Do High School teams run 7 days a week or take 1 day off a week????

I'm not a high school coach, but when i was in high school our coach made us run about 6 days a week. Naturally since we' were all teenagers none of us did this and most of us took off fridays before meets and sundays simply because there was no scheduled practice. Our coach usually let us off on fridays and told us to run on sundays. We had a lot of success doing this and always ended up sending guys to nationals/states.

Looking back, i really wish we ran the 6th day because it definitely would have helped. I think that if you typically try to get your runners to run 7 days a week they'll only do 6 on average. If you push the kids too hard, it may be harder for them to improve if they decide to continue their training after high school.

6. Optional to run on day seven for my team, we have practice on saturdays, off on sunday.

6 days has worked well for me but not at every school ive been at. Those that don't come Saturday morning don't get harsh treatment. Varsity and others who want to get better attend. All schools in our area meet 6 days. It does add up to an extra two weeks by the end of the season. The same kids make it to most summer runs 5 days and on their own on saturdays. Winter months reflect summer months in that regard. We go 6 daysbduring track. Not sprinters, hurdlers or jumpers though. Heck, some kids just come for the commaraderie and the bagels,bananas and juice.

On the 7th day, the almighty one said "Let there be rest."

I am not religious at all...but my coach has us take sundays off.

I think this topic is generally misunderstood. 6 or 7 days isn't what pushes it over the edge, it is the intensity of the practices that does that. Most would be better off doing a very easy 3-4 mile run instead of an off day, but it ultimately is up to them. Most good teams run 7 days a week.

We usually have meets most Saturdays and Sunday is the long run day. If you are worried about pushing them too hard,just don't do too many hard workouts. HS XC has a ton of meets, so there really isn't all that much room to put in a bunch of hard workouts. With two meets a week the workouts have to be more supplementary.

Sun:long run

mon:easy

tue:meet or w/o

wed:easy

thurs:w/o

fri:easy

sat: meet

I had the most success when they ran seven days.

Once we started racing in XC and Track, we'd move the long run from Saturday to Sunday.

But we only did this with juniors and seniors and very talented sophs. Generally speaking, athletes with a lot of aerobic talent tend to recover best by running.

If I had a fast 800 runner that could push up well into cross, I would often put them on six days - the faster you are (in terms of absolute speed) the more you are helped by taking a complete day off.

I wonder how many kids get used up in h.s. when they run 7 days a week and other kids who run 6 a week keep progressing in college. Seems like these mega successful high school teams flop when they get to college. Anyone have some insight?

Top 14 at my kids' high school for both boys and girls run 7 days a week during the season before post-season meets. Meet day (Saturday of course) is considered the day off.

Sunday is usually a 4-6 mile run.

Monday is 4 miles in the morning before school; 10-14 miles in afternoon

Tuesday is lifting in the morning and speed workout in afternoon (example - 20 400s - #1 fast, #2 jog, #3 fast, etc. 10 SECONDS rest between completion of job lap and start of fast lap). Always 800m-mile warmup and 1-2 mile cool down.

Wednesday is 4 mile run in the morning before school; 8-10 in the afternoon

Thursday is lifting in the morning and speed workout in afternoon. (example - 6 1200s with 3 minute rest between. 800m-mile warmup and 1-2 mile cool down.

Friday - NO morning practice. 5-8 miles. If on an overnight trip, they will add jogging the course as part of this.

Saturday - Race Day. 3.1 mile race but with warmup and cool down runs on either side.

Flagpole. That seems like A LOT of work for a high school kid. I know lost of colleges who don't have their kids doing that much. How the heck do the kids find time for sleep and school work? I'd be interested to know how your top 14 kids do once they get to college? I see so many of these "powerhouse" teams in high school producing tired, worn out, used up kids who hate running once they get to college. Are coaches like you trying to get the best out of the kids in high school for the kids or for your own record/ego?

We would always run like crap when we were given the day off before a meet. So we almost always had practice on Fridays to do our shake out run etc.. I know our coach wanted to give us off, but it's like we lost our flow or something when we didn't run.

Sundays were ours days off.

success at next level wrote:

I wonder how many kids get used up in h.s. when they run 7 days a week and other kids who run 6 a week keep progressing in college. Seems like these mega successful high school teams flop when they get to college. Anyone have some insight?

As others have noted I think it's about intensity more than the number of days.

And I do think that most endurance athletes rest and recover better with a easy day of running than with no running.

Our athletes have progressed pretty well in college.

In XC, we didn't do a lot of intense stuff in practice because you race a lot.

Sun: Long Run 75-90 minutes

Mon: Sprinting (all out) or Speed Endurance (400m pace)

Tues: 45-60 minutes + 4-6 x 100m at mile pace strides

Wednesday: Tempo/Threshold workout, sometimes with some race pace reps

Thurs: 45-60 minutes + 4-6 x 100m at mile pace strides

Fri: 30 mins

Sat: Race or Race Pace Workout

Again, this was for talented runners who know how to train and know how to race long distances.

Is this is joke?

It is Flagpole. Can you take anything he says seriously?

7 days a week for upper class/motivated runners.

But even at that some guys are told to take a day off here or there if it's obvious they are tired or need it.

I come from the camp that is not interested in squeezing every ounce of talent from kids that don't even know how to shave yet. I know high miles produces results but there is a long term cost in my opinion.

From my observation I see far more high school studs peter out in college coming from high mileage programs than the opposite.

From personal experience I came from an under-trained high school program running 1:53/4:20 and middle pack XC guy to running 1:48/3:44 and 31:30 XC contributer at the college level.

Why would it be a joke? It's about 60 miles per week with a day of short reps, a day of long reps and a race. That's not too much for the top kids who have worked up to it. It will prepare them well for college. I've found that it's actually the kids who run well off 25 to 30 miles per week who make the poor transition to college. They're not ready for the increased work load of a college program.

we had practice 5 days a week and only met on saturdays if wwe had a meet. Runs were expected at least one day on non meet weekends and coach let it be known that we should be running both saturday and sunday for 7 days of running in the week, but if we got really busy (college visits, work, family stuff, who knows) or really felt worn down and like we needed a day off, it was ok to take it.

Fat Joe wrote:

Why would it be a joke? It's about 60 miles per week with a day of short reps, a day of long reps and a race. That's not too much for the top kids who have worked up to it. It will prepare them well for college. I've found that it's actually the kids who run well off 25 to 30 miles per week who make the poor transition to college. They're not ready for the increased work load of a college program.

Well, 25-30 mpw in HS is on the low end of extreme. Who does that?

But, if the college coach is good (which is rare) they will not take the 25-30 mpw kid and crank it up too fast. Kids don't make the poor transition to college, poor college coaches make the transition poor.

6. Here in Massachusetts I'm fairly sure it's very much not allowed to run practice 7 consecutive days. This includes meets/games/scrimmages as well.

1st year runners: 5 days

2nd year: alternate 5-day and 6-day weeks

3rd & 4th year: 6 days

For the record, we were typically among the state's better teams, though not a top 10 team.