Damn my son is slow

needtohearit wrote:

ukathleticcoach wrote:

What's it got to do with you?

Leave it to the runner and his coach

This is maybe beside the point of this thread, but why assume that the coach knows what he's doing?

True but the dad seems like the local idiot so I would go with the coach

Yeah, maybe the OP's wife doped on EPO, and that's why when the OP looked at her race results he was assuming he was marrying an endurance sport phenom. Plastic surgery is LESS misleading, if anything - all the guy had to do is ask to see her childhood (pre-surgery) photos.

I don't think anyone addressed the team dynamic enough. Kids on a mediocre team often underachieve based solely on what is around them each day at practice. When the team as a whole doesn't truly believe they'll be successful, very often the individual runners of said team also don't live up to their potential. Is he happy with just safely being on the Varsity as the 3rd man? A lot of kids sadly don't have much higher goals than that.

I wonder what would happen if he was on a team where his 18:45 results meant he was the 15th runner instead of 3rd? My guess is he'd step up his game a bit just based on the success of those around him.

Of course he could just be that kid that everyone knew that worked hard and just never got past the 18 min range. He is young enough though that the story hasn't completely been told yet. I wouldn't give up hope on him, especially if he truly enjoys the sport.

joalturn wrote:

Speed matters. How fast is he running those miles? If he spent a summer dicking around at 8 min pace the results aren't surprising. Instead of uping the mileage going into track keep him at 40, but run faster over those miles. Throw in some strides plyos and hills too. Maybe even run a few 800s in the season and see what happens before jumping to the conclusion that he sucks.

I spent lots of runs at 8:00 pace and I went from above 20:00 to sub 17:00 in two years maybe three. That was in my late 30s. I did no workouts other than races for my first two years of running. I was running 60+ miles a week at the time and later when I broke 17 I was running 100 mpw with two workouts but all my other runs were 7:30-8:00 pace.

Why all the outrage? It does no parent or child any good to live in the land of the special snowflakes. Those times may not be "damn" slow, but they sure as heck aren't fast either. If Dad had come on here and talked about his son's super times and tremendous potential, you'd be making fun of him for that.

TNPride1976 wrote:

You are f*cking terrible dad... "Damn my son is slow.. whats the point?" shame on you.

I spoke with the boy today. Said if you didn't break 5 in the mile this winter i was going to shoot his dog, break all of his toys and send him to hard labor boys camp for high school.

I think ti caught his attention. Perhaps he just needed some focussing. Also, I drove him 20 miles from the house and threw him out of the car (didn't stop - but he only bounced on the pavement twice)and told him to run home. If he didn't avergae 6:30 pace he wouldn't be able to eat.

Also, I am not a bad dad. I am the "World's #1 Dad". My coffee cup and tee shirt say so. So f**k off douchebag!

A friend of mine only ran in the 17:00-19:00 range in high school and now runs a sub 2:30 marathon and a 15:20 5k after having done high mileage for a few years post-college.