How long should a 9th graders long run be? My current PR's are 2:28 (800m), 5:09 (1500m), 7:02 (2000m), 20:08 (5k) Right now my long run is 60 minutes long. Is that enough?
How long should a 9th graders long run be? My current PR's are 2:28 (800m), 5:09 (1500m), 7:02 (2000m), 20:08 (5k) Right now my long run is 60 minutes long. Is that enough?
About 20% of your weekly mileage. Focus on building everything not just the long run.
9th grade I didn't do cross country, and I focused on the mile in track. I did one run over 60 minutes over the course of indoor and outdoor, and ended up running a 4:50 mile. I am not suggesting that you do the same, but assuming this is your first year of running, I wouldn't stress it too much. Do what feels comfortable to you. I would recommend about 70 minutes for a long run, but shorter is fine.
Ignore any “x % of weekly mileage” nonsense.
60 minutes should be plenty.
This is my 3rd year of running but the last 2 years I didn't take it too seriously
Starting in 8th grade I used to do a Sunday 12 miler with my dad that took about 75-80 minutes on a well-groomed trail. It did not seem that hard, particularly after we hit the local donut shop for post-run breakfast. I ran 10:10 for 3200 in 9th grade and 9:35 as a senior.
Runnerdude69 wrote:
About 20% of your weekly mileage. Focus on building everything not just the long run.
Hah! 20% of mileage is about an average day for a young kid. That percent only works if you are doing higher mpw.
For example, a typical frosh might run 25 mpw in five days. According to your 20% rule, a long run would be 5 miles which is what they would be doing everyday anyway. Even if you hit 36 mpw in 6 days, your long run is only 7 miles using the 20% rule. They are already doin 5-6 a day, so 7 is hardly a stretch.
My general rule is a 9th grader should do an hour long run. That would be about 7-8 miles. As they move up, they can add time so that they are running 90 minutes by the time they are seniors.
Forget distance. Go with a single continuous hour run. Stress the continuous nature of it since most kids will tend to jog for 10, pee for 3, jog for 10, drink for 3, jog for 10, wait for their friend to pee for 3, jog for 10, another drink for 3, and then finish up with 5 when the coach is looking. They think that is an hour run, but in reality they maybe ran for 45.