Ididnttryinhighschool wrote:
I agree with the poster that said you can out work your competition in high school and make it seem more like talent. I was a 4:10 mile/ 1:52 type 800 runner in college. In high school I was a high 4:30 guy and could not break 2. The guys that were winning a lot of the big races in my state would run between 4:15-4:25 and 1:55-1:57. Sounds dumb but I really just thought these guys had much more talent than I did, but looking back a lot of them were just really working hard in high school. My college bests were better than all but one of those guys that ran in that range from my state. I would run around 30 miles a week but if you average it out for the year it was probably more like 25 mpw. I would not cool down after track workouts, I wouldn't run more than 3 days a week during the summer etc. Idk what I was thinking back then lol, going back to school was always extremely painful for me because I was always out of shape. In college I really turned it around ran 50-70 miles a week and took it seriously, was happy with my times and running career, (still Pring in my late 20s) but it definitely would have made high school running more fun if I actually ran and took it seriously.
You likely don't know exactly what those other HS runners were doing in training. Some of those 4:20 guys may have been running just like you but were just more talented. How did they do in college?
It takes 3-4 years of serious training to find out your limitations. At a young age, it takes longer because you are still developing. For you, you did not train seriously until college. Though you may still be achieving PRs, you already know your limitations. You likely could not qualify for the OTs in any running event (maybe barely in the marathon)
I ran 4:40 / 10:00 in HS, 50mpw. In college I ran 14:55 and 31:10 (75+mpw avg)so my HS pace extended 3X. I still never broke 4:25 for the mile. No amount of training could have made me a sub 4:10 or sub 14 runner. Talent...