Will High Jump hurt my distance running ability (assuming I keep my training the same).

It doesn't matter. If you are good enough to do HJ, you aren't good at distance.

nah i suck at distance but love it, our best jumper can only do like 5'3 so i think i have a decent shot at being good (for our team, not in general)

The point of Track and Field, just like every other sport, is to have fun. If you think you’ll have fun trying it out and want to learn it, go ahead!

Someone probably could be good at both jumps and distance. The reason people are going to say you can't is because its not done - that is distance runners self select for distance and jumpers self select for jumps, with maybe a sprint thrown in. Try it and see what happens. You'll probably need to specialize eventually to compete at a very high level, but in hs you should be fine with hj and distance.

If anything could the strength/pylo work benefit my running?

More likely your distance running will have an adverse effect on your HJ.

The bigger problem is that your distance training would hurt your high-jumping.

I'm confident that the research on this is easy to find, dating back over forty years, and I'd be very surprised if the basic conclusions have changed significantly. I believe that the research I'm recalling was published by David Costill, who was a well-known exercise physiologist at the time. In their prime running years, a number of the top distance runners in the U.S. were tested on their standing vertical jump. As I recall, their jumping ability ranged from pretty low to ridiculously low. When they were tested some years later, even after some of them had given up running entirely for years, their vertical jump had dramatically increased (while measures like VO2max had greatly declined). I wouldn't expect the results from middle-distance runners to be as extreme, and I'm slightly curious about what the results might be for steeplechasers or other distance runners who incorporate jumping or hurdling exercises into their training regimen, but I would expect the inverse correlation between running mileage and vertical jump to generally be very strong.

On the flip side, I remember that Dwight Stones, arguably the best high-jumper in the world at the time, was trying to lower his already-low body-fat level even lower. Knowing of the research on distance runners, I was curious how he intended to do that. As I recall, he increased his total energy output through additional exercise, but he didn't increase the amount of running he did, which I thought made sense.

One other thing: As I recall, Costill did muscle biopsies from top athletes in a wide range of athletic events. The ones with the highest percentages of fast-twitch muscle fibers -- even higher than those of the 100-meter runners -- were the high jumpers. (In case anyone is curious, I don't recall any related discussion about the two types of fast-twitch fibers.)

Maybe. It's certainly been a significant part of training for a number of middle-distance runners, and even some top marathoners. (Although I think that Seb Coe and his father lied a lot about how much running he did, I'm confident that strength training and plyometrics were a big part of Seb's training.)

This is a thread I can speak to I think.

I was a decent high jumper growing up (6’8” in HS) and am a decently serious hobby jogger as an adult 20 years later (15:23 5k) so have seen both sides of the training.

There is actually decent crossover between the HJ and 800 IMO but that is as far as it goes. It would be impossible to put in the requisite miles for a good 1600 or 3200 and still have the necessary pop in your legs. That said, if you can run a good 400/800 you can probably push out a 1600 albeit with a poor conversion.

I suspect when I was in good jump shape if I had run the 1600 and 3200 on the same day I would have run like 4:40 and 11:20 and that was off of 49/50 and 1:58 400/800 speed so not great.

This, it takes the spring out of your legs. As other people have pointed out it pairs better with other shorter events. But if you enjoy it that's the whole point really. Also beware of scheduling issues. I always found the HJ clashed with the 800m start, but you may be lucky.

About 15 years ago I coached a young lady who took 2nd in the Texas 5A State Cross Country and won the State Championship in the high jump, but she did not run anything longer than the 800 during the track season. (She took 4th in the 800 and 5th in the Triple Jump at State) Went on to do the Cross Country/ high jump double in D1, I was surprised she did not make it in the Heptathlon.

If you really don't care about reaching your max potential in a single event or group of events, then yeah try both. HJ puts a lot less stress on your shins than the broad jumps do so I think you can manage both without a high injury risk.

Curtis Beach. 2.11 HJ and 3:59 1500m.

worldathletics.org

Curtis BEACH | Profile | World Athletics

Link:worldathletics.org/athletes/united-sta...

When Jon Anderson said he did some cross country in HS, Dwight Stones said "no wonder you didn't jump higher."

"Jump16" doesn't know what they are talking about. As someone who has done both I can tell you with 100% certainty you cannot run even moderate volume and excel at the high jump. I could dunk a volleyball with my foot straddling the foul line in HJ shape. I honestly don't know if I could dunk a basketball at all if I was running decent mileage.

Yes, Curtis Beach was able to throw together a good 1500/HJ combo on paper but that 1500 is pathetic given his 400 (46.x) and 800 (1:46.x?) speed. Again, you can fake a 1500 off of 800 speed but the conversion will always be lacking if you are optimizing your training for power oriented events.

So the consensus seems to be: If I run distance, I cant be good at HJ, if I do HJ I can do distance and wont hurt it, and may even help for shorter events (400-1600)?

I was an 800m runner and dabbled in the high jump because we only had one HJer on the team. It was a blast. I would totally do it again. But, yeah, there were several times I only had a few minutes to recover from an 800 if I didn't want to miss an attempt. Overall I think it helped me relax for my more serious events.

HJ will not “help” shorter events. You should be doing plyos, lifting etc. for those events anyways. The 1600 is too long to run well. You can get away with an 800.