What is average mileage for Girls High School distance programs?

Depends on the girl. The runner. Some runners can handle 50 mpw, others can not. I had boy runners doing 40 mpw in their senior year, because they could not handle 60 and most would just lie and say they ran 5 or 6 miles when I knew it was 3. Proof was in their performances. My advice; play it by ear for each individual. Some jr's might need to go with soph's,. etc.

I ran 25-35 miles per week as a senior in HS, but we raced often as well and did a lot of speed workouts. In college I worked up to 60 miles per week and our team also raced often and we had 3 speed workouts/week. I was all American in HS and College (distance events) and this worked well for me. I think every runner is unique though.

That pretty much my progression for girls. I also look at time on your feet and easy runs and long runs etc are by time not distance to individualize it some more. Workouts are always measured distances though. 3rd or 4th years girls i like to see at 50mpw and boys 60mpw if they can handle it of course. I just took over a program that was low mileage and one workout a week and tryings to balance it all to not cause injury as they are doing many things they have not before.

I don't think it's too much to ask ANY athlete to gradually work-up to 60 minute daily runs & a 80-90 minute long run. You simply have to take your time to get to that level.

WEEK 1: 35 minutes daily

WEEK 2: 40 minutes daily

WEEK 3: 45 minutes daily

WEEK 4: 50 minutes daily + long run

WEEK 5: 55 minutes daily + long run

WEEK 6: 60 minutes daily + long run

Maybe it takes you 7 or 8 weeks to get to 60 minute runs, but the above is a good generic build-up schedule.

I would try to make as many of your runs on soft surfaces as possible.

I would, too, try to do some barefoot running 3 times a week. (Keep that barefoot running time INCLUDED in your daily run time.)

In week 3, I would start adding strides (2-3 times a week) and/or hill sprints.

Hold 60 minute runs throughout the season. Once your body adapts to 60 minute runs, you can do progressive 60 minutes run (for example, 60 minutes with the last 5-10 minutes hard) & hilly runs.

Then, you can do tempo runs & fartleks (while keeping strides & hill sprints).

There you go. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I'm also trying to motivate some girls on my team and help them realize that it's not outlandish/abnormal to run more than 15 miles a week.

I played basketball and even in middle school they had 2 sometimes 3 hour practices, but for some reason many girls on my team act like running takes over their life just to do 40 minutes a day.

hsgirrl wrote:

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I'm also trying to motivate some girls on my team and help them realize that it's not outlandish/abnormal to run more than 15 miles a week.

I played basketball and even in middle school they had 2 sometimes 3 hour practices, but for some reason many girls on my team act like running takes over their life just to do 40 minutes a day.

To motivate the other girls, make plans for after practice as an incentive. Go get a pizza after your run. Movie night. Coffee. Game night. Whatever. If you can get the other girls to be FRIENDS, then getting them together to run will be easy!

Average across all high school programs? Not even close to what you suggest I imagine. There is definitely going to be some bias here since HS coaches who post here are probably more informed than most. I would guess the average for a senior girl is at most 25-30 miles per week. I'm familiar with many high school programs in my area and most boys programs top out somewhere in the 30s

About 40mpw, depends on the level of runner.

We tend to progress like this:

Frosh/Soph - 25-35

Junior - 35-45

Senior - 40-55

We are probably one of the higher mileage teams in our area, which always surprises me because we can hit those numbers pretty comfortably on singles 6-7 days a week with very few injuries.

You Can Do It's post reminds me of a good article:

http://www.runningwritings.com/2014/05/five-steps-to-long-term-success-in-high.html

Very few high school girls programs do the mileage that you've suggested in the original post. Average high school girls programs cap around 35 MPW by senior year, if even that. The average high school girls track/XC program is also very, well, average--maybe they'll have a few girls in the 19 minute 5k range each year and a D1 prospect every couple years who's either got tremendous natural talent or trains on her own, but they won't be consistently churning out D1 recruits.

I also know of no programs that encourage girls to run 80 MPW--the highest mileage program in my area is Great Oak, and their girls cap out around 60 - 65 MPW. They have the best girls distance track program in the country, and are a top XC program as well.

A team I worked with for a while (not in my current area) had varsity upperclassmen girls running 40 - 50 MPW depending on injury history, crosstraining plans (we always had a swimmer or a soccer player), and fitness levels, with heavy emphasis on quality miles and weight training rather than volume. We always had a few girls under 5 minutes in the mile, along with a whole slew of girls under 5:30. It was an excellent program and we had quite a few girls go on to run D1--many of whom capped senior year with 45 MPW.

Super heavy weekly mileage is a really good way to break most kids, and you can develop a very strong girls XC program off of under 50 MPW. Average teams aren't running anywhere near that kind of mileage.

Always had a few under 5:00 for the mile huh? What school is that?

Are you a HS coach? How many years?

I agree with your goal of getting to 60 mins a day- but to go from 35 mins per day to 60 mins per day in 6 weeks is a bad idea and you will never see this incredibly fast increase in any book or presentation because it is way too much of a risk for injuries.

To answer the OP's question - 20 MPW at most is the average.

Older Student wrote:

Always had a few under 5:00 for the mile huh? What school is that?

Small high school school in the most beautiful part of California. A little north of the area you'd read descriptions of in Steinbeck novels.

Yes, I'm a high school coach for 12 years now. The above mileage is very doable & I've had no real injuries to speak of.

Pretty much all of our mileage is on soft surfaces. All runs are by feel too.

We do barefoot exercises & running 2-3 times a week. (I really think, anecdotally speaking, this is really important to our injury free program.)

We spend 3 days a week on hip strengthening exercises (including hurdle drills) & 3 days a week on core.

When we get into the heart of the season & are racing too much, I can get the kids to continue to hit 60 minute runs by do split runs on easy/recovery days: 25 minutes easy, 10 minutes barefoot running, 25 minutes easy (all soft surfaces).

Our program is pretty successful. Top 5 in our state (in a small school size division).

To pat myself on the back, since I took over, my runners have broken all the school records. I've put more athletes into college sports (mainly D-III) than any other sport at our school.

Since I'm anonymous, I'll say with the above mileage, I use Joe Vigil's program focusing our main workout of mile repeats at 85%, 88%, 91%, & 94% effort throughout the season.

I guess the "ding" against my program is the yearly mileage progression isn't as great as other programs might have. If everyone runs 60 minutes every day, then the yearly mileage progression is merely the pace in which the athlete does his/her daily runs.

Geez, top five in your state small school division running 60 minutes per day. Something is not right there?

Are we talking about genetic girls or transgender girls?

which state? wrote:

Geez, top five in your state small school division running 60 minutes per day. Something is not right there?

I'd prefer not to say.

But, my school has less than 600 students. You're really coaching on a razor's edge. One kid choosing not to come out & your team is done!

My team usually only has 14-20 kids on it (boys AND girls total).

I'm not sure why you're saying "something is not right there"? Do you think we should be better? Worse?