If you can't improve to 3:47 on two sessions a week then give up. Jim Ryun ran 3:51 for a mile at 19.

I'm currently running three sessions a week. Jim Ryun specialised and trained heavily for the mile from his early teens- I started training just under 3 months ago.

It's no good whining. You should be able to run 3:47 after 9 months training or give up. Especially with world class coaching and free physio and sport massage.

All ciaranhopper wants is advice - not to be told to give up. Not every athlete will run at the Olympics but every athlete has a personal goal. For ciaranhopper it is to break the 3:50 barrier.

I am not a 1500metre coach but there are some good resources on www.brianmac.demon.co.uk for programming and session types. In terms of over training, without personnally knowing your training status and history, it is impossible to train. Some people using waking heart rate to determine if they have over trained/reached (there is a difference). YOu will need to have a period to measure heart rate without any stresses to get accurate HR. From that you can see any fluctuations with it. Crude but can be affective. Look on the web for waking HR monitoring.

We are currently using Vertical jump tests prior to training to determine whether athletes should train that day if major competition coming up within that week. We have records of jump height for about 12 months so can see natural progressions in jump height, regressions with heavy volume loading and return to pre heavy training jump heights. Again not the most accurate but for time, cost and effectiviness, it does the job. Dont work in a perfect environment so and biochemical marking is not possible. But these are some suggestions to help you. The longer you have records the better you will get at assessing readiness to train.

As Alex said take on board as much information as you can. I would suggest that you find a coach to oversee your work . At eighteen if you were joining me I would expect you to be doing up to six session per week. If you started out as a novice we would build up from three but within six weeks you would be up to six.

Like any project get the basics right. So start to build cardo -vascular and remember that you will need to have a speed and a speed -endurance factor built in even during the winter.

I would say that your target is abit steep to start with. The first target would be to run 4mins that is a big step. If you are serious I would say you need to set yourseld short /medium and long term goals/targets. This way you can attack each target in a sensible way.

Lastly there is NO EASY WAY no matter what the scientist tell you HARD WORK is the essence and so many athletes are looking for the easy way.

Good luck and work hard and you will reach your goal.

Are you talking about 6 sessions(Speed/Speed endurance) plus aerobic runs or just running 6 times a week including speed/speed endurance and aerobic?

Six session per week would include.

1. Basic conditioning.
1. Speed
1. Speed endurance
and at this time of year a lot of base endurance fitness . This is the "bank "time of the year what you do now will ascertain what you will be able to cope with in the summer. This is the time when you will be out all weathers building your body to go faster. You will only run as fast in relation to how fit you are in the various areas required for your event.

As I said before look for a coach to guide you !