Should I quit HS running?

First, take EVERY piece of advice on here with a grain of salt. You and I are cut from the same cloth, and most people do not understand extremely motivated individuals who have low trainability and aren't especially durable. Lots of people on these boards just don't understand that some bodies do not simply absorb training readily and let you cut your 5k down to a 16:00.

You are a low-trainability runner. So am I. Read the Sports Gene by David Epstein, but here is a quick primer. Studies have shown that some people show immense training gains with aerobic training, others show almost none, and most people are in the middle. It's genetic. You are probably in the middle-low end of the spectrum.

I am now 29, so I have some perspective. It WAS frustrating to get leapfrogged by younger runners doing less training. It IS frustrating to love running some much and still be unable to improve how I'd like. You are young enough there is a small hope-- a testosterone burst from the later stages of puberty. Mine never happened... I looked the same physically as a senior as I had as a freshman.

My PR's were 4:56, 10:42, and 17:47, so you and I were pretty similar. I still run, and am glad I stuck with it. You have to learn to be happy with incremental improvements and treat them like the victories they are. I was fortunate that I went to a smaller school and was still able to crack varsity and be a scoring member of a state-qualifying team, so that gave purpose to what I was doing.

Lastly, consider that you might be running too hard too often. Read Wejo's "Why I sucked in college" for how that might be the case.

Good luck. It can be frustrating, but compared to the great genetic sea out there, you still ended pretty fortunate if you are cracking 5 in the 1600. Focus on those incremental improvements and try to tune everything else out.

1. You write and think very clearly for a 9th grader. That alone is impressive.

2. You are the type of person that is going to need to learn how to tell that 'perfection voice' in your head that part of you needs to take a break from excellence and just run and enjoy. I am guessing that 'perfection voice' is pretty constant??

3. I agree with other posts, don't race your workouts. In fact, take the volume down and work on very fast, aerobic, short distances.

3a. But then you need to tell the ''perfection voice' you've done enough and leave 'something in the tank.'

Lastly, there is always someone better. Always. That will be hard for your ''perfection voice' to handle, but running is a great place to learn how to talk to that part of you.

Enjoy running. Embrace it. Take watch off and just run.

running/jogging rest or standing? move to jog if standing. it sucks at first but helps out way more try to walk for 10 m then jog at 8:00-8:30 pace the rest of rest interval

shouldiquit wrote:

Thanks for responding. My recent runs are:

easy run: 7:20 per mile

long run: 7:20 per mile

8x800: 2:34 average, 3:30 rest (Did once during this season)

16x400: 1:15 average, 1:30 rest (Pretty much done every week for the entire season)

Recent 3 mile xc race: 18:43 approximate splits (cant remember them exactly off the top of my head) : 5:30, 6:45, 6:35

The only speed workout that my coach has us run every week for the entire season far are 12-16 400's at around 75. Other than that, I might do another tempo, but I listen to everything she says. It really bothers me how my workouts set myself up to think I will be able to race fast, but I just go into oxygen debt about 5 minutes into the race, even though my first mile is only ~5:30.

We're cut from the same cloth, buddy.I'm a senior, and I have a 10:54 3200 pr, but dropped my best from 11:26 to that off of 430 winter miles.Just trust the training, pal. You have a lot of time to improve still. The work does pay off in the long run, something I should've realized a long, long time ago.

As my coach says, "Getting better every day, in every way".

I agree with a lot of the above.

Seeking perfection is ultimately an unhealthy habit. If you are running solely to be the "best " that is both unrealistic and counterproductive. Even on an individual basis, you simply can't pr every race, or even every month.

If you enjoy running, just keep running. Your training seems to be pretty reasonable. If you are getting injured, seek out a reputable physical therapist or strength/ conditioning trainer to help you out.

Running takes a lot of energy and focus. But even 70 mile a week is only an hour a day of actual running and maybe another hour of drills/ weights/ etc. give yourself a chance to explore some other interests. Take a week completely off in December and two weeks off in June.

Like others have said, be low key for a bit regarding training. At your age the single biggest factor in your improvement comes from natural changes in physical maturity, not training. Run the 800 and 4x4 if you can this spring. Play some rec league basketball this winter. You are not a robot.

Have fun and good luck

dude your negativity is not appreciated and you are kinda a jerk

I don't think you should, one problem in my opinion is that you absolutely CAN'T increase your mileage too quickly. Your body needs time to adapt to the new training regime. Until then you had been increasing it by 10 miles/year then you suddenly almost doubled it. You should drop it down to, let's say, 40/50 and increase it by 10 every year. Everything has to be done carefully and in the right time.

One thing you're going to have to come to grips with as a runner is that other runners who don't work as hard as you are going to be better than you. Natural talent and ability plays a role in that as well. It goes the other way too, there may be guys who you compete against and say the same things to themselves. You are competing against guys who work harder than you too. It's just a fact.

Another is that just because you may be one of the hardest workers, that doesn't mean you will be the absolute best.

You are still early in your running life, ans as long as you still enjoy it, you should continue running. You'll never have the chance again to run in a group quite like your high school team.

Had another night to think about this and I have two more things to say.

Do not discount the physical maturation factor. If you are small for your age, look young, haven't hit puberty hard yet.... That will make a difference. I am a coach, and I have seen kids keep the exact same training, get a testosterone boost from puberty, and drop chunks of time. I can't look at you, but you can judge this for yourself... Do you still have some physical maturation left? That is a big factor.

Second, I believe you are running your intervals too hard. 75 second quarters is 15:35 pace. That is a monster effort that is leaving you beat up and unable to race to your ability later in the week. Please read Wejo's "Why I sucked in college" and distill the principle downwards to high school.

Sorry to post again, it's just that you and I are so similar I feel like I am going back in a time machine to give myself advice,

In high school I ran my best races off a prolonged base phase with moderate speed work. As the season went on, I would expect to get faster with the extra speed work, and it just wouldn't really happen. As I have gotten older and can now design my own training, I have found that speedwork doesn't do that much for me. Moderately hard once a week during the base phase and four or five hard sessions in the weeks before the race is all I need. Then, I plateau, or worse, get injured and burned out.

Every body is NOT the same. There is no one size fits all approach. You may have unlocked a key to your future success.

Your times are all over the place. It looks like you're missing some endurance that just comes with age.

At 15 you have so much more growing to do, you'll get a lot of strength and speed just from that. Rest more often. I think I was perpetually overtrained between 15 and 29. Get fast, work on fast twitch speed while you still can. you got decades to run long

You know what I ran in 9th grade? Like a 5:20 off of 50-55 mpw. No talent what so ever over here. Not until 70-80mpw consistently as a high schooler did I start catching up to the top of my teammates but still not fast (4:30, 10:00). I could go 6:00 for 10 miles but had no speed no matter how much speed workouts we did. 800 is by far the hardest race in the world imo haha. Anyways, I decided to focus on the half and up and enjoy running. Keep those short races to the talented freaks.

You seem like you have speed. Just train year around with a few down weeks when needed and a little time off after seasons and you could be a monster. A 55 mpw a few times does not mean you are a 55mpw runner. Most high schoolers on my team didn't start training a month till track season. Talented idiots.

average to slightly below average trolling... 4/10

Wtf

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?? This kid runs a 18:30. Telling him to run 4 miles at 5:30 is impossible even if he races it. Considering his prs, his 800 PR should be around 2:15. He can't perform 6 800s at 2:20.