I had a boy go from 2:01 to 1:52 last year. He is a great all around athlete. He's currently captain of our soccer team and can 2 hand dunk a basketball. He ran cross this year and managed 16:3x on the Woodward park 5k course. The goal this year is to go sub 1:50, and hopefully faster. To do this, we're planning to pretty much do what worked last year and add a little more off season (soccer season) running volume. This shouldn't be tough to do, as we've gone to an 8:30 start time in CA AND my varsity cross country boys all had 1st period as an "unscheduled" period. So, he can easily work in a little more volume in the mornings.
Last year, he came straight from soccer and opened his season with a 1:58.6 after about 10 days with the track team. He then went
1:56.4 (mid march)
48.8 relay split (late march)
1:54.01 (early april)
50.07 open 400 (early april)
49.5 relay split followed by 1:54 (late april)
1:54 (to win our section) Late May
1:52.4 (to qualify for state finals) Late May
1:54 in state finals. The state final race was sub optimal. We didn't really expect him to qualify and his family had a trip planned for Europe leaving the morning of the state final. We had to work out a deal where I drove him home the night after state trials. His family left for Europe the next morning and he and I went back to the state meet that night. It's about a 2 hour drive each way, so we added an extra 4 hours sitting in a car, plus, he didn't get home until after midnight on the night of state trials.
So far during Christmas break, we've done a few max speed sessions and a few fartlek sessions to go with his easy running. He hit .98 seconds on a 10m fly a couple of days ago, which is far faster than he ever went last year. So I know that already he'll be coming into the season with more top speed than last year.
I'm also confident that he'll be aerobically stronger than he was last year. Last year, he didn't really do any running during the soccer season except during Christmas break, where he tried to jump right back to 50mpw, since his team wasn't practicing. He developed a minor injury doing that last year. This year, he's more around 20mpw, but he's getting the speed work and the fartlek work that he didn't get last year.
I'll update this thread periodically, if anyone is interested.
Hey Coach B, I know this thread is pretty old, but I just wanted to mention that I'm from the same section as your athlete. I actually raced against him back in 2022 at the German Fernandez invite. (I'm a 400/800 runner myself, but less superb times... 52 and 2:02 😅)
Your athlete is by far one of my favorites and has served as huge inspiration to me. I remember watching him dominate the field at the SJS masters and the state meet last year, and I remember being absolutely blown away when he ran that 47.85 - out of complete nowhere! (I wasn't there to watch, I just remember it showing up on athletic.net lol)
Everybody on my team talked about him, in fact, one of them went to get his signature after he ran that 1:51 at Meet of Champs 😂
Of course, being a fan myself, I had to ask him if he wanted to take a selfie with me when I saw him at the state meet after he won 😁
I wish him the absolute best at BYU and I think he'll have a big breakout run any moment now. I can see him running 46/1:48 if not better. I am excited to watch him grow throughout his time at BYU.
Thanks for this thread, it was an incredible read.
I just got a message from him on Wednesday that Centro is in Provo and that they did a workout together! I thought that was super cool.
10 x 200 with 3 min recovery at 24-25. They did this 10 days out from Joe's "last chance" meet to get a regional qualifier. He's been chipping away and is down to something like 1:50.2x. (not sure off the top of my head). He was pretty psyched to have run with an olympic gold medalist. Hopefully that, and the STRONG workout will give him the boost he needs to drop a big time in next weekend.
I just got a message from him on Wednesday that Centro is in Provo and that they did a workout together! I thought that was super cool.
10 x 200 with 3 min recovery at 24-25. They did this 10 days out from Joe's "last chance" meet to get a regional qualifier. He's been chipping away and is down to something like 1:50.2x. (not sure off the top of my head). He was pretty psyched to have run with an olympic gold medalist. Hopefully that, and the STRONG workout will give him the boost he needs to drop a big time in next weekend.
I just got a message from him on Wednesday that Centro is in Provo and that they did a workout together! I thought that was super cool.
10 x 200 with 3 min recovery at 24-25. They did this 10 days out from Joe's "last chance" meet to get a regional qualifier. He's been chipping away and is down to something like 1:50.2x. (not sure off the top of my head). He was pretty psyched to have run with an olympic gold medalist. Hopefully that, and the STRONG workout will give him the boost he needs to drop a big time in next weekend.
He got it. 1:49.43 at the BYU invite. LETS GOOOO
I came here to post this ^
I guess they give him a .6 bump for altitude conversion as well. I'm fuzzy on the details but his dad seems to think it's going to go on the NCAA performance list for regional qualifiers as a 1:48.83.
I'm out of my depth on the NCAA rules, though. So I don't know.
Bump. Any update on this guy? Did he embark upon a mission?
If so, how long will it be until he's back on the track again?
Saw his 1:48 at his freshman season, a huge improvement. I hope he doesn't fall out of shape if he does. I don't wanna jinx anything, but I can totally see this guy being an NCAA title contender. He could break Walker's record of 1:44.99
He specifically calls out the difference between a fast twitch and medium distance runner, and provides paces for each. He also only has 2x workouts a week; you may be fine with 3 but you’re also not as young as you used to be, so be careful to avoid getting excited and overdoing it.
This is more of a general question, but would adding doubles benefit a runner like this man at some point? For example, he was doing 35mpw of very high quality stuff (not sure what he's on at BYU) and thriving. Would the natural progression be to add in 30 miles of doubles over 2-3 years and keep the quality, bringing the training to 65mpw, or is that the wrong way to train an athlete like this long-term?
This is more of a general question, but would adding doubles benefit a runner like this man at some point? For example, he was doing 35mpw of very high quality stuff (not sure what he's on at BYU) and thriving. Would the natural progression be to add in 30 miles of doubles over 2-3 years and keep the quality, bringing the training to 65mpw, or is that the wrong way to train an athlete like this long-term?
I don't see any reason for him to go over 35mpw. 65 would be way too unnecessary. From his times in HS and college so far, he is definitely more of the 400/800 speed type. 47 and 1:49 is some raw speed
He specifically calls out the difference between a fast twitch and medium distance runner, and provides paces for each. He also only has 2x workouts a week; you may be fine with 3 but you’re also not as young as you used to be, so be careful to avoid getting excited and overdoing it.
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