High School CC Training

Decent plan. I'd prefer one of the days as threshold intervals so you can get more mileage in at threshold but it's a good generic one. Add doubles on Tuesday, Friday, Monday, Thursday. Then if you want add one on Wednesday.

But you'll be very tired for about 3 weeks and then it should pass.

First thing, you son should be checking on this not you. He's a Senior.

But to answer the question, I would add some Friday, as well as a longer long run. After those are both maxed I would start adding doubles.

If he's handling the long run day well, then I would look definitely look at bumping that up a little bit. A simple plan would be just add a mile to each day except Monday. Keep the 3/5 tempo days, but make sure you are getting some warmup/cooldown miles too.

- Doubles
Add a recovery run in the mornings 3-5 days of the weekdays (M-W-F, M-T+R-F or M-F) doing a 4 mi recovery run in the morning could add 12-20 miles of additional volume. I'd start with doubles on the easy days and then add them

Alternatively, you could do this as cross-training if you want to mitigate injury risk from the increase in volume.

- Add .5 mi to each workout every 2 weeks
This would allow you to add 3 miles to the weekly volume and spread the increase over a larger number of workouts. I like this strategy he because the body can absorb the increased stress more smoothly.

I agree with this is the son’s job to figure it out, not yours, even though I know you’re merely trying to help. He could end up resenting your over-investment. I’ve seen it many times.

However, I would start with easy 3-4 mile doubles ON the tempo days and probably on the long run day too since the following day is an OFF day.

He can also lengthen the long run up to maybe 12 miles eventually, but I think it’s better to add more volume via doubles.

Thanks everyone.

One last thing. You aren’t wrong to think he needs more volume as he will be a senior. The key is whether he actually wants to do it or not. He can double up to all six days, or maybe just five if he’s going to extend the long run. But start with doubling on the hard days only (tempos, long run) so he gets adequate recovery on the “easy” days. His mileage is pretty low, but, again, what is he actually willing to do…?

… assuming he does 1 mi warmup and cooldown on tempo days, he’s at exactly 40 mpw. I feel like senior boys should be running 50-60 if they want to maximize performance and get the attention of college coaches while also leaving plenty of runway for development in college. 40 is nothing unless he’s completely mid-distance. Some can even run more than 60, but 55 to 60 mpw is what most of the good high school athletes do. 60 is not “high mileage.”

Thank you. I appreciate the advice.

Sir, you need to gas up your helicopter before you run out of gas.

Leave it to him to learn how to train properly, or maybe leave it to his HS coach.

You know, I don’t disagree, but sometimes high school coaches suck. Truly. They think 50 mpw is too much, pound the intervals, and can’t understand why a kid would run 10+ as a long run. They do no lifting or speed development. They don’t want to work hard with the middle school or go recruit the hardworking soccer and basketball kids who will never play at the highest levels in soccer or basketball.

They are basically out there to collect a paycheck and give instructions on the daily run with no other coaching. They prioritize meets that don’t matter, neglect really popular meets the kids really want to run, and otherwise can’t understand why nobody wants to enroll in their school or program. They have no traveling summer camp for a week of fun and something different and they don’t have cultures of kids who travel to the big meets like NXR. I know this because that’s how it is where we live. We have a coach who nobody likes but is totally unaware, a guy who laments the fact that kids transfer or that the feeder clubs don’t feed into his school. Gee, wonder why?

Hold on dude, you don't know who this kid or Dad is, you don't know who his HS coach is, don't generalize. There are some great HS coaches out there, everywhere, some of the best coaches in the country are HS coaches.

Parents need to stay in their lane.

Couldn’t agree more. My high school coach was one of the top three positive influences in my life. But he was also an elite runner in college and he was a very, very good coach (we won state, I was top 10 in xc and top 3 in the 1600/3200). So, perhaps you are correct.

On the other hand, some coaches are just so, so mediocre. And they develop a reputation, even though they don’t know it. That was my kid’s situation. It does exist.

Just make one of the runs a long run.