Coach a large group of athletes and had an 8th grade boy run 10 flat for 2 miles and an 8th grade girl run 11:15. These two run about 20-25 miles a week. Any thoughts about what their progression should be if they keep enjoying the sport. Anyone else have athletes achieve similar times and did they go on to run in college?
coaching4fun wrote:
Coach a large group of athletes and had an 8th grade boy run 10 flat for 2 miles and an 8th grade girl run 11:15. These two run about 20-25 miles a week. Any thoughts about what their progression should be if they keep enjoying the sport. Anyone else have athletes achieve similar times and did they go on to run in college?
Both times are absolutely phenomenal and should be enjoyed for what they are: elite MS marks that demonstrate high levels of talent and (most likely) determination. However, if you insist, we can talk about what the times might mean for the future:
For the Boy: if the time is correct, he is among the top 5-10 kids his age in the country. If he has already gone through puberty, he may not improve much in HS but should still be a stud no matter what. Boys are safe bets, to an extent. Worst case (barring injury), he winds up being a reliable low-mid 16s guy for 3-4 years of HS. Best case, he is Dathan Ritzenhein reincarnate.
As for the girl, there is no way to tell. 11:15 is good, but not as elite as the 10:00 boy. She will likely be good for at least 1 season of HS... hopefully more. Worst case, she slows down every year after “only” achieving low 19s as a freshman. Best case, she is a world beater. Our MS record is 11:21 and that girl went on to become a 9 time state champ,
FL qualifier, and 10:39 3200 runner.
With all that said, enjoy the times for what they are now! Celebrate the success. Find some high level age group meets for them to race in. Don’t think too much about what could be.
FWIW, I’m offering this advice to myself as much as I am to you. We had a MS boy go 10:22 last night for 3200 XC. Absolutely sizzling!!
Yes the boy has improved in 2 years from a 5:28 1600 runner as a 6th grader to now. The young girl has been running since around the age of 8 but has only trained with me now for 2 years. She has also run 5:14 for 1600m. We have a good group with a 4:10 10th grader and a 16:30 5k female and around 30-40 other athletes. These athletes live in the southern hemisphere and it is there first race of the season.
Those are good times. Some wise advice above. Don’t trade short term gains for long term development. The mileage sounds appropriate for an 8th grade girl who has run for a few years.
Boys tend to improve in a more linear fashion through high school. Girls frequently hit the puberty wall as sophomores or juniors. You want the mileage as a middle schooler and 9th and 10th Grader to be low enough that you have room to bump up the mileage for the post pubescent young female runner who will weigh more but be able to handle a bigger training volume (assuming she wasn’t close to maxed out pre puberty).
On similar mileage our daughter ran sub 11 as an 8th grader. She received several D1 full scholarship offers as a hs senior. Your runner has a bright future. Keep it fun and don’t overtrain as an underclassman or MS athlete and her prospects will be brighter long term.
10 flat is really good for that age, I know guys who were given the opportunity to run in college at 10 flat....they were always really undertrained in high school and hard workers who improved massively. If he can get down to 9:15 by junior year, he'll get some good school looking at him. I was only mid-9:20s at that point, didn't get much attention from bigger schools but got some $$ at a good school with a decent team
Most important thing is to keep them focused on the present. I ran 9:5x in 8th grade.... and in HS, never ran faster than 9:30. Everyone told me how great I was at such a young age that I jumped the gun and assumed that 9:0x would come easily. Not to say I didn't work hard - but the mental battle of trying to live up to internal and external expectations after you run fast at a young age can be tough,
Focus on the present and enjoy the process
coaching4fun wrote:
Yes the boy has improved in 2 years from a 5:28 1600 runner as a 6th grader to now. The young girl has been running since around the age of 8 but has only trained with me now for 2 years. She has also run 5:14 for 1600m. We have a good group with a 4:10 10th grader and a 16:30 5k female and around 30-40 other athletes. These athletes live in the southern hemisphere and it is there first race of the season.
3/10
Nice effort and youa re still getting hooks. You picked times that will get attention without being easy to verify.
You screwed up with using "1600" in the "Southern Hemsiphere"...uh, no.
conversion 4:54 1500 for the girl.
coaching4fun wrote:
conversion 4:54 1500 for the girl.
-13/10. Now that is just lame.
coaching4fun wrote:
Yes the boy has improved in 2 years from a 5:28 1600 runner as a 6th grader to now. The young girl has been running since around the age of 8 but has only trained with me now for 2 years. She has also run 5:14 for 1600m. We have a good group with a 4:10 10th grader and a 16:30 5k female and around 30-40 other athletes. These athletes live in the southern hemisphere and it is there first race of the season.
Assuming your "4:10 10th grader" is currently in 10th grade, that would mean he ran 4:10 as a freshman, which no freshmen did. Let's say he is currently an 11th grader, and ran 4:10 as a sophomore, then he would be Alex Maier, which he is not.
not sure who you are referring to. The athlete that I work with ran 4:04 1500m as freshman which converts to roughly 4:20 1600 and 3:54 last year which converts to 4:10. He will be eligible for NCAA in fall of 2019. Remember southern hemisphere a little different.
coaching4fun wrote:
not sure who you are referring to. The athlete that I work with ran 4:04 1500m as freshman which converts to roughly 4:20 1600 and 3:54 last year which converts to 4:10. He will be eligible for NCAA in fall of 2019. Remember southern hemisphere a little different.
results?