Cole Hocker: A key to my success was that I barely ran in HS (30 mpw)

Can be summed down to one word: Talent

Lol exactly, it's honestly absurd how kids and other people routinely convince themselves that anything other than stupendous talent explains the bulk of their success. I don't begrudge the kids as much, because such a psychological orientation is probably necessary for reaching the highest levels. But for the other people, who should have the clarity of distance, yikes. I wonder where American high school distance running would be if every kid ran under 30 mpw and rock climbed.

Rock climbing is key. Doing that as a youth and junior paved the way for his success and talent to be realized. Such a full body workout and challenge to get all your muscles firing ideally. His training in high school worked out advantageously as he was not injured, enabling him to continue his ascension without major setbacks.

STEVE THE ADDICT^^^^^^""""-""""-'-"--^' wrote:

Rock climbing is key. Doing that as a youth and junior paved the way for his success and talent to be realized. Such a full body workout and challenge to get all your muscles firing ideally. His training in high school worked out advantageously as he was not injured, enabling him to continue his ascension without major setbacks.

Agreed. Confirm Eluid Kipchoge was also a rock climber when winning the gold at 18 years old.

I know it must come as a shocker for some of you mileage hawks, but it is exactly how you develop a kid in his teens who in many cases is still developing.

He is not saying he was running slow those miles, as I am sure his sessions were a step or two faster than any overtrained or injured kid his age, and that his coach likely made his recovery days very short and very slow...

So shall we call it a mix of natural talent and lack of bad coaching?

lol. if you are dominating with 30 miles, run 30 miles. it does not work this way for almost anybody. we are talking about a generational talent here.

I do not know specifics of Hocker's training, but I do know lower mileage speed development 800m training is best for teenage middle distance runners. Runners can convert to 1500m training around age 20 if they wish. A list of former teenage lower mileage 800m runners: Roger Bannister, Peter Snell, John Walker, Filbert Bayi, Thomas Wessinghage, Steve Scott, Steve Ovett, Steve Holman, Sebastian Coe, Rod Dixon & others. The older one is, the more difficult it is to develop neuromuscular coordination to run fast.

When you're incredibly good, it's easy to say that [blank] was the reason you got so good. But how do you know?

I'm reminded of this scene from Slings and Arrows:

https://youtu.be/6NOWZrmQ3jo?t=102

Mileage isn't everything and must be nice to have talent.

ritz did double or triple that in high school and he turned out okay. you can argue counterfactuals all you want about how he would have had a better career if he had focused more in speed as a youngster, but the fact is that if you are talented and your body can handle any modest training load, you're gonna be good. if hocker actually thinks that running 30 mpw in HS is what separates him from the guys struggling to break 4 in the 1500 or something, he's living in a dream world. to be fair, i didn't read the article lol. plenty of HS programs don't even hit 30 mpw anyway.

So, a private school, who can technically recruit talented kids, can do so off of low mileage. Doesn't look like it's working for their current crop of kids.

Seems that most of the best American runners took the slow road to develop. Look at Schweizer, Houlihan. Hocker. Kessler. Then look at the phenoms like Ping, Fraziers, Cain, Maton, and Slagowski. Who were better and who ends up by far better?

koper wrote:

STEVE THE ADDICT^^^^^^""""-""""-'-"--^' wrote:

Rock climbing is key. Doing that as a youth and junior paved the way for his success and talent to be realized. Such a full body workout and challenge to get all your muscles firing ideally. His training in high school worked out advantageously as he was not injured, enabling him to continue his ascension without major setbacks.

Agreed. Confirm Eluid Kipchoge was also a rock climber when winning the gold at 18 years old.

Lmao

go nude wrote:

Seems that most of the best American runners took the slow road to develop. Look at Schweizer, Houlihan. Hocker. Kessler. Then look at the phenoms like Ping, Fraziers, Cain, Maton, and Slagowski. Who were better and who ends up by far better?

Hocker and Kessler are some of our best prospects. Not best runners.

He does have phenomenal talent. I think the important part is that the coach didn't force mileage on him if you wasn't ready. Clearly he had other interests and his coach 8/9/10th grade let him develop at his own rate till he was mature enough to be ready to up his training. There is more to coaching hs kids than just throwing mileage or workouts at them. The only thing a HS coach can do is ruin talent, too much too soon, too hard too often.

Hopefully the college coach works with that. I had a very talented girl who ran 30 mpw, never injured, went to college, ran high mileage immediately and was injured to the point of back surgery.

He has a point with not getting injured. Running 30 miles a week and never getting injured has a greater cumulative effect than running 50-60 miles a week but constantly breaking for injury. However you can run 50-60 miles a week and not get injured. Mileage does not necessarily cause injury. Running too fast on easy days, too many high intense workouts, too much racing, weak core/glutes, and poor footwear are all more likely causes of injury.

In any case guys who get away with low mileage are extreme talents. He obviously is an extreme talent. Also they tend to be more 800 speed guys. Most distance runners don’t have those type of wheels so they need to be able to grind earlier. They need to be an aerobic powerhouse. Hes not competing in the 10k but 1500. Let’s see how he would do in a world class 10k with East Africans who’ve been running 10-15 miles a day since childhood.

Fit Cross wrote:

He has a point with not getting injured. Running 30 miles a week and never getting injured has a greater cumulative effect than running 50-60 miles a week but constantly breaking for injury. However you can run 50-60 miles a week and not get injured. Mileage does not necessarily cause injury. Running too fast on easy days, too many high intense workouts, too much racing, weak core/glutes, and poor footwear are all more likely causes of injury.

What if you ran 30 miles per week but still were constantly breaking for/*ahem* breaking from injury

feelsbadman

Does his hs coach turn out guys like Hocker a lot?