College Track has CHANGED in 15 years (with data)

I’ll shut up after this but a few more things.

1. the meets are way way better than even 10 years ago. These super meets where hundreds of people run the same event are awesome (Boston Seattle Azusa outdoors)

2. the good kids are going to the best programs (if not then they can transfer in later)

3. High school kids are training so much better and harder than before. They are ready when they get to school. No more taking two years to adjust to training

The key to understand this, is the EFFECTs of the knowledge, and here is an analogy:

Years ago, when the Japanese economy was known as the Asian Tiger, and their automotive industry was crushing the USA domestic market, there was some circulated video of the Japanese high-school and middle-school students, showing them with kerchief bands around their heads, all dressed in the same uniform, all studying away with pencils in hand, for hours on end. It was commented they would work so hard, because they could see their fellow students next to them working very hard, as well.

Right, because social media and strava weren’t around 10 years ago. If knowledge were the reason, we would have seen 100+ US runners sub 4 in 2013, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. But we didn’t. US sub 4 averaged was around 60 for those years - then in ‘22 it hit 100 for first time ever. ‘20 was Covid. ‘21 although there was a big jump in times, sub 4 was 60 (not everyone was using the shoes). By ‘22 everyone had them. If they don’t make a difference, why pay for them?

They weren’t around 10 years ago nearly to the degree they are now. They have exploded exponentially over the last 10 years, along with the power and ubiquity of the smart phone, and the knowledge being decimated to high school athletes has exploded exponentially, raising their performances, which in turn, becomes reciprocative and reinforcing.

“They”, meaning strava, Tik Tok, Instagram.

As a glaring example, this website, and others like CitiusMag, the latter heavily living off of social media directly, popularized knowledge of The Valby Training Protocol, the knowledge of which salvaged an injured high school girl’s running career (Elizabeth Leachman), and helped in turning her into a “generational talent”.

I agree with all of this, and if it is in fact overwhelming due to the reciprocative effects of knowledge, rather than just track shoes, then we should see this effect in the improvements of other sports, like gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, soccer, etc.

Do you wear super shoes? If so, why?

…YouTube, which is a huge disseminator of Knowledge germane to this topic (race results, training, nutrition, recovery, etc), so if what I’m saying is true, then the practices of USATF and Runnerspace, where they want to gatekeep knowledge (videos of races) and make high schoolers pay for it, is greatly counterproductive to improving the sport.

I’m a geezer, so don’t have what would be considered super track shoes, since I don’t run track races. Super shoes would have minimal effects on the big improvement we see in cross-country times, as well.

But from the perspective of a geezer that remembers the introduction of the IBM “personal computer”, what we are now seeing with social media and the smart phone are unprecedented.

Edit: *deciminated. (The AI grammar auto-correct is not ubiquitous….yet.)

As another example, if some high school coach just 10 years ago had said, “4:20 in the mile for a high schooler is not that fast, it’s just not”, would have barely made a ripple, but the timing was right with the technical dissemination of knowledge today to make that statement go viral to where probably every high school athlete runner in the nation today has heard that phrase, and its origin.

Fair enough. But I can’t agree that fast times are due to the internet and social media. I was on strava back in 2014. I was on it daily. I got a lot of good info. I’ve been on social media since 2008. Letsrun and the internet have been around forever. These are all great resources. But they aren’t the reason for the uptick in fast times. You’re telling me that US sub 4 average went from 60 to over 100 in one year because of strava and instagram? What secret strava training technique(s) are runners doing now that they weren’t doing in 2019?

We are seeing the effects of TECHNOCRACY’s exponential dissemination of knowledge in other realms of life beyond sports. For example, ‘’Average joes’ are learning how to troubleshoot a problem with their car or AC, people are becoming better artists, etc, from knowledge gleaned from YouTube.

# of D1 indoor 4:00 miles went from 38 in 2021 to 90 in 2022.

There was a definite "boom" when the internet became more wide spread, and I think this second (third?) wave is just building on that same thing. There was just much much much more information on training and performance available to everyone.

In the 80's you would see the lists of top HS times in T&FN, but that's it. There were very very few national meets that attracted all those same athletes, so they rarely actually raced each other. For the most part HS kids ran fast enough to win their state meet, occasionally you had some outlier super star but that's it. (If you can win running a 9:20 3200 why train to run 8:50?)

All that has changed and it's creating some amazing performances.

The 1600 and 3200 records I set at my high school in 1984 were set earlier as the mile and two mile in the late 60s. Same thing. I had a bouncier track and better shoes. Same thing.

Pacing and going to more competitive meets makes a difference as well. When I was early in college I went to a larger BU meet and was in the 3d or 4th heat. Our rabbit was doubling back from the 800 and maybe had a 1:57 PB—we went out in 2:04 after being promised 2:00.

This was a pretty common occurrence at meets for me/my team. I think the quality of pacing/meets is a lot better now. Also it helps that nobody lets the pace lag a ton now in the regular season.

Now obviously the technology, footwear, and training matter too—but it’s worth calling out we lived in a “sit and kick” era not too long ago.

1. Access to information regarding training, reference examples and standards has increased at the general public level exponentially from the years 2000-2024 inclusive. An elementary school child in 2009 no longer needed a dad or a highschool coach with a T&F news subscription to be drawn into the sport, it was at the end of a computer mouse.

2. MORE of the general population better educated and/or inspired regarding running, expectations and opportunities.

3. As previously stated, MORE of the general population in adolescence achieving higher standards in running as a result.

4. MORE of the adolescent population qualifying for NCAA opportunities than previously, allowing MORE higher caliber athletes to enter the system and push the standard. Josh Kerr is an example of an academically below average (by his own admission) individual that would not have been given post-secondary opportunity in the UK. In the 2000-2009 era I would strongly argue he would not have been remotely as aware or capable of triggering the opportunity to run D1, comparatively to how supportive and in-demand that recruitment process had become by 2015 and beyond.