Cameron Myers (3:55 16 yo) Training?

Just saw in another thread but haven’t looked into the strava stuff yet:

He's coached by dick Telford who also coaches Rory Hunter and Jye Edwards. I can't speak for the specifics of his training but it's all on Strava. He does 80-90km/week so hopefully conservative

It seems he doesn't run crazy mileage with 64 being his highest week in the past year,
and looks to have never done a run longer than 13 miles

Seems like it’s not as high volume as Jakob but ~60 mpw with most of his recent workouts consisting of a mix of longer reps (1k-3k) at threshold and shorter reps (200-600) at faster paces, mostly around 1500 pace. Also no traditional long run, just an occasional 10-miler. Nothing really earth-shattering, but really good consistent work.

Hope he destroys Peter Bol's 800m national record.

Based off a quick look at his strava too it looks like he’s basically in a pro group training-wise which I’m sure is super beneficial as well. The US really does well with the NCAA support for ages 18-22 but the UK and Australian club system really seems to be better than the US’s approach pre-college.

Thanks for this. Will listen. So he’s not coached by Telford then?

Hope he competes at the World Juniors in 2024 (in Peru). He will be 18 years and 2 months at the time. Him vs. Ethiopia's 18-year-old Ermias Girma (if he doesn't run only the 800) and the Netherlands' 17-year-old Niels Laros (1:46.3/3:39) would be a fantastic showdown. All 3 are prodigies who will be eligible to compete.

He looks fully grown. I wonder how much of this is being more physically mature for his age comapared to other 16 year olds. Those smaller 16 year olds catching up in time by age 19-20.

He definitely looks more physically mature than Jingy did at that age (Myers looks mid-college age, Jakob looked his age at the time) but it’s a blazing time regardless. Anyone know how long he’s been running for?

You guys and your long runs. When will you ever learn?

Hes 16 years old and looks the same as me when I was 26. Theres your secret.

Ugh, can we please stop the terrible nicknames for Jakob. I've seen

"Jingy"

"Ingy"

"Ingo"

"Yak"

Please stop

No.

If it’s about looking physically younger the guys to be most excited about might be Niels Laros and Noah Kibet.

Jingleheimer Schmidt?

Skeptical of this take. Yes, Myers looks more physically developed than many 16 year olds. But among the better high schoolers that compete at national and international level XC and track meets you’ll see lots of guys with his same basic look…and most (all?) of them don’t run 3:55 for a full mile.

Hell, even the vast majority of 26 year olds who are elite runners don’t have a PR significantly faster than that!

Clearly there is more than just physical maturity at play here. And training is a major component of the story—he can’t just take a month off and show up and run 3:55 and it’s ridiculous to think he’d be equally fast off of ANY training approach because of his physical maturity.

Finally, the point about long runs is interesting because neither Myers nor Jakob do anything like the type of weekly 16-22 mile long runs that have long been viewed as “essential” components of world-class training.

Just gotta note in this era to be a viable pro runner at age 26 I think you probably need a PB in the 3:35/3:53 range. Otherwise, you probably need a full-time job or your contract is at risk.
Are long runs considered that “essential” for 1500m training? Feels like you see some athletes do them but more in the 12-15 mile range. 16-22 feels high for most milers.

Half marathon distance IS a long run, contrary to popular belief on LRC.