(H.S.) How to beat a “rival” who’s way faster than me in the offseason

Just be confident and work hard, trust in what got you this fast

Sincerely, 2:30 freshman who beat 4:30 freshman by our junior and senior year

Don't focus on, or worry about, what anyone else is doing. Focus on yourself. All you can control is your own training and your own self-improvement. At this point, if you want to improve in distance running, you need to build a base. Use a heart rate monitor and do almost all of your running at 180 minus your age (in other words--if you are 15--165). Gradually run more and more per week at this pace until you are averaging an hour per day. This will give you the endurance you need to support the faster running you will be doing later on.

Any tips? Like paces that I should hit per year or stuff that I should do to do more than him? By the way, the only thing I can do better than him for sure is the first lap of a race and my sprint is faster than his.

find his house, get a baseball bat, and start waiting.

but seriously, just stay consistent and trust your coach. you really never know what kind of progress you can make in a year, especially at your age. you get so much faster if you just stay consistent in training and remain uninjured.

Thanks!

Train with him

PM Tonya Harding for tips.

Might be the unpopular opinion here, but comparison is never the way to judge success in running. He could be running 4:10s by next year. It’s out of your control. I would’ve enjoyed my hs running more if I would’ve just focused on self improvement instead of trying to beat others.

Also, mileage is key, just don’t overdo it More than 60 a week usually ends up not being substantially beneficial for high schoolers from what I’ve observed, and might even be detrimental because a high school schedule doesn’t allow for adequate recovery.

One thing that I would change from this is that whild yes, you don't want to get overly anxious about anything your competitors are doing or let that take away from your own confidence. I think it's really helpful to pay attention at least a little bit to what they are doing/times they are running to motivate you.

One thing that I think prevented me from being faster when I was in High School was the fact that it was so much harder to see what kids across the state were running, which made me think that being one of the fastest ones in my rural area. Now the kids I coach are able to see what everybody across are state is doing and realize that running 10:00 in the 3200 isn't going to cut it. I think this helps with drive to work hard at least a little bit.

I second some of the other comments, you may never beat him and focus on how good you can get. 50 maybe 60 max miles a week over the summer. Hills probably one day, strides most every day, and one other "hard" workout day, tempo or even 15 minutes of fairly hard pace broken into 3x5, 4x4 minute, etc. Weights, biking, etc. as well. I'd only caution to not make yourself miserable from training too much or too hard where you are not still very hungry when the season begins. Also note, just because you train really hard, you still have to race really hard (and smart). Training doesn't make racing easier, it just let's you go faster. Give yourself at least 2 years to really see results from all this. You are very young and your body is still growing. Best of luck.