Last year I knew a kid from another school who ran 1:57 for the 800 as a junior off less than 10 mpw, all he did was interval workouts and a short run. How much faster could he be if he actually trained and put in mileage?
Last year I knew a kid from another school who ran 1:57 for the 800 as a junior off less than 10 mpw, all he did was interval workouts and a short run. How much faster could he be if he actually trained and put in mileage?
1:52
He'd get slower and his head would explode
I'd agree that a year-round program would drop his time by 5 or so seconds.
Andrew Wheating didn't run the 800 in high school and went to Oregon. He dropped his time to 1:44 and ran the 800m in the 2008 Olympics. So there are a lot of factors. Wheating is known for going to a high school that didn't even have a track but he did a lot of distance running and played soccer.
I think this thread is a brilliant example and manifestation of the sociological critique that many thinkers formulate about the Internet, particularly Web2.0, in which people have an over-propensity to divulge and want to share overtly intimate things about themselves. There is a very strange trend in the post-blogosphere era of Internet users developing the habit of confessing and exposing many extremely sensitive and intimate things about themselves to strangers on the Internet. It is related to the shift in cultural fashions towards the 'thinking out loud' style content of many forums and blogs nowadays, where people often feel a root-level terror at the prospect of silence or in the act of simply not discussing something - some root level existential angst - and only feel comfortable in the sweet dopamine release of a 'Submit Post' button, and the endless compulsive refreshing and Pavlovian response of threads in which the main tributary of content seems to be spilling from the deepest recesses of their own psyche and innermost secrets. Willed over-exposure and an alleviating of feelings of personal vulnerability are the hallmarks of the Internet in 2013, and this thread is a sterling example.
Considering some of the threads that which you post; I doubt many will place too much value on this comment.
I get tired of this mileage bullsh!t different strokes for different folks maybe thats optimal for him. Verzbikas only ran like what 4 times a week and complained that running full time made his legs dead. he did cross training sure but my point stands. dont concern yourself with mileage and others training its stupid
back in my running days, I ran 20 miles a week at most as a 1:54 high school 800 runner. I was more of a speed guy (49.0 400m) and my body could never handle runs longer than 5 or 6 miles regardless of pace, my feet would start to hurt unbearably. Most of my mileage consisted of hard and fast 3 or 4 mile runs.
high school runner1 wrote:
Last year I knew a kid from another school who ran 1:57 for the 800 as a junior off less than 10 mpw, all he did was interval workouts and a short run. How much faster could he be if he actually trained and put in mileage?
depends on how naturally fast this kid is - what is his 400m ability?
Local kid (Soph) ran with a sprint group freshman year, didn't break 2.00, trained alone mostly soph year, which was last year - with his dad as coach, but ran 49.4, and later with a distance training group and ran 1.52. Doesn't run XC, which is not a good thing imo.
A kid I coached ran 2.02 as a frosh, only training for a couple of months, then 1.54 soph, with a 49.4 400, then 1.50 his senior year, after losing his junior year to mono. So one needs more information to decide wether he can run a lot faster than 1.57.
So there are always mitigating factors, but some speed is essential. The more speed you have the less endurance you can get way with, and the more training can be interval vs mileage based (to some degree). i.e Juantorena (44.2/1.43.4)/ Rudisha trains as a Kenyan (45.1/1.40.9), so likely has as a higher endurance component than someone from a sprint background (Kratochvilova 47.99/1.53.28).
Without knowing anything else a junior who runs 1:57 off 10 miles a week has the potential to run a 1:52 with some good coaching and training. A talented junior has enough physical maturity to get a result like that. Had the kid been a freshman running 1:57 then you may have a sub four minute miler on your hands. Same for a junior who runs 1:52 off of 10 miles training. The junior running 1:57 may or may not turn out to be a great runner with some good coaching and training.