Summer XC Base

skeletal maturity

Prometheus

As someone who is concerned for you and not just trying to confirm my own biases, I think it's worth saying that when you're in high school you do more than just run. I took AP classes like you and ran maybe 40mpw and between all that I barely had time for 8 hours of sleep and any down / social time at all. Theres no way I could have gotten 8 hours or had as many friends off 100mpw as I did off 40, and I probably would have needed more like 9 hours a night had I been running that much. You really need to think about your priorities.

Also, hear this. My freshman year, with a few weeks of 30mpw (and almost nothing before) i ran 24:00min 5k cross, down to 5:15 mile at the end of Spring track off averaging maybe 35mpw. Through high school I never did more than 50mpw, though by end of sophomore year my pr's were down to 18:00, 10:35, 4:55, and each dropped consistently throughout high school. These times aren't great, but it is a lot more rapid progress than you seem to be making literally running twice as much, and I would argue from our starting times that you may be a more talented individual than me.

Finally, I'm running in college now, have gradually worked up to 60-70mpw and my PR's have dropped rapidly. I now run well off of more mileage, but that's only because I waited in my development to really train with more volume. I still love running and have competitive desire years after high school, which I promise is not likely to be the case with you if you continue training so much, sacrificing so much of your time you could spend on school or with friends, for results that can be attained by someone with less talent off of less volume. If you really want to dedicate yourself to the sport, you have to train smart and think hard. Whether you choose to really go after the mileage in high school or not, I hope you can conduct yourself so that you actually enjoy high school, running, and life in general.

It's not about the times...

Running doesn't even matter

whale on wheels wrote:

Prometheus

As someone who is concerned for you and not just trying to confirm my own biases, I think it's worth saying that when you're in high school you do more than just run. I took AP classes like you and ran maybe 40mpw and between all that I barely had time for 8 hours of sleep and any down / social time at all. Theres no way I could have gotten 8 hours or had as many friends off 100mpw as I did off 40, and I probably would have needed more like 9 hours a night had I been running that much. You really need to think about your priorities.

We're talking about base training over the summer, right? You couldn't spend two hours per day running, get 8+ hours of sleep, and still have friends during the summer? 9 hours of sleep plus 2 hours of running is 11 hours. That means you have 13 hours to do whatever else you want. How is that not enough time to have friends?

IMHO sounds like overdoing it. You´re still so young, that I would keep sure to work your basic speed and acceleration a couple of years from now, this will not only help your speed but will make your bones and joints really strong in order to avoid breaking down in the years of maturity and hard training.

Maurice - Thanks again for the advice. Aside from it not being my favorite thing to do, my fears regarding really committing myself to lifting are that I might bulk up too much, and any good adaptations i make might not be worth it in regard to running due to the principle of specificity. I figure that the GSM work would be a safer and better approach as well.

Also, my family and I are are actually in the process of trying to switch to a more natural whole-foods diet, and from what I've read it sounds like the anti-inflammatory nutrients in fruits and vegetables would make an optimal diet for heavy training, so i plan to try to regulate my diet around that in the Summer.

Long story short, by academic acceleration, this coming year will actually be my senior season of XC. Part of the rationale in the extreme 100mpw scenario is that this will be my last high school season to really do something with running, and I primarily chose to delay graduation so that I could continue to participate in the sport i am so passionate about for one more year. So its important to me that I leave some mark on my high school program; thus my mileage progression is perhaps less-than-optimal. I still am plenty convinced of its possible positives, however, and so am choosing to pursue it.