Jake Wightman's dad says he was ranked #26 in Scotland at age 16 and that you shouldn't run 50mpw until 1st yr of college

Completely agree.

I remember when Geoff was in school and ran for Dartford. He had another runner Gary Huckwell who ran for Dartford. Gary was 11th I think in the World cross Juniors in Paris. We were always amazed how little mileage they said they ran. Then it turned out they didn't count warm ups or downs track sessions or races. He was a teammate of mine when we ran for Kent.

Geoff was pretty serious academically and skipped the English schools track to concentrate on studying in the upper sixth (senior year). 1979 his freshman year at Bristol University he started training with Nick Rose one of the best runners in the world at the time.

If he didn't run too much in high school and 6 weeks later was training with one of the best runners in the world that was a hell of a step up very quickly.

Geoff is a super nice guy. Not relevant but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Many on here believe '90's & '00's were an awful era for U.S. high running. It was a lower mileage era. Posters will quickly remind us of the smaller number of sub-9 3200m lads. Well, we tried it the high mileage way. We have more sub-13:15 5000m guys than I can easily count but not one 5000m medalist from U.S. high school system. Lower mileage in high school is conducive to 800m development. We can go back to low mileage in U.S.high schools and medal or we can continue with ALMOST medaling at 5000m.

Also interesting is the Youths National Cross Country in 1977. The age group for the equivalent for sophomores and juniors. But for club runners not school although back then in England everyone was both. I think Geoff was 216th. He ran a career best 2.13 marathon. He was the top finisher of those that ran sub 2.16 marathoners. For instance Colin Moore was 289th. I think he ran 2.13 as well. And had a good career in cross country career as a senior man.

Micky Morton won the race. He won World cross juniors either the next year or year after.

Steve Cram was 11th. World 1500 champ and World record holder.

57th was Steve Binns who set the junior (U20) 5000 world record a year or two later

65th Colin Reitz 3rd world champs 3000m S/C

78 John Doherty 5000m Olympic finalist

115th Colin White Number one runner the year before. Won the English Schools Cross by about 30 secs from Morton

131th Gary Huckwell 11th world cross juniors

170 Kev Capper UK Steeplechase Champion

216 Geoff Wightman

289 Colin Moore

speed development is much more important at younger ages than mileage. That's how Wightman outkicked Jakob in the 1500.

Even with everyone in the USA running high mileage in high school, we still have horrible marathoners.

And high mileage at a younger age is how Jacob beat Jake in every other race.

Pretty easy to find any example you want to justify either approach. If the same thing worked for everyone, then coaching would be very easy.

Develop your system based off examples that work, but don't think that your way is the "one and only way" I'm biased to doing more mileage but also see how Wightman got good and didn't touch 50 mpw until he was like 18-19. Just have a grand plan and know what all the parts do and you'll go far.

Maybe Jakob would be even faster right now if he was more patient with mileage. He sucks at 800m. That deficiency is how Tim would always outkick him.

GOLD MEDAL

yeah go and tell that to Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele, Selemon Barega, Hicham El Guerrouj…

I’m sure they dream about Wightman’s career.

I don’t think it was the low mileage. It was the training intensity distribution that caused us to slip. Too much high intensity work relative to the amount of critical speed and sub-threshold running.

We’ve had medalists at every other distance though, it’s more of a strange coincidence we haven’t got one at 5k considering we’ve had medals in the 10k (Rupp, Infield) and 1500m (Centrowitz, Simpson, Manzano)

To be honest, I think that how much mileage one runs in high school is that big of a determinant one way or another as far as future success. The talent will eventually show regardless with the right Pro and college coaching

Untill he didn't.

30-40 is generally enough for high school to showcase talent. However 15-20 is too low.

Jakob has only run 1:46 while Wightman and Cheruiyot have both run 1:43.

Jakob's brothers fizzled out once they got past 26 or 27. Wightman is now just hitting his peak at 28.

Jakob was always going to be a superstar. If he took time to really develop his sprint speed at a younger age, he would likely be the best runner in history. Now he may not be able to beat Wightman over 1500 for the next few years.

You cannot be serious.

Wightman beating Jakob was a one-off.

A fluke. It's never gonna happen again.

Many elite 1500m runners have been at their peak for multiple Olympics, but unless Wightman can come through in 2024 at age 30, it will be none for him. He wasted two opportunities to win Olympic medals.

Maybe not deal in absolutes? Some kids can handle higher mileage and enjoy the running to do it. The key thing is to keep the kid in a sport until the kid reaches the age where peak performance is likely to occur and to have a successful career (or just enjoy being active for the rest of their lives).