Training For a Sub 4 Mile -- Jacob Burcham

Scholarship?? wrote:

Even if he breaks 4, what major program would want to give this kid the full ride he probably wants?

Virtually every university in the US. He's signed with OU.

When I was in HS, I thought I hated running. The thought of running every by myself was foreign to me. I thought I only ran because I loved my team.

Then I got to college and realized I missed it as I was hurt and not running.

Does anyone know what his training is like?

I always say it's almost impossible to run must faster than HS times on HS training. So if you are running a max of 50 mpw , then it's harder to do better than about 4:10/9:00 for most guys. The real phenomes like a Centro jr can do a 4:05/8:50 off that.

If he's barely training, then he'll be fine. The lack of desire seems to indicate he wouldn't be training 100 mpw+.

I imagine his improvement has staganted as his training has stagnated. 4:04 really as a soph (3:46) and then 4:02 last year.

I do admit his form looked bad but form is overrated.

What's his training like??

The kid actually comes off as pretty mature for a 17 year old West Virginia kid (but the driving's going to get him killed if he isn't careful), he's on the edge of obsessive about running as it is with 3:58 signs all over his house, so it's good if he does some other activities, and how many others have ever run 4:02 as a high school junior? That's as fast or faster than Rupp as a senior, faster than Webb as a junior (though injury or illness put an early end to his junior season), faster than Hall ever ran, slower than Ryun, but faster than Verzbicas, etc. He is obviously hugely talented. And if his shape and form don't look all that great and he runs with people much slower than him, imagine how good he'll be with sub 4 training partners and form work (if you think that is so important). The other thing is that many phenoms will say something like running's not everything to appear less of a geek, recall Solinsky, Fam, ... And his speed can't be that bad if he started out as a sprinter. You'll see the low 1:50s this year no doubt. Maybe Montoya is better: he certainly has a great kick, but take nothing away from this kid and he will mature in college.

Tod Williams Marc II

Let's be clear on one thing, the "3:58" are the handiwork of his DAD. Jacob himself seems anything but obsessed.

This kid has the best attitude of anyone, he's knocking on the door steps of a sub 4 high school mile yet he concentrates on other things but at the same time he has signs that say 4 or 3:58 on them all over his house, he knows what he wants but he isn't crazy the kid has the perfect mind set in my opinion

The paunch young man is certainly no Hamza Driouch.

I go to his school, I'm not supposed to disclose anything about his training but I can tell you that he is a great kid, and has above a 4.0 GPA.

I had the chance to sit by Jacob and his coach for dinner one evening after a big race a couple of years ago. Jacob didn't speak much so I didn't get a real impression of him, but I thought his coach was great - really nice guy and extremely conscientious - he told me he did a lot of reading and went to a lot of coaching conferences to learn from the great college coaches, etc. I know he told me some about Jacob's training but I honestly don't remember any details. I do recall being very impressed that it was all very well thought out and organized and planned and based on info that he had learned from Vigil and Daniels and others. I got the impression that Jacob was very very lucky to have such a coach in a state like West Virginia that is not known for distance running.

cabellmidlandxc wrote:

I go to his school, I'm not supposed to disclose anything about his training but I can tell you that he is a great kid, and has above a 4.0 GPA.

Why? Is it some sort of national secret? Go to hell

Training? He probably does some runs of an hour or so. He probably does some tempo work. He probably does a lot of intervals between 200 and 800m. He probably rests far too long between these according to letsrun interval nazis.

Good for him having outside interests. Not loving running is natural for most kids his age. He'd rather be having fun with something he enjoys, but is smart enough to know he needs to train to achieve what he wants out of life. Seems to be in a no-lose situation to me.