Am I wrong, or is this kid overtraining?

mile@4:22, 2 @4:35, 3 @4:53.when at racing shape

8 mile tempo @ 5:20 pace is more like racing.

When he gets a serious injury, he can sit and cry.

The adults around him are enabling him by not insisting on recovery. It's crazy for a guy who's only a 4:20 miler.

He only ran one mile last season, and he was in the smaller of PA's two school classifications, so his competition was a lot worse. If he got more opportunities to be in fast races, I'm willing to bet he could've been 4:15 for the mile and sub 9 for the 3200.

He is overtraining, simple as that. I got to give it to him though, I like his drive, but I believe he should cut.it back A LOT. I met national HS runners and some of them did upwards at most 70 miles a week, this kid is doing more than that, plus too many hard days. He is over training and is going to regret it. Lukas v only ran 40 miles a week, but also swam and biked, so that kind of accommodated for those un-run miles.

Agreed... that's fine if he's not getting hurt or anything, but if he's running 4:22 / 9:10 off of this, he should cut back. You'd expect him to race a fair bit faster with training like this.

Personally know this kid and he takes good care of his body and hasn't been injured in the last four years that I've known him, just has the genetics to handle that mileage and intensity I guess. Best of luck to him in the future.[/quote

Dang you read his training and its scary..sounding... for a HS guy. He seems to be feeling great though! At this rate he should be top 3 in the country. The only thing worries you a bit is peaking and the toll of this training possibly surfacing negatively some way, down the road, when he least needs it. He seems like he has it well in hand though. Sounds like a very very strong young guy. May the distance Gods protect him and keep him! :)

No, it looks to me as if he is a pretty successful runner, and that he knows what his body needs/can handle in order to be good. He is probably training the right way for himself which is all that really matters. It's hard to decide that he is over training when we don't really know his past training and everything he has been doing throughout his life as a runner.

It's a good topic though, I like the thread.

Just a few observations:

Monday:

20 one min accelerations is 2 per mile. So 1 min on / 2 min off?

Tuesday:

He ditched practice.

Wednesday:

Why does he keep calling it "fartlet"?

Add in 15 hill sprints? How fast is he doing these things?

Thursday:

Has he been to letsrun? Loves to emphasize being relaxed.

Friday:

8 mile tempo at 5:20s but best of all was relaxed!

Saturday:

Is he still alive?

Sunday:

What... No time for church?