Athlete is training too slow

Maybe he's tired because he's on Tik Tok until 2:41am every night.

Get off the forum, Andy.

I wonder if he isn't eating and hydrating enough. Assuming his household is food secure, he could be forgetting to eat enough. School helps kids with routines, even eating routines. He might just not have good nutrition skills.

It's summer, so I would focus on the team's wellbeing and not times. Slow running isn't necessarily 'bad'.

That said, if you feel something is off, then I would check in with and ask him how he is doing. He might tell you what's going on. If it's an eating issue, then educate. If it's a heat issue, then consider having earlier practices or give him the opportunity to train earlier on his own. He might acclimated, so also help him understand that some people struggle with heat - he's not alone and sometimes it takes time for people to acclimate. Educate on good hydration practices. It could be something else too...like an injury, and hopefully he feels comfortable enough to talk with you about it.

I find it heartening that on this forum where we all tend to be sarcastic and cynical, everyone is putting the young man's well-being as our top priority. When it matters, we care about people.

Serum ferritin is a good thought. Heat. Overall rest. Not worrying about paces. Does he have an active job that fatigues him? Did he get enough of a break after track? All of the above.

Wow... some pretty mean responses. Just was asking a question given his falloff. Wasn't expecting to be attacked. Thanks for the suggestion on iron, honestly hadn't though about that. To those saying don't worry about pace... I disagree. Is he a young runner without a big background? Yes. Was he running 7:00-7:30 pace comfortably 6 weeks ago? Yes. Asking if it was something I should be worried about should indicate to the critical morons on this board that I don't know if I should be concerned. The very helpful people said "maybe... get his iron checked". The ones who say "don't worry about pace" are the ones not looking out for the wellbeing of my athlete as running 1-2+min slower on easy days seems like it could be indicative of a problem... and that's what I wanted advice on. WRT a suggested training pace for his tempo... I gave hIm a suggested time because this particular athlete has a very hard time judging effort and he wanted to understand what a tempo pace should feel like. Interestingly, his Garmin said he was zone 3... so I guess it was all right afterall?

don't put so much pressure on long continuous workouts in the heat and humidity. if you want him to get 3 miles of running in at 6:30-6:45, you're much better off splitting it into a 3x mile workout going 6:45, 6:37, 6:30 with 2 minutes rest. in the summertime heat and humidity longer reps get exponentially tougher. similarly with the easy mileage, as long as he's putting in the minutes of running and is getting some good workouts done each week, the exact pace doesn't matter so much right now. also, ask him how he's feeling and what he responds to in training, both physically and emotionally. you could have the best training plan in the world, but if he doesn't believe in it/isn't excited to do it, it won't work.

one other thing - hydration and cooling is a huge help in summer weather. i've had tons of runs where i feel like crap, only to come back inside and pee dark yellow. just dehydrated. encourage drinking an electrolyte mix 30 min before going out for a run/workout. similarly, in the middle of a broken tempo (like the 3x mile workout above), it's a good idea to have a water bottle with ice water that he can pour on his head, face, back of neck, and forearms to cool down between reps

Everyone here talking about heat, totally neglecting it's a high school kid on summer vacation. Here is probably his daily routine:

10am: Wake up
11:15am: 1st meal of the day--a gatorade, chips, and a cookie
2pm: second gatorade and/or energy drink
3pm: practice in the heat of the day.
6pm: eat real food for the first time all day.
11:30pm: third gatorade, chips/popcorn
2am: finally go to sleep after video games/ social media/ etc.

Have him evaluate his diet and daily routines in conjunction with blood test for at least iron and ferritin (you have to ask explicitly for both in my experience). If all that checks out then start evaluating training.

what kind of chips?

Yes! I used to eat waffles, maple syrup and cereal all day long.

Agree 100% with this. 40 mpw is too much for this kid after a 2 week break and only 3 weeks into summer training.

Does your athlete ever race? How is his race performance? Surely thats what matters.

He needs his confidence built up to run well going into races, not to be told by his coach he isn't making times, etc..

Here's my coaching advice fwiw:

1) It should be obvious that 8:30 to 8:45 pace is fine for easy running for a 10:40 guy who is better at the mile and who is unlikely to be in peak shape. I would worry more about him running 7:30 on easy days in the spring than I would about him running his current pace on hot, humid days in the summer (presumably not on terrain that's a fast a track). All of the adaptations that you seek are happening at 8:45 pace, so why do you want him to be more tired than he has to be when he's ramping up mileage?

2) He wasn't up for a tempo run at 6:45 pace. I'm guessing that he's capable of it, even in this weather, when he's not in the middle of a sudden 30% ramp in mileage. But a 3-mile tempo is a hard workout for a lot of high school kids. I agree with the poster above who recommended broken tempos at this point . . . or fartlek or something else a little easier. Again, you get most of the same benefits without the needless pressure and stress to the body. But as far as I can tell, you are talking about one single workout. That should never be a cause for serious concern.

3) Asking him to get a blood test or looking into "underlying problems" at this point would be sending a terrible message that his perfectly reasonable pacing is inadequate.

The real problem is you have him running easy runs too fast. Stop micromanaging everything. Easy run pace is the last thing to worry about in trading. States is 4 months away

Seriously, why are you guys attacking me for wanting to know if I should be worried about him? I get it. I shouldn't be and maybe should get his iron checked. That's good enough for me without all the insults about being a bad coach, micro managing, etc. Last time on these boards. Thanks for the help to those who made great suggestions.

Not a single person "attacked" you, unless your bar for attacks is ridiculously low. You were offered some criticism - if you were a professional you would just take it or leave it without pissing yourself here.

5/10 trollinger points. You are not the good Australien coach which has the same name, you are fake.

Please be patient.

If weren't timing him you probably wouldn't wonder if you should be worried about him. It's summer. It's usually uncomfortably warm. He's running more than he's used to. And it seems as if he CAN run at the kind of pace you think he should be running if he has others to run with who are running that pace. Call it an attack if you want but I do think micro managing is a good description of what you're doing here.