How much do you improve in college?

[BPearson]

With another 4 years of intense training, how much do you think that a runner improves in college?

5K -- 30 seconds?
3K--20 seconds?

1500-- 10 seconds?
1000-- 7 seconds?

800--7 seconds?


I'm not sure, this is about what I'd predict for a decent runner. Obviously, if you're very good, this much improvement is probably not gonna happen, but these are my PR's:

17:47--5K
10:09.4--3K
4:25.0-- 1500m
2:46.8-- 1000m
2:04.8-- 800m

[Iron Man]

There is no set number. Train hard and find out.

[AzN at LARGE]

I once heard that your 8k pr freshman year comes out to about your 5k pr pace from last year.

[fightingmish08]

BPearson, looking at your times, you've got a lot of room to improve, especially in the longer events. A 2:04/800 and 17:47/5k guy in HS, will--in all likelihood--improve by leaps and bounds in a decent college program. There's no reason you couldn't improve by well over a minute (and approaching two minutes) in the 5k if you stay healthy, run some good miles, and train hard for four years. 2:04 in HS shows you have decent enough speed to do some things in the longer events.

[breng77]

Improvement in college depends a lot on how much you have trained thus far (or how intensely), and on how well you can handle hard training. If you already run 100+ miles a week or extreemly difficult workouts, then you probably have less room to improve than if you have been running 40-50 miles a week and build up to more. Also, if when you build up you get hurt a lot then you will not improve as much.
Here is what I did from HS to College.
HS - college
800m 2:06- 2:01
mile 4:40- 4:08 (1500m about a 4:27 mile)
2 mile/3000m 10:18 - 8:52 (3000m about a 9:34 2 mile)
5k 16:38 - 15:25
10k n/a- 32:17
Steeple 10:55-9:55

[XC4ever]

u should get better...unless your name is zach furlong

[RunLikePre]

None at all if you go to the wrong school. Many college programs are laid back and thus not very competitive. Not a bad thing if you are just looking to continue running, however.