Never ran XC or TF before. I ran a HM 2 weeks ago and I was wondering how I would do

1:18 is an excellent time for a 15-year old with only informal training. You should definitely run XC in the fall and track in the spring. Contact the XC coach before school's out if possible to see how summer training is structured - it might start in June, or it might start in August. Until then, keep doing what you're doing. Just don't get too greedy, and watch out for injuries.

You're probably in shape right now to break 5:00 in a mile, run around 10:30 for 3200, or be close to 17:00 in a 5K. In a large high school with a large and competitive distance program, those are solid JV times. In an average high school program, you'd be in the top 1-3 places on the varsity team. And you can expect to run significantly faster once you have some structured training behind you.

Do not do XC.

1:18 for a hm tells me you have a decent amount of aerobic endurance.

Do middle distance events.

You’ll be hotter that way.

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My first he was 1:17 and I weighed 115 pounds.

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That was with ITB and Achilles tendinitis

my 2c wrote:

1:18 is an excellent time for a 15-year old with only informal training. You should definitely run XC in the fall and track in the spring. Contact the XC coach before school's out if possible to see how summer training is structured - it might start in June, or it might start in August. Until then, keep doing what you're doing. Just don't get too greedy, and watch out for injuries.

You're probably in shape right now to break 5:00 in a mile, run around 10:30 for 3200, or be close to 17:00 in a 5K. In a large high school with a large and competitive distance program, those are solid JV times. In an average high school program, you'd be in the top 1-3 places on the varsity team. And you can expect to run significantly faster once you have some structured training behind you.

You're a complete idiot. He runs 1:18 and he is 15, so clearly aerobically underdeveloped... that's 13.1 sub 6's in a row. If he stepped on the track right now he'd be sub-4:30, maybe around 9:30 -5 and would be sub 16:30 in the 5k, just as a rust buster, and faster after a couple of races. OP, definitely do XC and track (don't do indoor - you don't need to race 9 months of the year. Train over the winter).

For perspective, I have run 4:39 recently and can barely string together 10 6:40's.

Good luck OP.

5:00? What are you smoking? wrote:

You're a complete idiot.

I agree, You're a complete idiot.

I have been talking to the XC coach and he seems pretty happy to have me on the team. I don't know how competitive we are. My dad was also a runner and did XC in HS, and I think his PR was 15 something but I can check on that. What is considered a good time versus a great time? I know most of the top athletes are in the 14s but when I found that it was 3 4:40 miles I was pretty shocked..

XC/TF? wrote:

I have been talking to the XC coach and he seems pretty happy to have me on the team. I don't know how competitive we are. My dad was also a runner and did XC in HS, and I think his PR was 15 something but I can check on that. What is considered a good time versus a great time? I know most of the top athletes are in the 14s but when I found that it was 3 4:40 miles I was pretty shocked..

Depends on the course. So XC courses are just slower due to there being more hills and such vs a course that may be almost entirely slightly down hill.

A great time is sub 13, a good time is a $250k salary, supermodel wife (that does laundry) and a sub 14

DistanceRunner68 wrote:

XC/TF? wrote:

I have been talking to the XC coach and he seems pretty happy to have me on the team. I don't know how competitive we are. My dad was also a runner and did XC in HS, and I think his PR was 15 something but I can check on that. What is considered a good time versus a great time? I know most of the top athletes are in the 14s but when I found that it was 3 4:40 miles I was pretty shocked..

Depends on the course. So XC courses are just slower due to there being more hills and such vs a course that may be almost entirely slightly down hill.

If a course is hilly doesn't it usually finish around the same elevation so it evens out? Or are there races where you climb the whole way?

5:00? What are you smoking? wrote:

... If he stepped on the track right now he'd be sub-4:30 (mile)...

I can run 1:16 in the HM, but can't break 4:50 in the mile. 1:18 does not mean sub 4:30, 100% no way.

XC/TF? wrote:

[

I have been talking to the XC coach and he seems pretty happy to have me on the team. I don't know how competitive we are. My dad was also a runner and did XC in HS, and I think his PR was 15 something but I can check on that. What is considered a good time versus a great time? I know most of the top athletes are in the 14s but when I found that it was 3 4:40 miles I was pretty shocked..

gong. 3/10

Took it too far.

XC/TF? wrote:

DistanceRunner68 wrote:

Depends on the course. So XC courses are just slower due to there being more hills and such vs a course that may be almost entirely slightly down hill.

If a course is hilly doesn't it usually finish around the same elevation so it evens out? Or are there races where you climb the whole way?

Assuming this isn’t a troll, even if you start/end at the same place, the hills will still affect your time because going uphill is harder and the speed you lose on the uphill you can’t get back on the downhill. Grass is also slower than road.

LoneStarXC wrote:

XC/TF? wrote:

If a course is hilly doesn't it usually finish around the same elevation so it evens out? Or are there races where you climb the whole way?

Assuming this isn’t a troll, even if you start/end at the same place, the hills will still affect your time because going uphill is harder and the speed you lose on the uphill you can’t get back on the downhill. Grass is also slower than road.

This wasn't intended as a joke. I was just curious. About how slower is grass compared to a road time?

XC/TF? wrote:

LoneStarXC wrote:

Assuming this isn’t a troll, even if you start/end at the same place, the hills will still affect your time because going uphill is harder and the speed you lose on the uphill you can’t get back on the downhill. Grass is also slower than road.

This wasn't intended as a joke. I was just curious. About how slower is grass compared to a road time?

It depends on the course. A course with mud and high grass will always be slower than a race held on a golf course.

It's logical to make predictions on your 5K XC potential based on your 1/2 Marathon. For 1500m to one mile ability, we need to know your 400m & 800m skills. I had two high school T&F teammates whom raced 800m in the 1:59 to 2:01 range. They raced one mile in the 4:35 to 4:45 range. One was about a 17:30 5K XC runners, the other about an 18:00 5K XC runner. Those saying 4:30 and those saying 5:00 for your one mile ability based on your 1/2 Marathon results are simply making wild ass guesses. Volunteer for the 4 x 400m relay and find out!

Don't do it! It sounds like you already told the school you run, so the cat's out of the bag. That was a mistake. Keep doing what you're doing. The school doesn't have anything to offer you. I ran at your age and was the best distance runner in the a school district but wouldn't have amounted to anything if I felt the need to bring coaches and school officials in on it.

The secret (this is no secret in Kenya but certainly is here) to distance running success is to avoid the official school programs. Just ask Ingebritsen. Or ask Haile and KB. The only potential snag is peer pressure. The track coach didn't know I existed so I didn't get any static around campus from that front but I occasionally ran past 'the team' during XC season. Of course they were torqued off but my training group included the good distance runners at school (anyone who could finish a marathon and certainly anyone going under 3) so who cares what those losers thought?

You probably will join the team and never break your current PRs but don't say you weren't warned.

XC/TF? wrote:

DistanceRunner68 wrote:

Depends on the course. So XC courses are just slower due to there being more hills and such vs a course that may be almost entirely slightly down hill.

If a course is hilly doesn't it usually finish around the same elevation so it evens out? Or are there races where you climb the whole way?

Yes but the way the hills and downhills come will greatly affect one's time. For example, let's say there are two course with 200 feet worth of hills and 200 feet worth of downhills. One course 1, there are 4 hills that are each 50 feet high. The course rolls from a flat field into a steep 50 foot down hill goes about 30 feet, then goes up a steep 50 foot tall hill (so basically like a little valley). The other 3 hills on the course are almost identical to this one. On course 2, there are 7 hills total with an equal amount of down hill following the preceding hill. These hills and down hills are very very gradual. In this situation, course 1 would be much slower than course 2. On course 1, the runner would not be able to use the momentum gained on the downhill because of the almost immediate uphill. The steep hill would also take more out of the runners legs than a longer, gradual hill would (at least in my experience), thus leading to a harder, slower course. On course 2, the runner's momentum would be easier to maintain (or at least would be maintained longer) when going up the very gradual hill, even though the hill would be "longer". On the downhill, the runner would most likely be able to pick up more speed (again, at least in my experience) and that speed/momentum would be cared longer and be more beneficial since it is not being taken away the sudden, steep hill on course 1.

Here's a suggestion. Look up some results for your high school XC team from 2017. You can probably find results for the state meet or a major invitational on a course people will know. Then you could characterize the team here as something like, "They had 1 guy under 16, and 2 guys under 17 on the Mt. Sac course," and still keep the school anonymous while letting people know how competitive the team is, especially since there are multiple meets on many courses during a season.

As for the equivalent mile time, my best guess is based on plugging in 1:18:30 into Jack Daniels's VDOT calculator and going with what it gave me. Keep in mind that the estimate comes with a high degree of uncertainty.