5:11 to 4:15 miler

8:00 as a HS Freshman

5:10 as a HS Senior

4:31 as a College Senior

My bests:

Freshman at beginning of year. 6:21, at end of year 5:40.

Senior year. 4:35

Expo21 wrote:

My freshman year I ran 5:11 and by my senior year I was a 4:15 miler.

I want to know how often you guys see runners improve this much over there highschool career.

Do you think it's a factor of discovering talent/potential or just hard work?

I believe that hard work alone won't bring one down to 4:15. However, talent doesn't show itself with many freshmen boys if they are not physically mature. All coaches who have been in the sport for a long period of time can relate stories of kids who initially showed very little. But with time, work, and physical maturity there was incredible improvement.

I went to a 3 year school back when we ran the actual mile:

Soph - 4:48

Junior - 4:29

Senior - 4:16

I'm guessing I was around a 5:15 runner in 9th. So my progression was similar to yours.

I progressed far more than all my team mates. Several of us were about the same in 10th. No one else broke 4:30.

In my case, I think it was late developmentI was 5-7 112 in 10th grade, and 5'11 140 as a senior (am now 6-1). However, I also consistently trained in 11 and 12th grade. Up from 20-25mpw in 10th, to 40-50 in 11th, up to around 60 mpw in 12th.

Trainability is a type of talent.

Also, J46 is correct about maturity. If you were a late-bloomer, that helps.

I have a fun 800m progression from freshman to junior year of HS:

2:10

2:03

1:51

East Wichita HS wrote:

5:35 beginning of sophomore year.

4:07 end of sophomore year.

No way. That's a a 1:17 improvement. You should link to some results if that's true. But that's almost a sophomore national record. the same track season or a full school year?

2:14 800 sophomore year to 1:55.2 junior year lmao

Inigomontoya wrote:

East Wichita HS wrote:

5:35 beginning of sophomore year.

4:07 end of sophomore year.

No way. That's a a 1:17 improvement. You should link to some results if that's true. But that's almost a sophomore national record. the same track season or a full school year?

He's just quoting (correctly) Jim Ryun's progression.

I improved from 6:22 in an 8th grade time trial to 4:38 as a senior. That's could easily be my lifetime PR, since I won't be running in college.

In 5 years I went from 5:03/2:13 to 3:59(1500)/1:55 not quite as big a drop but I'd say it's solid.

8th Grade 5:00

9th Grade 4:29

10th Grade 4:21

11th Grade 4:14

10th Grade 4:10

Also went from 9:42 to 9:04 from freshman to sr year

Inigomontoya wrote:

East Wichita HS wrote:

5:35 beginning of sophomore year.

4:07 end of sophomore year.

No way. That's a a 1:17 improvement. You should link to some results if that's true. But that's almost a sophomore national record. the same track season or a full school year?

You've heard of Jim Ryun, right?

Is that what Jim Ryun's improvement was? I thought you were saying you had done it.