speedy is it wrote:
Really? What place did your team finish at NXN? Our team finished 4th in our region last year and we only have 5 girls under 5:45.
While I think the OP is crazy to think most women can break 5:45 if they train hard, it also seems hard to believe that a team with the 5th runner around 5:45, and therefore likely over 20min for a 5k, could be competitive in the NXN scene. Or was your 5th runner well under 5:45 and you just don't have more?
I ran at two different high schools, on 'very good' teams (we were always state champ or runners up) though admittedly in a smaller region where the talent level isn't crazy high. I was a ~5:30 mile runner, and fluctuated between the 3rd and 7th runner on my team. At our league track champs one year, I ran 5:30 which was good enough for 6th place and 'all league' honors. Suffice it to say, while you don't need a crazy amount of talent to break 5:45, the majority of the girls on the team, most of whom trained as hard as I did, would have loved to break 5:45. I'd estimate it as something like 5-10% of the population could do it with a moderate some level of training.
He said 12 runners under 5:45 which would likely put the 5th at 5:20. Take a look at the Heatland Region. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, teams do not have anywhere near 12 girls that fast.
Well, according to Athletic.net, about 20% of female track athletes hit that mark, based on people with at least one time registered. So you with some natural talent, the willingness to train, and to work hard at it, should hit that mark. Quick math says about 1% of girls run track, so we are talking .2% overall, maybe double given other sports. So I’d say top 1% is a good upper bound.
No. My daughter's cross country team has 75 girls on it. Most will never run a mile that gets put into Athletic.net. Most meets only permit 2 entries. The majority of the girls only get to run in JV meets, most of which don't make it into the database. Her team had about 150 girls on it and about 5 broke 5:45.
Talent is everywhere. It is based on the activity level of the athletes that you work with. I'm pretty confident that if I saw an athlete at my training sessions 4x per week for 6-10 months they would run very well. I have had females with very little talent run 5:20-5:25 for 1500m.
Good luck! When you feel like being good head out the door. The only limiter is in your mind.
coahc wrote:
Talent is everywhere. It is based on the activity level of the athletes that you work with. I'm pretty confident that if I saw an athlete at my training sessions 4x per week for 6-10 months they would run very well. I have had females with very little talent run 5:20-5:25 for 1500m.
Good luck! When you feel like being good head out the door. The only limiter is in your mind.
Very little talent = not winners of genetic lottery.