Why do kids in the US place such an emphasis on putting in 100k's+ p/w in high school?

Because it sounds cool to say they ran 100 miles in a week. That is all.

I'm not aware that very many kids are runnning 100 miles a week. Where are you getting this information?

I bet right now there are less than 10 in this country that even average over 85 miles a week on a yearly basis.

There were even less when I ran 25 years ago. I might have hit 100 two or three times in the summer and averaged 80 and there were probably only one or two others that were runing that kind of mileage.

Ok I see now you wrote 100 kilometer (60 miles).

Because it makes sense. If you can't break 5:00 for a mile and you are a freshman you will probably have to do that much if you would like to be a all-state champion runner. Plyos aren't going to do it for you.

Wait, a 15k jog in 45 min? that's quite the 'jog' (3min pace)

I'm certainly not mocking any sort of crowd, (well aware of the difference between 100miles and 100 kilometres) I was simply curious as to why american HS runners emphasise such a great deal of mileage, as when you look at all of the supposedly decent HS runners in the US a vast majority of them end up with stress fractures - German/Ritz/J.Rosa/Jager.

There are plenty of guys I know running less than 100k's p/w that excel in 5k/10k events and are of the HS age.

just wondering... wrote:

still places the aussie's in the same 'middle of the pack' area that the american's end up in, the mileage obsession doesn't appear to have helped any americans win major championship races over 10k.

I am not going to slag Australia, it is a great nation with some great running history. But 100k? That is a rest week. You aren't even in the game until you are running 80 mpw as a junior or senior.

just wondering... wrote:

Wait, a 15k jog in 45 min? that's quite the 'jog' (3min pace)

I'm certainly not mocking any sort of crowd, (well aware of the difference between 100miles and 100 kilometres) I was simply curious as to why american HS runners emphasise such a great deal of mileage, as when you look at all of the supposedly decent HS runners in the US a vast majority of them end up with stress fractures - German/Ritz/J.Rosa/Jager.

There are plenty of guys I know running less than 100k's p/w that excel in 5k/10k events and are of the HS age.

And then there are all the athletes who never run more than 45km a week and never crack 5:00 for 1500m but we just don't know all their names.

60 miles isn't even that much. I think 70 - 80 is in the high end of the medium range. Over 80 is a lot. 60 mph is pretty low.

just wondering... wrote:

Wait, a 15k jog in 45 min? that's quite the 'jog' (3min pace)

I'm certainly not mocking any sort of crowd, (well aware of the difference between 100miles and 100 kilometres)

I didn't say a 15k jog in 45min. I said 11mi (~17k) one day, and a 45min jog the next day to AVERAGE 14-15k (so 17k + say 11k in 45min = 28k = avg of 14k per day) over the course of two days.