The majority of High School runners are at a severe disadvantage in today's competition. This is due to the lack of knowledge of all of the coaches. From my years of running experience, it is an absolute NO-NO to do two consecutive hard days, unless you are competing in a semi- final/ final competition at a high level track meet. And I'm not talking about your sprinters or 800 runners, this is in reference to your true distance runners. Teenage distance runners should not be doing any more than two hard days per week, including a race day. If distance runners are forced to run two speed workouts per week plus a race, the lactic acid buildup is to great to perform at peak performance. Hard days require two easy days to recover. But the problem is that everyone is different. What works for some may not work for others. And coaches everywhere need to realize this. If everyone is different, then why do high schoo varsityl distance team members all carry the same workouts. My coach had me doing the majority of my workouts with 800 specialists, simply because there was noone else who ran the two mile at meets. I would have rathered run 10 quarters at two miles pace with shorter rest than 4 hard quarters with big recovery or 3 hard 600s. The whole situation was com,pletely assinine. He had me only running 30 miles a week, which made it difficult to compete with guys in the league running 60. I am not running in college and instead competing independantly with a local club because my new coach is going to run me three hard days a wek like every other tradition-following coach out there.