HS Summer Training: How much is too much?

bump.

You have to build them all up to at least 120 mile weeks, it's the only way for them to win state championships and eventually national championships. They also should be in the weight room doing a lot of bench presses reps and calf raises and do a lot of downhill sprints so they feel faster and can close XC 5Ks is roughly 56 seconds the last 370-400 meters.

113 would be too many

Your #1 is lying about his times, he can holy 4:50 pace for 2 miles but only 4:38 for one!? He's lying about running 80 mpw too, he's going to do 35 at most.

Honestly, I think that mileage might be a bit much for high schoolers. I'm not sure I'd go above 60 for a senior athlete...and that's for a kid that ran all four years.

Remember, colleges want to see someone fast who has room for improvement (i.e. more miles).

SENIOR: 60

JUNIOR: 50

SOPHOMORE: 40

FRESHMAN: 30-35

Find the balance between mileage, room for improvement, & FUN!

HS coach # has it right on.

H.S. Coach #7023761 wrote:

Honestly, I think that mileage might be a bit much for high schoolers. I'm not sure I'd go above 60 for a senior athlete...and that's for a kid that ran all four years.

Remember, colleges want to see someone fast who has room for improvement (i.e. more miles).

SENIOR: 60

JUNIOR: 50

SOPHOMORE: 40

FRESHMAN: 30-35

Find the balance between mileage, room for improvement, & FUN!

Wtf? You think colleges will shy away from a guy who already knows how to train hard? Get a clue!

H.S. Coach #7023761 wrote:

Honestly, I think that mileage might be a bit much for high schoolers. I'm not sure I'd go above 60 for a senior athlete...and that's for a kid that ran all four years.

Remember, colleges want to see someone fast who has room for improvement (i.e. more miles).

SENIOR: 60

JUNIOR: 50

SOPHOMORE: 40

FRESHMAN: 30-35

Find the balance between mileage, room for improvement, & FUN!

And this is the EXACT mentality that led to distance running going down the shitter in the '90s.

Bingo. "a lot of downhill sprints so they feel faster..."

Within reason, hill/mountain training should be used as a secret weapon for XC prep. But I am an advocate of distance cycling (spinning on a stationary cycle), some long distance pool swimming (experienced athletes maybe ocean swim w/fins - on a known course) for the summer equates for a nice evening run.

Yeah, if he wants to be a troll.In deciding mileage, past performances in the mile and 2 mile aren't important. A talented HS kid can run 4:30 off of less 30 mpw. 4:40 @35 MPW is not hard. What's important is the mileage they've been doing. This is the progression kids should doFresh: 30-40Soph: 40 - 50Jr: 50-60Sr: 60-70With this progression they can then step and do 70-80 as freshman and move up to 100 by the end of there college career. If you had a strong senior he could do 70-80 and would be training like a freshman. Mileage doesn't burn out kids, it makes them stronger. Too many races and too many lactic workouts is the burnout culprit.Don't worry about college, you can always downplay your training on the phone. unlike mileage, your mile and 2 mile performance are important for college.

exactly! wrote:

HS coach # has it right on.

the average male runner wrote:

Here's my top 5:

1. Sr, 4:38/9:40/16:05, building to 80 mpw

2. So, 4:33/10:04/16:35, bulding to 60 mpw

3. So, 4:46/10:10/16:47, building to 60 mpw

4. Jr, 4:50/10:10/16:55, building to 70-75 mpw

5. Jr, 5:02/10:34/17:02, building to 70-75 mpw.

That's excellent mileage, assuming they can build up right to reach it. Definitely not too much.

John Boehner wrote:

H.S. Coach #7023761 wrote:

Honestly, I think that mileage might be a bit much for high schoolers. I'm not sure I'd go above 60 for a senior athlete...and that's for a kid that ran all four years.

Remember, colleges want to see someone fast who has room for improvement (i.e. more miles).

SENIOR: 60

JUNIOR: 50

SOPHOMORE: 40

FRESHMAN: 30-35

Find the balance between mileage, room for improvement, & FUN!

And this is the EXACT mentality that led to distance running going down the shitter in the '90s.

You're clearly not a high school coach that has to balance not only training but actual events in a kid's life. HS Coach # is correct (and probably pretty successful).

Let's take the 60 mpw senior and see how "easy" it is to fit in 60 miles per week.

M: 10 miles Easy pace + strides

T: 20 min Tempo w/ 2 mi warm-up & 2 mi cool-down

W: 60 minutes Easy recovery Running

Th: 10 miles over hilly terrain w/ 6-8x2 min surges @ 10k pace

F: 5 miles Pre-Meet

S: 5k Race (2 miles warm-up; 2 miles cool-down)

S: 12 miles Easy

That's 58-60 miles with no days off; and personally, I would scratch the Sunday run for most HS kids and do it on Monday. That puts you @ 50 mpw.

Add about 2-3 hours of homework each night; seniors w/ part-time jobs; college visits; family time; friend time... if you can't get it done off of 60 mpw in high school, then fitting in 20 more miles probably isn't going to do it either.

dark hills, really black wrote:

Let's take the 60 mpw senior and see how "easy" it is to fit in 60 miles per week.

That's 58-60 miles with no days off; and personally, I would scratch the Sunday run for most HS kids and do it on Monday. That puts you @ 50 mpw.

Add about 2-3 hours of homework each night; seniors w/ part-time jobs; college visits; family time; friend time... if you can't get it done off of 60 mpw in high school, then fitting in 20 more miles probably isn't going to do it either.

How many classes did you take during summer break?

I think 80 is a lot( for HS), and that it should be done very carefully. If 60 feels like a lot to your runners then they should stay there until it feels comfortable. Then maybe do some easy tempos or fartleks with that mileage.

Steve Martin wrote:

H.S. Coach #7023761 wrote:

Honestly, I think that mileage might be a bit much for high schoolers. I'm not sure I'd go above 60 for a senior athlete...and that's for a kid that ran all four years.

Remember, colleges want to see someone fast who has room for improvement (i.e. more miles).

SENIOR: 60

JUNIOR: 50

SOPHOMORE: 40

FRESHMAN: 30-35

Find the balance between mileage, room for improvement, & FUN!

Wtf? You think colleges will shy away from a guy who already knows how to train hard? Get a clue!

Visited a school last year known for high mileage and philosophy of aerobic development. Their coaches were less interested in the 9:10 3200 runners who trained 80-100 mpw in high school than the 9:30 to 10 types who may have been at 35 to 60 mpw.

Lets be honest here. If you need 2-3 hours, every night, to do homework...you have bigger problems.

oh bruddah champeen wrote:

Steve Martin wrote:

Wtf? You think colleges will shy away from a guy who already knows how to train hard? Get a clue!

Visited a school last year known for high mileage and philosophy of aerobic development. Their coaches were less interested in the 9:10 3200 runners who trained 80-100 mpw in high school than the 9:30 to 10 types who may have been at 35 to 60 mpw.

How do you know that? You just visited them, so you cannot know what they prefer.

My #1 is not lying about his times, his 1600 PR is 4:38, he had a lot of sub-par 4:38-40 races and wanted to focus on the 3200.

How do you keep dedicated runners from over doing it with the mileage? These guys are really dedicated and want to improve, I mean it was a battle to convince the incoming sophomores and 60 is enough for them (they wanted to run 70+). What can I say to stress the importance of recovery and not overtraining?

Oh yeah, one more thing, both the sophomores are no where near physically mature. They haven't started puberty yet and are pretty small for their age. Does physical maturity have any impact on the volume these guys should run?

good workouts you should try are 40x400 @ 57-59 with a 100 jog in between at about 20 seconds or so, 9x5000 @ 15:00 with an 800 jog in between at about 2:30 or so

my advice to you is not coming to letsrun for your coaching questions

oh yeah if you want to win states you better be putting in 140-150 mile weeks with at least one run of 25 miles at 5:30>5:00 pace per week