my first race (Races are 5 kilometers) I run about a 22 minute 5K at the moment,  I need to get down to 18:30 mins- I have a tendency for tendonitis and I can't afford to get injured, I found the right shoes but I need input on what my schedule should be like so I can improve fast but not get injured-  what would you do?
I'm 17 and 130 lbs

Answer
Hi JU
All your strength endurance and speed comes from building a really great foundation first which involves covering higher mileage in the early foundation phase.You have to decide on the weekly how much you can handle.This phase is just easy to moderate running adjusting the pace and tempo as you feel yourself getting fitter.If possible include a lot of hills and make sure you run at controlled rhythm.I would use 7 to 8 weeks for this phase based on your 14 weeks for first race.Next you can cut your miles back lets say on a 55 mile week to 40 to 45 and start with some hard strength runs a couple times a week of from 20 to 30 min after a good warm up.You also want to add a couple of times a week hiil  repeats of 200 meters working your way up to 15 at a 10 to 15% grade at controlled pace after good warm up.You need 2 days between hard efforts for proper recovery.This phase will last about 2 to 3 weeks.At this time you should be feeling really strong and can start moving into some shorter intervals such as 400, 800,1200,etc.The other days from hills and hard tempo's is just easy recovery runs.Your focus should be on full recovery even if you have to spread out the hard days to insure you body is recovered.Two things to add to your recovery would be 500mg vit c with your 3 meals a day and some EPSON salt baths once or twice a week and of course high quality nutrition breakfast lunch and dinner.This is what it is all about as a general guide for you JU.If you have any questions about this just get in touch or call if you like.

All the best

John