High School vs. College Racing Volume...What Gives?

your daughter's experience is typical of the HS scene. I'm not sure if it is the best developmentally but that's just what happens. Most distance runners don't go on to college so their whole "career" is HS. Getting a lot of races in is basically all they have if they aren't going to college.

Plus many HS races are small duals and tri meets which are basically glorified speed workouts.

Some HS teams go to fewer meets and race their kids less. sometimes this is very successful and sometimes with fewer races they place too much mental stress on the kid and they choke.

I coach in a state with just xc and outdoor track. I'm sure with 3 seasons, a HS kid could get burned out or over-raced quickly.

Just Some Papa wrote:

I think my daughter handled it pretty well, although she seemed a little tired at the end of outdoor and did not do well at outdoor states.

I think you answer your own question here. The sole purpose of every meet and workout you run in a high school season is to prepare the athlete for states. If the number of races leaves an athlete too worn down to do well at states, they are racing too much (or doing something else wrong).

Given my own experience in running hs and college...I would say that the vast majority of hs kids actually dont know how to race. Until jr or sr year, they just dont. It takes time to learn how to push one's self that hard and over a given distance. Add that with the rapid pace of development, and every time out a kid learns something new (hopefully) about how to race. By the time they're in college, they should know how to race for the most part, and then the emphasis becomes on training properly to put it all out there in a few races. Because really, you cannot race to your full potential in a whole bunch of races.

Harry Kooter wrote:

Just Some Papa wrote:

I think my daughter handled it pretty well, although she seemed a little tired at the end of outdoor and did not do well at outdoor states.

I think you answer your own question here. The sole purpose of every meet and workout you run in a high school season is to prepare the athlete for states. If the number of races leaves an athlete too worn down to do well at states, they are racing too much (or doing something else wrong).

Thanks folks. I really don't know what to do about it. I prefer to not get involved because I think her coaches do a good job and she seems to like them.

Do juniors from other countries race as much as American high school kids?

I agree with what others have mentioned - your (your daughter's)experience is typical of the US JH/HS system. Part of the reason for this is that unlike other countries, the US heavily emphasizes extra curricular activities for ALL students within the educational system. The positive of this is "everyone" can receive the benefits of being involved in various activities. The negatives would be that the more "elite" athlete probably gets less guidance in regard to training and competing for optimal performance. Not saying it is good or bad - just the way it is.

As a result, most sports (including running) center around competitions - which is what the kids enjoy. Is racing 40 or 50 times good for your training? Probably not. College and elite athletes race less so that they can train more. However, if you took 50 JH kids and told them you were going to go through a 12 week aerobic buildup phase, then an 8 week precompetition phase, and then run a couple races in order to peak for the most important races later in the year - well, they would all quit after about 2 or 3 weeks.

I am a HS coach who tries to limit the amount of races we subject our athletes to. We run 10 CC meets (including conf., dist. and state) Still quite a few, but several less than what we are allowed. And, we use a couple of them as "training" to run in packs and attempt to buildup or negative split the race. In track, we have more meets, but we pick a half dozen "big" meets where the kids compete in their primary distances, and the other "small" meets we use as workouts - running kids in shorter or longer events ( or not at all).

A more important factor, in my opinion, is not really the number of races, but the fact that a lot of coaches don't treat the races as if they are workouts. For instance, I often hear coaches talking about the "3 CC races they have this week, and how they still need to get their interval practices in." This is what really beats kids up - 2 or 3 races, and then another couple hard practices on top of it. A race IS a hard practice, and should be counted as such. Lots of HS coaches kind of gloss over that fact.

I don't think what you describe is outside what is normal in the US. But, there is little doubt that if you spend 5 days a week running as hard as you can, you are likely to end up injured or worn out.

Your scenario is typical.

Ask yourself this question; How many times in an xc season could YOU get up mentally to challenge your limits before it starts sucking?