How do I get to the top? Like 8:50's or Footlooker Finalist? What do I do to get there. Not only training but nutrition, drills, stretching,all of the extra stuff.
How do I get to the top? Like 8:50's or Footlooker Finalist? What do I do to get there. Not only training but nutrition, drills, stretching,all of the extra stuff.
If you don't have the genetics, you won't get there no matter what you do. If you do have the genetics, you'll get there regardless of what you do.
Not messing around anymore wrote:
How do I get to the top? Like 8:50's or Footlooker Finalist? What do I do to get there. Not only training but nutrition, drills, stretching,all of the extra stuff.
First, choose your parents very wisely. Second, work very hard, but also very smart and have a good coach to work with that understands what it takes to get to the top.
Not messing around anymore wrote:
How do I get to the top? Like 8:50's or Footlooker Finalist? What do I do to get there. Not only training but nutrition, drills, stretching,all of the extra stuff.
If you are worrying about "nutrition, drills, stretching, and all of the extra stuff" we can reasonably assume you are not going to make it there.
eat cucumbers
If it were all about the training, I would be one of the best masters runner in the nation, or at least in my state. Needless to say, I'm not.
You don't say where you are now. By this I mean your recent times in XC and on the track.
Start running 140 miles a week. Give it a year and you'll be good.
typing on the keyboard wrote:
If you don't have the genetics, you won't get there no matter what you do. If you do have the genetics, you'll get there regardless of what you do.
Strongly agree with the first sentence. Strongly disagree with the second sentence.
Umm...guys please just tell me what I can do to make myself better. I really don't want to here "pick your parents wisely" as I am who I am and I can't change it. You can either help a high schooler looking for some advice or not post at all. I alredy know that you need good genetics, I don't want to hear it several more times. Just tell me some things I can do to help lower my times.
Not messing around anymore wrote:
Umm...guys please just tell me what I can do to make myself better. I really don't want to here "pick your parents wisely" as I am who I am and I can't change it. You can either help a high schooler looking for some advice or not post at all. I alredy know that you need good genetics, I don't want to hear it several more times. Just tell me some things I can do to help lower my times.
Start running 140 miles a week. Give it a year and you'll be good.
It takes a minimum of two years at higher training levels (think 70+ miles per week for most weeks out of the year) to truly reach your training potential. Those with an exceptional amount of talent may not have to run that much to race that fast. But it allows less talented runners to still be competitive with them. DON'T LET TALENT CONTROL YOUR SPORT.
Also, your 100m time would need to be 12.5 or quicker to even have a chance or reaching your 8:50ish goal for 3200m. You're likely still growing, so that 100m time may still come down for you. I pretty much peaked my sophomore/junior year with a 12.9/13.0, and I ran pretty near my potential for the 400m (55.0) and the 800m (1:58), although I didn't keep my mileage up during my track seasons and didn't hit my potential for the 1600m (4:20) or the 3200m (9:12).
Not messing around anymore,
There's no point in your being hostile to the honest and correct answer to your original question. 8:50 is pretty rare territory. If you train a thousand committed high school runners correctly (according to the best answers you will get here or elsewhere), the sub 8:50 guy is one of them, and 999 of them are over 8:50.
I've known great high school and college runners who didn't break 8:50. They were just barely sub 9, or just over 9 for two miles, but not sub 8:50. It's your question that created the answers.
Now, here's what I would tell the thousand committed high school runners to do.
1) Mileage: gradually and steadily increase till you are over 100 miles per week (not once or twice, but routinely), so that you are at or over 5000 miles per year, with many of them at an easy enough pace to recover and build for the next fast run.
2) Steps: Don't even think about breaking 8:50, till you break 9:30, 9:20, 9:10, and 9:00. Take each step individually. It's easy to close your eyes and dream big, but times are actually attained by those who go step by step and beat big dreamers one by one. Learn to be the guy who is working the hardest and smartest to get to the next ten second level the soonest, not the guy who doesn't work hard enough now because he thinks he's headed to bigger things with the magical passage of time, or long held dreams.
3) Be much tougher on yourself at least twice per month in a race or a practice. Learn to race really, really, really hard. Start with hard and work your way up. Many runners race with psychological brakes on, running in a physical comfort zone. Break through in a race and go beyond what you tell yourself is tired.
Now, when a thousand committed runners actually do that, one, or maybe two will be sub 8:50. I can't tell you if it's you, but it could be. Perhaps the top 20 or so break 9:00 and most of the thousand go sub 9:30.
Second Round,
Thank you for such a helpful awnser. Sorry to you all if I seemed hostile but I know running 8:50 takes extreme talent. I just was curious as to how one would go about traing for such a fast time
Pretty sure you don't have to run 12.5 to be an 8:50 3200m. There Ritz never broke 52 for the 400, and even some sub 4 milers can't break 50.
How would you tell if an athlete is talented? This is a question not answered in this thread. The OP needs some knowledge about the subject before he starts getting himself into this.
Look at the current HS great, LV. He didn't break 8:50 until he was in a pro race with Lagat, who set the US record.
work on your form till its perfect, run lots of miles. Just my $0.02 cents. Not that I would know what it takes but I'm guessing.
Talent helps greatly but is beyond your control
CONSISTENCY plus long term thinking and patience
start slowly and gradually build - can't emphasize this enough. no point in running 100+ miles if your form sucks and body can't take it. 100+ miles/week isn't a goal, it's a symbol of how much work your body can take. To get there you need a foundation.
Consistency. Everything will get easier the more time you take. Be honest with yourself.
Harder "tempo" runs become a part of your routine, you get tougher. A Spanish mid-d guy had a break through season, and his QOTD a while back was something to the effect of "running hard becomes easy after you do it for so long"
There is no easy way.
Move to New Jersey, the undisputed epicenter of High School distance running excellence.