Take us through your journey.
Take us through your journey.
Consistently good training, with enough challenge, variety, and recovery.
I move from California to Louisiana
Climb the ladder
You are average, you go for it in your dual meet, you beat local rivals and you go for the league
After that you can say "I want to be the best in the county" then it becomes the section, then it becomes the state and so on
Some of us never make it past the league, but others keep climbing the ladder
I ran year-round from midway through my 8th grade year onward. I moved from mid-30 weeks to nearly 60 my senior year, and made sure I was keeping in touch with speed regularly, long runs, and I sort of found my way to tempo runs, though that word had not been invented.
Trust in my coach was paramount, but I was also known to dog it, or do more later on if I didn't feel I was on the right path.
Stars aligned, I won everything as a senior, then went on to D1.
Dufus wrote:
I move from California to Louisiana
most realistic advice in the thread
70-90 miles a week in the summer (one week at 96 I think), running 10x a week (3 easy doubles). Long runs weren't so long, usually 12-14 I think, typically finishing strong. A little bit of short threshold runs in the summer, and then in the XC season hills, mile repeats, and threshold-type 400m repeats. Improved almost 90 seconds over 5k in one year.
In high school, it is possible to outwork the majority of your competitors, and even to close the gap with many more talented runners. This becomes, if not completely impossible, then many orders of magnitude more difficult and unlikely at the collegiate level. (I suppose Cam Levins seemed to get it done, although his prodigious training volume makes it easy to underestimate how talented he already was coming out of high school) .
cramister wrote:
Climb the ladder
You are average, you go for it in your dual meet, you beat local rivals and you go for the league
After that you can say "I want to be the best in the county" then it becomes the section, then it becomes the state and so on
Some of us never make it past the league, but others keep climbing the ladder
I said that when in I was HS, but it didn't work out that way for me.
90% of male improvement through HS is due to maturation.
Jon James is really stubborn wrote:
90% of male improvement through HS is due to maturation.
This ^
And timing. The kid who runs a 5:10 mile in seventh grade won't be much in high school. The kid who runs a 4:10 their senior year will stand a chance at D1 right off the bat.
Watch Jack Daniels talk about the ingredients of success. In order:
1. Ability
2. Motivation
3. Opportunity
4. Direction (coaching)
People want to believe in hard work and it is important, but ability (talent) is the most critical factor to success.
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I blame this guy named Beanblossom.....well that was his last name. He was the first guy from another school that I compared myself to and tried to be better than. My first ever XC race was a 20:05. My last race of the season was a 18:13 at Sectional where I finally beat Beanblossom.
It's good to also have guys better than you to train with. Or at least guys who are close to your ability. They push you day in and day out.
Each season in HS there would be another Beanblossom. By my senior year I set school records in the 1600 (4:27) and 3200 (9:32) and finished 12th and All-State in XC and 7th in the 3200m in track. My state was/is a single class state for XC/Track.
Alan
Jon James is really stubborn wrote:
90% of male improvement through HS is due to maturation.
You have a good point. Grade 9 - lined up in races against guys with full beards. Grade 10 started to close the gap. Grade 11 - caught up and medalled. Combination of training year round and maturation.