What event should I focus on for next year.

The 800 and maybe the 1500 if you can build a good base. Do cross country next year and try to keep in touch with your speed. You could probably run Sub 2 with a good year of training.

My fellow runner....

Your thinking is far too "short term." Don't think in terms of "How can I win State next year?" Think in terms of "What can I do to make the Olympic Trials in 10 years?"

I never raced in high school, and admittedly sucked at track and XC in college, but ran 2:23 for the marathon during my senior year of college. Later I made it to the Olympic Trials in the marathon.

Your "speed endurance" is good. I suggest that you work hard this summer, 2 or 3 workouts a day if you can, or 2 workouts along with a summer job that is very physical, such as working on a farm or ranch.

I wish you well.

butterbeans wrote:

My fellow runner....

Your thinking is far too "short term." Don't think in terms of "How can I win State next year?" Think in terms of "What can I do to make the Olympic Trials in 10 years?"

I never raced in high school, and admittedly sucked at track and XC in college, but ran 2:23 for the marathon during my senior year of college. Later I made it to the Olympic Trials in the marathon.

Your "speed endurance" is good. I suggest that you work hard this summer, 2 or 3 workouts a day if you can, or 2 workouts along with a summer job that is very physical, such as working on a farm or ranch.

I wish you well.

You seem sincere, but that is some bizarre advice. He asks what event (meaning distance) he should focus on, and your response is a personal anecdote and an admonition to focus on the Olympic trials.

Btw, huge difference between making the marathon trials and any other t&f event (except maybe racewalk).

You are missing my point completely.

I am not asking him to "focus" on the Olympic Trials.

My point is that he is very young, so focusing on a particular event is meaningless, based on my experience.

My summer jobs during high school were all manual labor positions that increased my discipline and physical strength.

My story about the Olympic Trials was meant only to give the reader an example of what you can do if you take a longer term approach.

Off topic, but which state are you in? Those 800 and 1500 times are incredibly slow.

My pace or yours? wrote:

Off topic, but which state are you in? Those 800 and 1500 times are incredibly slow.

It's high school running....does it matter?

Oregon 3A. I believe that the 6A 800 winner was something like 1:52. The same kid won the 400 and 800 this year which is surprising because a 48.16 should mean that he can run much faster than a 2:01... I guess he just doesn't have the endurance.

leblancm wrote:

Oregon 3A. I believe that the 6A 800 winner was something like 1:52. The same kid won the 400 and 800 this year which is surprising because a 48.16 should mean that he can run much faster than a 2:01... I guess he just doesn't have the endurance.

Or because only the 300m hurdles falls between the 400 and 800 finals. In a state meet format, that's likely 30 minutes recovery...

Based off of IAAF time tables your best time out of those events is the 400m (583) but because it's your best in comparison to the 200m (581), by just a little bit, and much better than the 100m (521). Those points in parentheses represent the level at which each is compared to the other according to the tables. Because you have good 200 speed, better 400 speed, but lower 100 speed, I wouldn't be surprised if you're a 400 or 800 runner with a focus on the endurance side of those events with good base speed. So what I'm saying is that you could probably improve a lot by running more miles per week and also doing speed workouts as well as form drills and strength. I could be wrong though, you could be a 400 runner on the speed side but I think that my original opinion is correct.

I'm a distance runner so of course I probably have a large bias towards aerobic improvement in track but my scores for my PRs are 800m - 347, 1600m - 493, 3200m - 423 (I could run faster than that level though). Some people would disagree with the IAAF tables but I think they give good equivalencies for respective times even though you're probably not going to be evenly balanced. Because of that acknowledgement my times are 2:20, 4:56, and 10:59, respectively. I'm obviously a mile runner but I'm probably pretty good in the 2 mile if I only had done it at my final meet.

What does that mean for you? I haven't ran for the longest, I'm a senior who has ran for the better part of the last two years since junior year XC. Since you haven't ran much, I do suspect you could run better at 400m and maybe 800m if you trained for them.

wut? wrote:

leblancm wrote:

Oregon 3A. I believe that the 6A 800 winner was something like 1:52. The same kid won the 400 and 800 this year which is surprising because a 48.16 should mean that he can run much faster than a 2:01... I guess he just doesn't have the endurance.

Or because only the 300m hurdles falls between the 400 and 800 finals. In a state meet format, that's likely 30 minutes recovery...

I believe he had a little more than an hour of recovery because they did 1A 2A 3A girls and boys 110m hurdles and then girls 1-3A and boys 1-2A 800m between when he ran the 400 and 800, but I still see how that could easily affect his time in the 800.

leblancm wrote:

The winning state times from events this year were:

100m: 11.2

200m: 22.47

400m: 48.15

800m: 2:01

1500: 4:12

The 8 and 15 are by far the weakest of these times (with the 48.15 being dramatically stronger than everything else). You've got a 55 second quarter, so I'd say make use of that speed; run cross in the fall, and then see what you can do over 800 on the track.

Dang, besides what I said earlier, the times seem to be top 12 in the 3a division that go to state which I assume is probably based on some other thing like get a place at a district or regional meet. So the top 12 according to Athletic.net are 2:05 or faster for the 800 and 52.9 or faster for the 400. For your state though the 400 has prelims and 8 person final, the 800 is just a final with 12 people so that raises another issue of being in the final, or just going to state in general. Even though those are the actual top 12 times, the 2 slowest got PRs in the race at state with 2:08 so you should, with enough quality endurance training, be able to easily make it to state. There's a freshman on my team who runs around 54-55 in the 400 and recently ran a 2:01 so you could probably get under 2:05 by next year.