The thought of racing 8k's and running 80+ mpw makes me cringe. I have enough trouble with the 5k and anything over 40mpw, so college XC sounds like a nightmare. Do most college coaches have their 800m guys running cross?
The thought of racing 8k's and running 80+ mpw makes me cringe. I have enough trouble with the 5k and anything over 40mpw, so college XC sounds like a nightmare. Do most college coaches have their 800m guys running cross?
It depends on whether you are the 400/800 type or the 800/1600 type. I am assuming you are the 400/800 type based on your aversion to hard work.
how fast are you?
I would say in general no.... But honestly there may be like 40% that do run it.
I agree with the above post that it depends on what type you are. Also the coaches plan for you. Does he want to make you a miler? Freshman year I would say most wouldn't make you run, but be ready for more than 40 mpw that's pathetic.
At the top programs, you pretty much never see a "true" 800m runner do cross country. You might see a guy who did xc and does the 1500/5000 with an occasional 800m in track, but that is just for some extra points or as training.
A "true" 800m runner also will probably never run the 5000m in track, even as a workout or for the purposes of a time trial, but they might do some road 5ks during the off season as fitness checks. They probably will sometimes do the 1500 in the track season, towards the beginning of the season.
For a lower level 800m runner (say 1:55 PR and slower) they might run xc if their school lacks a solid group of MD runners running "fall track," just so that they have a group to train with, and because it is easier for the coach to not have to train a separate group every day.
I was a miler who also played football. Went to a small d1 and had to run xc because it was part of my scholarship
I ran cross in college and was a 1:52 guy in hs and ran 400m in 48.4 off 20 miles a week. My coach moved me up to the 1500 and 70 miles a week by the time I was a senior. Given you are running 40 miles a week I doubt you are a 400/800 guy. So you will likely be running cross and building up to more miles.
Ran for a D1 program in a major conference, no middle distance runners ever ran XC unless they were 1500/5000 types. 800/1500 and 400/800 types never. They wouldn't have stopped you, but you never would have made the travel team competing against the longer distance guys over their preferred distances.
Cas Loxom, Drew Windle, and Nick Symmonds are three of the best 800 runners and they all ran cross country. Division 1, 2, and 3.
Run cross country.
No but they may have them train with the cross team to stay fit and motivated.
So did running cross country make them world class 800 runners, or were they successful in cross country because they had world class ability to start with?
Basement Dweller wrote:
Ran for a D1 program in a major conference, no middle distance runners ever ran XC unless they were 1500/5000 types. 800/1500 and 400/800 types never. They wouldn't have stopped you, but you never would have made the travel team competing against the longer distance guys over their preferred distances.
800/1500 guys didn't run xc? What school did you run for? That is totally b.s.
Basement Dweller wrote:
Ran for a D1 program in a major conference, no middle distance runners ever ran XC unless they were 1500/5000 types. 800/1500 and 400/800 types never. They wouldn't have stopped you, but you never would have made the travel team competing against the longer distance guys over their preferred distances.
Different school, different experience. I also ran at D1 major conference school and team had two all-American 800 runners while I was there. Both were also 47.x 4x400 relay runners. Neither of them ran 1500 in competition. They each ran cross through sophomore year and one of them did fairly well. (25 low 8k). I follow the team pretty closely now and the team's current #1 800 guy ran XC, including conference , for several seasons.
Whether or not program directs "800 runners" into XC probably depends on whether XC coach is head track coach, who coaches mid-d for track, and which coach recruited the 800 runner.
If you ran XC with any level of success in highschool, there is a good chance you'll be asked to at least start in the XC program to see if you can handle the mileage and contribute. (If your name is Donovan Brazier, that's probably not the case). Generally speaking, XC coach wants to put best 7 guys on the line at conference/districts. Most sub 1:50 800 guys will have the ability to go 25 flat or below and might conceivably thrive in bad weather tough course conditions. Most coaches are smart enough to figure out if runner can handle mileage or is on road to injury/burnout.
A. Duckbill wrote:
So did running cross country make them world class 800 runners, or were they successful in cross country because they had world class ability to start with?
nick symmonds was not a good college xc runner and that was DIII. He was above average, but he got spanked on a national level for three years.
If you ask him, I should he would only have positive things to say about cross and the toughness and work capacity it builds.
Oh and what program doesn't have a 800/1500m type run cross...? Even D1...that's dumb.
My school had mostly 800, runners in the "distance" group.
We all ran XC.
But the mileage was more like 40 mpw.
And 8k is just a 5 mile hard run.
In the fall you train what you need for your distance. Longer event people would run more.
And the races were part of the training.
Rudisha must be adverse to hard work then!?
From what I've read Cruz didnt do much more in buildup phase and was in the 20s during competition.
At my university, the 800m runners came from both camps (sprinters who didnt run xc and distance guys who did run xc). The current scool record holder at 800m is from the sprint side (1:45:xx), before him was more of a dist guy who ran unattached a little during xc season (1:46:xx).
I believe that newly-crowned NCAA D1 indoor 800m champ Clayton Murphy from Akron ran cross this year. So it shouldn't stop anyone from being a great collegiate 800m runner.
Anon wrote:
Rudisha must be adverse to hard work then!?
Rudisha ran cross.