9:30 3200 Meter Plan - Written by Joey Berriatua

Plan Length: 8 Weeks

This plan is for an athlete who is ready to run under 9:30 for 3200 meters. This is ideal for an athlete who has run anywhere from 10:00-9:45 in the 3200 meters, and is hoping to make that next big jump. Some base work is required for an athlete looking to use this plan. Training plan includes 6 days/ week of running, with 2 workouts and a long run on the weekend.

The main emphasis of this training program is maintaining an aerobic base while working on goal pace work, as the plan incorporates mainly threshold-10k work, with 5k-3200 meter work thrown in when necessary.

The plan’s structure is very similar to what Joey was doing leading up to breaking running 7:47 in the 3000, an 11 second PB at the time. While the plan may different in volume and intensity from Joey’s exact buildup, the idea of consistently building off of effort-based workouts, increasing volume of long-runs, and incorporating hill sprints aside from workout days will increase running coordination and endurance to make that big jump.

All runs, including workouts, are based on each athlete’s individual ability and fitness, as the entire plan focuses on developing a sense for one’s effort and how the body feels on a day to day basis.

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Sample Week of Training

Below is a week of training from this plan which represents the type of workouts you will be doing.

Run - 3xmile + 3x400m + 3x150m

50-55 minutes of total running;
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Warmup easy for 12 minutes. 2 minutes at tempo effort, 1 minute jog recovery. Then 4x20 second strides at 5k "feel good" effort with 40 second jog recovery.
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Workout: 3x1 mile at threshold- 10k effort with 200 meter walk/jog recovery between reps (~90 seconds)
Jog 400 meters after the last rep
Then, 3x400 meters at goal 3200 meter effort with 2 minute walk/ jog recovery between reps
4 minutes recovery following the last 400
Then, 3x150 meters at 800 meter effort with walk/jog back to start recovery (~2 minutes)
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Cooldown easy after the workout until total time is completed.

Planned: 55:00

Run - Easy run

25 minutes of total running;
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Make sure to run easy the entire time, as the purpose of today is to recover from yesterday's workout.

Planned: 25:00

Run - Easy run + hills

35 minutes of total running;
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Run easy for the 1st 20 minutes to the bottom of a hill
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Workout: 8-10x15 second hill sprints at 3k-mile effort with jog down recovery (~40 seconds)
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Jog easy after the hills until you reach total time.

Planned: 35:00

Run - 8x400m + 5x200 + 800m tempo

50-55 minutes of total running;
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Warmup easy for 12 minutes. 2 minutes at tempo effort, 1 minute jog recovery. Then 4x20 second strides at 5k "feel good" effort with 40 second jog recovery.
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Workout: 8x400 meters at 5k effort with 90 second walk/ jog recovery between reps.
Jog 400 meters after the last rep
Then, 5x200 meters at mile effort with 2 minute walk/ jog recovery back to start.
Jog 400 meters easy
4 minutes recovery following the last 400
800 meters at tempo effort.
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Cooldown easy after the workout until total time is completed.

Planned: 55:00

Run - Easy run

25-30 minutes of total running;
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Make sure to run easy the entire time, as the purpose of today is to recover from yesterday's workout.

Planned: 25:00

Run - Easy Long Run

65 minutes of total running;
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Today is all about time on feet, so make sure to run easy the entire time.

Planned: 1:05:00

Rest Day - Completely off

If you feel like you have to do something or move around, feel free to go on an easy bike ride or swim


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