I was told by the high school coach who oversees the track program that doing 2 miles (continuous or cumulative)was too much for the junior high athletes. I ran more mileage at their age. It is based on how we ran a program at my previous school. This is a reason why the U.S. struggles to develop young competitive runners.
Talk to Rob Finnerty.
Your right!!! I've had this same argument in my State
i doubt running miles in junior high will help develop athletes in our country you moron
are you serious wrote:
i doubt running miles in junior high will help develop athletes in our country you moron
As long as the miles are mostly aerobic, it's a great way to start laying a lifelong base and increase their aerobic conditioning so that they're ahead of the game.
Which is better:
Athlete A: Doesn't run at all when entering HS
Athlete B: Runs some aerobic runs, maybe 20-25mpw and is already fit to start XC season
I'd take athlete B anyday. He'll already have a decent base of fitness and some endurance when compared with athlete A. The key is to not make much of the mileage high intensity stuff.
When I went out for track in junior high in 1978, the coach made all the distance runners run 20 laps every day the first week of practice. Didn't take long to see who really wanted to run. Legs were sore the whole week. After that we basically ran some sort of intervals about every day. Didn't run on the weekends so I would guess we ran about 20 miles a week.
To the moron who called me a moron. I learned how to run and developed the discipline to be successful in 8th grade. Two years later, I was running in a national championship. I went on to qualify for 3 state championships in cross country, 1 state championship in track (only 2 advance out of a region), and 2 national championships. I think junior high track can have a tremendous influence and impact on the development of a runner. It has to be done correctly as the last person clearly demonstrated with the example.
7th grade = 5 miles.
8th grade = 15 miles.
if you run more than that you should be shot in the head.
Weee wrote:
As long as the miles are mostly aerobic...
Miles are always mostly aerobic.