Do High School teams run 7 days a week or take 1 day off a week????

Thanks for all the answers. I struggle with how hard to push the kids. Some kids think they want to go all out and train like hell, but as a coach I believe it's better to be well rounded. I've never had a kid come back and tell me they wish they trained more. I've had guys run 1:53, 4:12 and multiple sub 9:20. 6 days a week seems to make them fresher for workouts and long runs.

I've coached an NXN team, as well is six state champion teams and an individual champion. Have also had a few very average teams.

We run six days per week most of the time. Some freshmen run five days per week for quite a while until progressing to six. I've had one kid who ran every day. He was state champion. I had an NXN regional champion who ran six days per week except when he ran less. Much depends on the kid.

Developing kids over a long period of time means paying attention, and it means understanding that you're only a four year stop if they plan on continuing to run. There are lots of ways to do that. I like the six-day-a-week plan.

hs coaching hs wrote:

Flagpole. That seems like A LOT of work for a high school kid. I know lost of colleges who don't have their kids doing that much. How the heck do the kids find time for sleep and school work? I'd be interested to know how your top 14 kids do once they get to college? I see so many of these "powerhouse" teams in high school producing tired, worn out, used up kids who hate running once they get to college. Are coaches like you trying to get the best out of the kids in high school for the kids or for your own record/ego?

Well, if you add it all up, it's about 50 miles per week. That's a good amount, but it's not THAT much.

Over the last 5 years that I've been privy to the program, I see that most of the kids who go on to college actually continue to improve.

Finally, I am not the coach of these high school kids. It is a tough grind, but the cross country team is filled with super good students including my own daughter who has never had a B (meaning all As) ever, all the way back to elementary school. She actually finds that she has schedules her time better during the season because she has to. One thing that the top 14 don't have time for is a job. It is a lot of time devoted to the sport.

percy??? wrote:

Is this is joke?

No joke, brother. It really only adds up to about 50 miles a week. A couple of the guys actually add a few more miles to that so that the top 60.

Now, this is only done until post season. The long runs start to pare down and they tap for the meet they are targeting, whether it's the state meet or the meet that might get them there (Regionals). Also, typically the top 14 trained all summer which is why they are top 14.

I don't see why this is sui surprising. There are lots of high school kids who run 50 miles a week. This is a solid program, but it is not extreme.

wish he would stop wrote:

It is Flagpole. Can you take anything he says seriously?

My hand to God that this is an accurate depiction of what they do. Keep in mind the ranges. 10-14 miles. Not every runner will do 14 on a given day. If they are feeling a bit tired, they may drop it to 10 on that day. Also, the coaches recommend that ALL athletes step it back a little bit every 3 weeks. It's really not THAT much running. You can do that schedule and only about 45 miles in a week. I wish my high school did that.

You do have to be very dedicated to be top 14 in this program though. My kids leave the house at 6 a.m. and get home at 6 p.m. They have dinner and do homework until 10 p.m. (sometimes later) and then go to bed. Not much time during the week for much else. We made it clear to them both that cross country was their extra time away from studying. No morning practice on Fridays is nice, and then meet days seem like a piece of cake. Also, a 4-6 miler on Sunday seems like nothing when you sometimes run 14.

Fat Joe wrote:

Why would it be a joke? It's about 60 miles per week with a day of short reps, a day of long reps and a race. That's not too much for the top kids who have worked up to it. It will prepare them well for college. I've found that it's actually the kids who run well off 25 to 30 miles per week who make the poor transition to college. They're not ready for the increased work load of a college program.

Correct. Most of them don't hit 60 miles per week, and if they ever do, they don't typically do it every week. There are sometimes kids who run TOO much. One was running 70 MPW during the summer when the coach told everyone to top out at 45. This runner got injured and the coach was not happy.

hs coaching hs wrote:

I'm currious to hear from high school coaches on this topic. Do you have your kids run 6 days a week or 7 days a week and take off every once in a while? I struggle with how hard to push the kids.

I ask my athletes to run 7 days a week unless they are feeling sick, are injured, or have personal matters that keep them from running. The team will only practice 5-6 times a week though. We also come from a small school in a weak state so averaging 16:20s for 3 miles is good enough to be the state champion and you really don't need to train much more than 5-6 times a week to get there.

Back in '92-96 I did this...

Ran everday for 4 years...never took a day off.

Off season got up to 70-80mi. In season 50-60mi.

Off season included two hard runs...faster than what most would call tempo. We would blaze 3miles on tuesday then come back and tear up 5-8 miles on Thursday. 'Easy' runs at 645 or faster.

In season was two longer interval days per week. A shorter faster interval workout and a race. Looked similar to:

Offseason

Sun: 12-14

Mon: 8-10

Tue: 3- 17:00

Wed: 8-10

Thu: 8- 48:00

Fri: 8-10

Sat: 8-10

Inseason

Sun: 8x800 2:35-40 on grass 3min rec. 6min rec every mile

Mon: fast 200s in 32. 400s in 66. 800s in 2:12-15. Craziest was 4x1600 in 4:45 when pr was 4:27.

Tue: short run.

Wed. Race 5k. Low 16s

Thu: 6x800 like Sunday.

Fri: easy

Sat. Easy

Anyway it went something like that. ..3 harder efforts and a race...although the 800s had so much rest they were not hard.

At a school of only 400 students we sent 3 runners to state in track. Our xc team which barely had enough runners to score made it to semistate in a single class system. How many runners were injured in my 4 years? Zero.

Ran 2:05, 4:27, 9:32, 15:53 xc....20 yrs ago. Christ I feel old....still hold hs 1600,3200 and xc record

Alan

Johnny Rotten wrote:

I've coached an NXN team, as well is six state champion teams and an individual champion. Have also had a few very average teams.

We run six days per week most of the time. Some freshmen run five days per week for quite a while until progressing to six. I've had one kid who ran every day. He was state champion. I had an NXN regional champion who ran six days per week except when he ran less. Much depends on the kid.

Developing kids over a long period of time means paying attention, and it means understanding that you're only a four year stop if they plan on continuing to run. There are lots of ways to do that. I like the six-day-a-week plan.

This is the most thoughtful post I've seen on this thread