why do high school track runners go out fast

The quicker they get done, the sooner they can Facebook, Tweet, and play video games.

They're puppies man. Youth are constantly testing their limits. They are learning how to race and push themselves.

In my opinion freshman need to race often. Gotta learn how to push the pace and pace properly.

Most of these h.s track meets I watch are typical dual meet.

I don't understand why kids go out so insanely fast in a dual meet.

adrenaline. They've probably spent the last 48 hours getting nervous about the race. A good coach teaches his athletes to plan out a race and then follow through with that plan.

Why do so many marathoners go out too fast and crash and burn? "I ran my half marathon PR through 13.1 but I was feeling good. Not sure what happened after that. I must need to improve my in-race nutrition."

The more things change...

Adrenaline, pushing limits, inexperience. They are finding out the kind of runner they are and learning what works for them. I did the same early in my career. Even pacing is good but sometimes you need to push the envelope because maybe you are ready for more.

toe12 wrote:

Most of these h.s track meets I watch are typical dual meet.

I don't understand why kids go out so insanely fast in a dual meet.

In a dual meet, with little competition, going out hard can break the competition mentally, even if they are close to your level physically. In invitationals, with lots of competition, going out hard means you will likely get caught by someone who has run a smarter race/even pace, then used the mental boost each time she passes a runner that has gone out too hard and is falling back through the pack.

I'm thinking specifically of a dual meet against one of our league schools a few years back. I had 3 boys in the race who had mile prs under 5 minutes. The other school had 2 guys in the race with PRs in the low 4:50s. My guys had been taught to run smart paces and not go out too hard. That had been their strategy in every race they ran that year. They knew that if they could finish close to those guys, they would probably PR and might even be able to kick past and steal a few points.

When the race started, the two guys from the other school took off and ran 64 for the first lap. My guys, trying to run smart hung back a bit and still came through the 400 in 67. When they heard the split and saw how far back they already were, they all kind of caved mentally and ran in the 5:15-5:20 range. The kids from the other school cruised in 4:59 and 5:02.

So, their fast early pace resulted in an easy win and some mental ownage against my guys. So, in that instance, going out fast was a very effective strategy.

None of these responses is correct. There's no well thought-out game plan that just happens to leave them 20s slower than proper pacing.

They just have no idea what their paces will be or what the difference in time is between the two paces, so they thoughtlessly try to be in front whenever possible, which is only on the first lap when everyone is fresh.

Also, the race fitness of most high school kids is nowhere near their innate speed. A 68 second first lap might feel pretty easy for a kid who can't break 5:10 in the mile. Inexperience dictates that they will run at that pace until reality sets in, which is usually in the middle of lap 2 for the mile or at about 1k of the 2 mile.

inonrodibu wrote:

None of these responses is correct. There's no well thought-out game plan that just happens to leave them 20s slower than proper pacing.

They just have no idea what their paces will be or what the difference in time is between the two paces, so they thoughtlessly try to be in front whenever possible, which is only on the first lap when everyone is fresh.

You are an idiot.

Coach B is right on.

My senior year at sectionals this kid from my region (a 4:40 guy in a field of mostly 4:20 guys) took the 1600 out in 58-59 with a 15m lead on the whole field. We let him go, and he hit 800 in 2:02, still with a good lead on the field. By the third lap we were reeling him in and by the bell lap he had been totally dropped. I think he finished in like 4:4X, dead last. Missed qualifying for state, puked, and literally crawled around the infield in misery. Now the kicker is that if he had run the 800, 2:02 would've qualified him for state!

His next year he went on to run low-16s in XC, and improved quite a bit in track, so I think he learned his lesson.

There nothing that holds us back more than our own expectations.

Experienced runners have the benefit of more training and racing. As a result there is probably tighter alignment between their current abilities and their expectations.

Young high school runners often have very little experience. Some think big and always believe today will be their day. Others think small and never expect to win a race. I would much rather develop the "big" mindset. Playing it safe rarely allows us to ever get near our potential.

In my experience the newbies that go out too fast have far more success long term than the ones that play it safe. Those that go out too fast eventually learn to dial it back a bit as their competitive experience grows. Those that play it safe and never really fully engage in the competitive arena slip off into obscurity.

I agree with CoachB in that confidence is often very fragile in young runners. They lose faith in themselves if they yield too much ground to their competitors. This is especially true in cross-country when going out slow in fields of 500+ runners means needing to pass several hundred runners after the first 800 meters which in itself also means exerting a lot more effort and you're constantly accelerating through small openings to move up.

I firmly believe in developing and executing race plans, and in preparing to do so through well designed workouts. However, I think there's also a significant period of time when developing competitive instincts can mean less than optimal pacing.

With regard to the 4:40 guy that split 2:02, I would guess that he had no idea before the gun went off that he could run 2:02 and keep going. I would also bet that the confidence he derived from that experience paid huge dividends for him psychologically and fueled his training and confidence in racing for a long time afterwards. Playing it safe and going 69/69/69/68 for a 5 sec PR would have left him a full straight behind the leaders, and I doubt it would have provided similar benefits.

If more schools had freshman and JV races, I would bet that you would see far more "sensible" pacing as well. Most young runners have their first competitive experiences in just dual meets where they are thrown in with varsity athletes. To simply compete with anyone they often must go out "too fast", otherwise they end up time trialing and never competing - they might as well skip the meet and just run a workout, unless they're going to compete.

When you have a freshman boy that doesn't know what he's doing, sometimes just letting him go out fast and seeing what happens is the best option. Sure, there are some guys that go into high school knowing that they're good, and that they know how to run, but more often you'll get a kid who accidentally goes out 20 seconds faster than his middle school mile PR in his first XC race, realizes that hey, he can do this, and then keeps running. Focusing too much on keeping an intended pace, or running in a way that's comfortable for you, especially as an underclassman guy, is inherently limiting.

I've known plenty of dudes that thought that they were 2:10 800 guys until they opened an 800 in 57 and ended up running a 2:03. I've known plenty of guys that thought they were 4:45 milers until they opened a mile in a 65 and ended up running sub 4:30.

Obviously going out fast in a lot of races is a bad thing, but generally underclassmen boys can benefit from going out too fast in a few races and learning their what their limits are (or aren't).

Back in my HS days we definitely always went out fast in the mile, and I believe there are two reasons for this beyond just adrenaline:

(1) In my State the mile/1600 was the last distance event, and most of us would run the 800 and then double back in the mile. Since the 800 always takes out fast, it became a natural reaction for those runners to go out relatively fast when they took on the mile/1600.

(2) Sometimes coaches would throw everyone and the kitchen sink into the mile/1600, and you had to take out fast on that first lap just to keep from getting lost in the jostle of the pack.

immaturity.....they know no better....yet

You have to be a pretty mature runner to comeback on someone. In high school you can pretty much eliminate 95% of the field by pushing the pace early.

But in general, races are typically a race of fatigue, each lap slower than the previous.

You know who REALLY goes out too fast?

FEMALE RUNNERS.

It's hilarious.

the real issue here wrote:

You know who REALLY goes out too fast?

FEMALE RUNNERS.

It's hilarious.

First off, I'm not laughing until you prove us wrong. Please let me know how you think females go out too fast. If anything, we are pretty damn patient in our skills. Just saying.