XC and sprint/mid distance track

6 minute improvement? He is doing something right!

He started very slowly?! His first race was around 28:30 and he finished the year under 22:30. It was really fun to watch him PR almost every race. He told me about halfway through the season that he always thought people were either fast or slow. That was the first time it really clicked that running/ hard work would make you faster.

Good luck to him. XC is a great way to develop aerobic strength and if his coach still kept touch with fast running he should see his track times should drop. I have been recently coaching my group with more of an emphasis on XC (preparing athletes for World XC) and one of my junior boys ran 1:52 and 3:51 just 2 weeks after racing 8kXC. Good luck and make sure your son is doing short hill efforts!

Regular hill training is tough as we live in the flattest state in the country! He tries to make up for this by running in sand. His first meet is today. He's running the 100 4x100 and 3200?‍♀️. It will be fun to see where he's starting at. He's only 12 and running against big schools today, so he'll definetely be at the back of the pack. He was really excited to be big enough for men's spikes. During XC, he had to wade through a sea women's spikes to find sombre that weren't pink or people because his foot was so small?

Meet #1 is in the books! He had a blast and learned a lot! It really is amazing how much boys grow during middle/ high school. At 5'3 and 98 pounds, he looked like a little kid among grown men?! He didn't finish last in either of his races, and his relay team finished in the middle of the pack, so he was thrilled. Although he hopes to never run the 3200 again, he said his pacing was way too slow and he could have easily run another mile at that pace. He does like being on the track though. He said he would have stopped and walked on a XC course where people couldn't see him. It will be fun to watch these times drop through the season!

Meet #2 is in the books! We have a first year coach this year who placed people in races without regard to when they were. Because of this, my little bit ran the 100, 1600, 4x100, and 400 back to back to back to back. It really showed by the 400, but he was pretty happy with all the times (PR in all the individual races). There was a lot of complaining and several kids that skipped races after running in the previous event, so I'm sure it won't happen again.

100: 0.07 second PR- he felt like his start was really bad, so he was pumped to take time off (no matter how small!)

400: 1st race- matched his PR from practice at the end of that killer hour(ish)

1600: 1st race- took almost 15 seconds off his practice PR.

He feels like he's back in the shape he was in around the end of XC and is hoping for a PR on an easy, flat charity 5k Saturday.

Today was meet #3 . He ran the 1600 (under 6:30) and 400 (under 80). No PRs, but he was really close to his previous times. Today's meet was huge, and he sounded a little down about it. I'm glad they have a meet with other small schools next week. It will be nice to see lots of other middle schoolers/slower runners on the track. I'm trying to not ask him too much about what they're doing in practice, but it doesn't seem like they're putting in many miles. I'm glad to have a place to obsess some over times, since I am trying to just be a cheerleader to him!

Another meet in the books! It seems like he's getting the hang of pacing for the 1600. He took off 10ish seconds and is under 6:15. He's hoping to get under 6 this year, so this jump was exciting! We don't have another meet until the end of the month, so I'm hoping this will encourage him to run some while he's off for spring break.

He didn't PR in the 400, but he was thrown last minute into the 4x100, so it was a lot of races back to back. He also ran the 200 for the first time today.

If anyone is reading this, what are your thoughts on running so many events so close together? He's obviously not performing as well in later events as he could if he was doing fewer events. However, he's young and not anywhere near the top (so his times and where he places don't really matter). He's excited to jump in when one of the bigger/ stronger/ faster older kids is whining about doing the 4x100 "right after" doing the 100 (with his 1600 between). He always looks tired running the 400, but he comes back smiling. He would probably run every race if they would let him!