Why so many fast high school track times lately

Shooz

It's increasingly common for kids to pursue single-sport training from a young age.

The combination of continual improvement of depth, better understanding of training, and more competitive opportunities.

I am curious as well. I think it is less shoes and more training. I think you have more high school kids these days doing much more volume than ever. More high school programs are training like college programs. The question is while the short term gain is great what is the long term? or does long term not matter?

Shoes are a big reason. More paced and time trial high school races. More coaches that have a clue. Higher expectations.

There isn’t just one reason but the shoes play a big role for sure. Look at when the times took a big jump and when the shoes became available.

Someone will come along to do a detailed statistical analysis of the effect that the new shoes are having on performance. Many of us will guess that there is some positive effect. But as others have said better training (and nutrition, rest, etc.) also plays a part. I think many kids were doing heavier mileage back in the 70s, 80s, etc., than now. The difference is that many of those miles were junk miles. Did anyone know about tempo runs, threshold, and other concepts that many coaches know today?

Training is much better and smarter than it was even 15 years ago. I've noticed the same trend in my state. When I was in high school, 9:36 placed at the Drake relays in the 3200. Now 9:36 doesn't even come close to qualifying. And it's not so much that winning times are faster. It's the 2nd- 8th place times that are faster.

Better drugs, still no testing.

I don’t know why people are so obsessed with nutrition. What ever mom or dad puts on the table is usually good enough. I heard first hand that John Walker’s nutrition strategy was to eat whatever was put in front of him.

When I read gals & guys post about a high school sub-4 runner, I don't know if you are being imprecise and referring to sub-4 1600m or sub-4 mile. The longest common event teenagers around the world race is 800m. According to Athletic.net, I believe I saw seven high school sub-1:50 800m athletes this spring. That's a bit more than most years, but only by one or two. Too soon to say there is a trend. If outstanding 800m performances don't match 1600m or one mile performances, we cannot automatically say it is the shoes.

This is the correct answer. Better training at a younger age than before.

The shoes only reduce times by maybe 1 seconds per lap, at most. And probably not even that much.

It da shewz

Based on that estimate, Colin’s mile was really 4:00 when being compared to Ryun and Webb. That’s not “only”.

It shouldn’t be confusing. There was a thread about sub-4 1600s and without reviewing it again, I recall that there’s only been one.

Now young people know they don't have to be East African to....er..beat the East Africans...

Haven't seen anyone mention COVID yet. Curious how much impact it has had, nothing but anecdotal evidence here but it seems like the COVID years have had one of two effects on a TON of athletes:

1. There's no competition, what's the point = QUIT

2. Well there's nothing better to do right now = Balls to the wall training

to the gills

Comparing my kids in HS to me in the 80s, I’d say:

1) Better shoes and gear for training, as opposed to racing. Aside from major injuries, they have had far fewer little injuries than I had so training hard is more appealing. I had far more little issues like shin splits, achy knees from over pronating, and chafing I didn’t know how to deal with.

2) Coaching expertise is of course the biggest factor.

I was a 16:40 5k guy in the 80s. Comparing my kids experiences, training regimen, and race times to mine in HS, I have little doubt I would have been at least a 15:30 to 15:45 guy in a quality HS program today based just on better training shoes and better coaching.

I think the biggest two factors are:

The internet allows kids to compare what times they are running outside of their local area, which makes for a deeper competitive pool and raises the bar for the kids who want to be the very best.

Coaches have easy access to proper training through the internet.

In short: the internet.