How much potential do I have?

Last year, the winner of the footlocker XC 5k ran was Andrew Hunter. His freshman year, he ran 4 out of his 7 races slower that 18 minutes. His season record for freshman year was 16:43. His high school PR was his senior year, running a 14:20. He was the fastest high schooler in the USA last year, so if you put in as much work as him, you could get there too!

His page on athletic.net:

http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Athlete.aspx?AID=4676861#/L0

What are you 100, 400, and 800 meter times?

*your

havent ran any in a while but i suck at sprinting so prob around 13.5, 60, and 2:15

Golden Time wrote:

What are you 100, 400, and 800 meter times?

Running is a pretty magical sport. What you put into it is what you will get out of it. If you have the desire and the toughness to improve there is no telling how good you can be.

I've seen 8th graders run under 4:50 for a mile that never broke 15:00 for 3 miles in high school. I have also seen 8th graders that could not go under 6 minutes in the mile go under 15:00 in high school.

With your talent I'd suggest bumping the mileage up to 40-45 and shoot for 4:30's in the mile and under 10:30 for the 2 mile.

Speedwork will not really change your mile time.

If you ran 4:49 on Tuesday, next Tuesday my guess is you would run 4:44 and two Tuesdays (skipping a Tuesday) after that about 4:39 if you continued with 800s once a week, a longish run and the 30 mpw.

Now you need to take a week easy, with just 3 three mile runs with a few strides in each. Then you need to start a winter of Malmo.

http://www.bunnhill.com/BobHodge/rtp3.htm

You want to build up to running 40 mpw during November. Run that much in December and then aim for 45 mpw in Jan and Feb. I would guess track would start in March.

You can probably run somewhere between 4:00-4:30 someday.

It's a vague answer because it's too hard to tell. It will depend on how you respond to training and whether or not you have a good coach.

In the interim, I'd suggest shooting first for sub-4:40/10:00 in track and go from there. If you reach it easily, then go for the next barrier. And the next and the next. Just keep your mind open to what's possible, and good luck.

My biggest regret is not accepting what I was capable of sooner.

Pappy wrote:

Running is a pretty magical sport. What you put into it is what you will get out of it. If you have the desire and the toughness to improve there is no telling how good you can be.

I've seen 8th graders run under 4:50 for a mile that never broke 15:00 for 3 miles in high school. I have also seen 8th graders that could not go under 6 minutes in the mile go under 15:00 in high school.

With your talent I'd suggest bumping the mileage up to 40-45 and shoot for 4:30's in the mile and under 10:30 for the 2 mile.

10/10, great post.

I think you have a ton of potential with your times. Gently bump your mileage and be patient. Since you consider speed a weakness, do a bit more speedwork. Be open to racing a couple of 400s and 800s purely for fun (as long as it does not interfere with or precede your main events). I agree with Pappy about the magic of the sport and your ability to succeed with smart, hard, and efficient training.

Best of luck, and keep us all in the loop!

Thanks to all who replied! I suffered from some overtraining and illnesses this XC season, so I plan on taking 2 or so weeks completely off before slowly building up to 45-50mpw this winter. What workouts do you guys recommend to do throughout the winter that will keep me sharp by the time track starts but I won't be overtrained/burnt out? And my goals are to run in the 4:30's for 1600 and sun 10:00 for 3200 this track season, which starts in March.

Perhaps great potential.

How tall are you? Have you had your growth spurt?

You could be an early bloomer we don't know.

Truth be known what you do at 14 means nothing it's what you do as a senior that counts.

Don't burnout now

Get your 800m low as you can

Amigoodornah wrote:

Thanks to all who replied! I suffered from some overtraining and illnesses this XC season, so I plan on taking 2 or so weeks completely off before slowly building up to 45-50mpw this winter. What workouts do you guys recommend to do throughout the winter that will keep me sharp by the time track starts but I won't be overtrained/burnt out? And my goals are to run in the 4:30's for 1600 and sun 10:00 for 3200 this track season, which starts in March.

What does your coach recommend?

Strides are the #1 most important thing you can do this winter (aside from normal mileage).

Strides should be run between 800m and 1600m pace. You can do 100m-200m strides, and take full recovery between each one. Progress the number and intensity throughout the winter, but restrain yourself from going faster than 800m pace.

Aside from that, a tempo, fartlek, or cruise miles once a week starting in January will set you up for track. The pace would be roughly 20-25 sec slower than your current 5k pace.

Run Doctor wrote:

Perhaps great potential.

How tall are you? Have you had your growth spurt?

You could be an early bloomer we don't know.

Truth be known what you do at 14 means nothing it's what you do as a senior that counts.

Don't burnout now

No I don't think I've had my growth spurt yet, I'm only 5'4" 105 lbs.