Puberty before high school... did you get better?

A guy on my team ran 2:01 for eighth grade and then 1:57, 1:56 and 1:55. He got better but I don't think it net his expectations.

Everyone can improve until their late-twenties it just becomes a flatter improvement curve.

Improvement doesn't come just through height, so of course you can still improve. You can still get stronger, faster, and more fit even if your legs aren't getting any longer.

watchout wrote:

Improvement doesn't come just through height, so of course you can still improve. You can still get stronger, faster, and more fit even if your legs aren't getting any longer.

That"s what I think. I"ll get stronger and I need to increase my mileage so why wouldn't I get better? I just hope it's not so little because of where I already am. I don't want to be the guy who started off well but didn't improve much in four years. People seem to think that's often the case so that"s why I"m wondering.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just take logical training steps year to year, and you will improve. My freshman year I improved my xc 5k by 80 seconds over the season, sophomore year by 60, junior year only 15, and senior year by 17 seconds. As you get older the curve levels out. That's just how it is. It's got less to do with age and puberty as it does with just the way training works.

If people couldn't improve much after their growth spurt, Professional and collegiate athletes wouldn't be significantly faster than high school athletes.

I started freshman year done with puberty. I had not run before so I improved tremendously as a freshman. I also improved as a soph, junior and senior.

What you have done on 20 mpw will be nothing compared to what you can do on 35 mpw or more.

obviously... wrote:

If people couldn't improve much after their growth spurt, Professional and collegiate athletes wouldn't be significantly faster than high school athletes.

Right. That's what I thought and what makes sense. But I've read on here about how middle school times don't matter because lots of time those kids never got much better. I was reading some old posts that said that being good in middle school means you won't improve much, especially if you've gone through puberty. So that's why I asked.

Maybe the guys who were good when they were younger weren't willing to work harder to get better. That won't be me.

I ran my best times in High School as a scrawny Freshman. I didn't hit puberty until after freshman year and I started getting bigger and my running went downhill.

As a junior I went from 5'9" to 6'2" and my running was terrible. I kept growing as a senior but at a slower rate and my running times were close to my freshman times again.

I'm 28 now and would smoke my high school self at any distance.