Stupid workouts before State meet

Backing off does not work for my son. He recently did a similar workout and thrashed out a PR by over :20.

theJeff wrote:

I can think of something even dumber: complaining on a message board instead of asking your kid's coach directly.

Be an adult. Talk to the coach. (Even better, encourage your kid to talk to the coach directly, and maybe they will have a little more backbone than your parents gave you.)

I think you're assuming it would make a difference and that the coach hasn't been talked to before. The school also has a policy about discussing training, strategy, and team policy with coaches. The policy is "don't".

Cute post otherwise.

XcUc wrote:

theJeff wrote:

I can think of something even dumber: complaining on a message board instead of asking your kid's coach directly.

Be an adult. Talk to the coach. (Even better, encourage your kid to talk to the coach directly, and maybe they will have a little more backbone than your parents gave you.)

I think you're assuming it would make a difference and that the coach hasn't been talked to before. The school also has a policy about discussing training, strategy, and team policy with coaches. The policy is "don't".

Cute post otherwise.

1. I don't believe you.

2. If that is the case, ignore the rule and have your child talk to the coach.

3. If your child doesn't get a satisfactory answer, escalate by meeting as a family with the coach and AD.

4. Report back.

OR

1. Whine on the internet while no positive changes occur.

Your choice. All the best.

This sounds like a solid pre state workout. Should feel easy if the team runs it at race pace with rest.

The week I won the state 1600m title (Saturday), I ran 4x800 at 2:30 (felt dumb easy) on Tuesday and 8x200 (30-28) on Thursday.

Let the coach be the coach.

Sounds perfect. You have 5 days to recover from 3 miles of work. Back off too much and you'll come up flat. If your team is like most teams, you've been doing a race or hard workout every Tuesday or Wednesday and then racing on Saturday. You'll actually have more recovery than you're used to.

Yeah I wouldn't be concerned. That's a solid workout and plenty of recovery before the meet. I also agree that when the intervals become too short at the end of the season, you can lose that ability to push through sustained pain during the race .

Seriously though, 800, 600, 400 at 5k race pace isn't hard. For highschool the focused race pace running would pay larger dividends through good pacing than being SLIGHTLY more rested.

If it's maths then it's states wrote:

XcUc wrote:

My kids team is doing 5400m of long race pace intervals (800, 1000, 1200s) five days before the state meet.

Can anyone top that stupid workout?

tl;dr

Please, in future posts, refer to it as "states" not "state meet". Moran.

All the best states call it the State Meet.

There aren't multiple states in your state.

Danny Bandana wrote:

If it's maths then it's states wrote:

tl;dr

Please, in future posts, refer to it as "states" not "state meet". Moran.

All the best states call it the State Meet.

There aren't multiple states in your state.

"States" I sent a stupid term, held onto by relics of the jurassic period. These dinosaurs like the term because each state has multiple leagues & regions, so a state may have a bunch of league meets, "leagues", then multiple regional championships, "regionals" . And then these dinosaurs forgot their grammars, so after regionals, you go to "States". Makes perfect senses....

One state championships = "States" to the aging dinosaurs who don'ts wants to changes their wayses.

There is such thing as too much taper. Workout sounds fine. Plenty of time to recover. Best to stay close to the routine they’ve established so as to not mess with their metabolism and end up being sluggish on race day.

XcUc wrote:

My kids team is doing 5400m of long race pace intervals (800, 1000, 1200s) five days before the state meet.

Can anyone top that stupid workout?

That does not seem that stupid to me. A 15:30 5k runner is doing race pace for a total of 5.4k with not interval lower than 1200 5 days out? That's no where near crazy. In fact, it sounds about right to me.

Not before state, but before indoor track conference in college:

3 mile "tempo" run in 14:40

3 min rest

3 x mile in 4:40 with 1 min rest

I swear that was one of the best workouts of my life. Went on the to have the worst conference meet as a distance squad ever.

5400m of work is really not that much, and 5 days is plenty of time to recover. Doesn't really raise any red flags with me, but like others said context is key.

I don't see an issue. I mean, besides some spoiled kid's parent whining online of course.

"My kids team is doing 5400m of long race pace intervals (800, 1000, 1200s) five days before the state meet.

Can anyone top that stupid workout?"

Since you are well-versed on training methodology, and have vast experience that indicates that 5k of work for a high school cross country team five days before state is tooo much, you should probably apply for the coaching job yourself. Better yet, organize all the parents together, oust the current coach, and then you can coach as you see fit.

Or apply for a job at another school, take your child with you, and then you can coach your child to your heart's content. Either way, I don't care.

It's parents like you that make coaches who constantly sacrifice their time and energy, spend countless hours in professional development and coaching clinics, working as hard as possible to help your child reach their full potential, all while receiving minimal compensation (minus what we end up spending on the team out of our own pockets) all while teaching full-time as well, question why we do it. I've seen a number of potentially great athletes inhibited by their meddling parents, always questioning everything that is done. And in the end, you feel devastated as a coach when they underperform at big meets because their complaining parents have planted huge seeds of doubts in their mind. Meanwhile, athletes with supportive parents seem to excel while doing the same workouts/training.

XcUc wrote:

theJeff wrote:

I can think of something even dumber: complaining on a message board instead of asking your kid's coach directly.

Be an adult. Talk to the coach. (Even better, encourage your kid to talk to the coach directly, and maybe they will have a little more backbone than your parents gave you.)

I think you're assuming it would make a difference and that the coach hasn't been talked to before. The school also has a policy about discussing training, strategy, and team policy with coaches. The policy is "don't".

Cute post otherwise.

Gee, I wonder why they have that policy.

gobluesasquatch wrote:

Found the coach. Lol!

Fat Joe wrote:

Sounds perfect. You have 5 days to recover from 3 miles of work. Back off too much and you'll come up flat. If your team is like most teams, you've been doing a race or hard workout every Tuesday or Wednesday and then racing on Saturday. You'll actually have more recovery than you're used to.

Yeah this isn't too crazy. 5 days is enough to recover from pretty much anything when you are an 17 year old other than doing something like running 20 miles. Move the workout to 2 days before hand and we can talk about being crazy.

Those 400s before the race (either morning or day before) always sound crazy but most of the time the idea is to do them at a moderate pace (1500+) with a lots of rest. It isn't something that tires you out. It is basically just a bunch of long strides

5 days before provides a lot of recovery, I don't see anything wrong with it depends how it's run. My go to sharpening workout was 1600-1200-2x800-2x400.

How

800+1000+1200 = 3000 meters

Two more 1200 m makes it 5400 m

or

3 more 800 m makes it 5400 m

Would other permutations that include all of an 800, 1000, and 1200 get to 5400 m. I call BS.