High School Racing/Training Thread 7/9 - 7/15

Also, I usually will start the thread Monday at some point, so the would be like around Midnight on Monday- Tuesday morning for you depending on the time I post and which side of Australia you live on.

Wow, you've got some fast times there! Well, I was wondering why people call me a hobbyjogger on letsrun. Looks like I need to learn more about what ppl do on letsrun. Also, everybody refers to me as Jamin/jamin's sister/jamin whining tone whenever I post a thread. (maybe because I sound like Jamin) For the 800 your PB is 28 seconds faster than mine! your 3k time is like 2.5 mins faster than my best time! You should go to the Olympics for the 3! Luckily some years, not every year tho we get An extra Friday and Monday off because of Easter. I live in Sydney. How fast were you at 13 years of age?

I just realised I replied late. If you're in bed now you can wake up in the morning and check lol

Cathy loves to run 13 wrote:

Wow, you've got some fast times there! Well, I was wondering why people call me a hobbyjogger on letsrun. Looks like I need to learn more about what ppl do on letsrun. Also, everybody refers to me as Jamin/jamin's sister/jamin whining tone whenever I post a thread. (maybe because I sound like Jamin) For the 800 your PB is 28 seconds faster than mine! your 3k time is like 2.5 mins faster than my best time! You should go to the Olympics for the 3! Luckily some years, not every year tho we get An extra Friday and Monday off because of Easter. I live in Sydney. How fast were you at 13 years of age?

Haha you're fine. And I wish I could go to the Olympics, but I'm a guy so those times are still too slow for a state championship let alone the Olympics. Yeah most people on letsrun are just trolls having fun. As for why they call Jamin's sister, I'm not sure, maybe someone else could shed some light on that as I'm not too familiar with Jamin. Anyways when I was 13 my PRs were 2:18 for 800 , 5:02 for 1600(XC end of the year time trail), 10:59 for 3200. Having all the time off from school is good because I never get too burnt out from it during the school year, but at the same time we probably don't fit in as much material as you guys do in a given school year. That's cool, I've always wanted to visit there. I live in Pennsylvania.

How old are you now? You improved a lot since 13! I do go to NSW state champs for running but I don't make it to Nationals because most people are faster than me. Unfortunately next week I'm going to state championships for cross country but 2 days ago my times were so bad for the time trial I did. Also, I'm not in great shape as I'm like 2 minutes slower than what I was a few months ago. I'm probably not going to do well next week. the fastest 13-year-old girl in the world is Imogen and her 800 PR is like 2:14 so you probably would've nearly broken the WR. My PR for the 3200m is 11:49 but I did the 8 laps inside a 12 lap run so I would've done faster than 11:49 if I was only doing 8 laps. You were still 50 seconds faster than me lol.

I got registered finally

Cathy loves to run 13 wrote:

How old are you now? You improved a lot since 13! I do go to NSW state champs for running but I don't make it to Nationals because most people are faster than me. Unfortunately next week I'm going to state championships for cross country but 2 days ago my times were so bad for the time trial I did. Also, I'm not in great shape as I'm like 2 minutes slower than what I was a few months ago. I'm probably not going to do well next week. the fastest 13-year-old girl in the world is Imogen and her 800 PR is like 2:14 so you probably would've nearly broken the WR. My PR for the 3200m is 11:49 but I did the 8 laps inside a 12 lap run so I would've done faster than 11:49 if I was only doing 8 laps. You were still 50 seconds faster than me lol.

I'm 16 right now and yeah I have

improved a lot since then, I just hope I can continue to get faster and win a state title + get a scholarship. Don't worry too much about the time trail. 80% of the sport is mental. Put it behind you and completely forget about that run. First off all, making it to states as a 7th grader is remarkable so regardless of what happens, you season was/is a success. That being said, you have no pressure to run fast, which is great. it means you can run your race, put it all out there with no regrets. All you can do is be confident in yourself and go run your heart out. If you just run without putting any pressure on yourself, you will be surprised at how well you'll perform. That is a crazy fast time for a 13 year old girl! Especially in a 4800m race/run.

Just be patient with yourself (I read your thread about getting ill and being worried about your conditioning). Don't get overly worried about any setbacks. I should know lol, I was destroyed my body freshman year XC and it took almost a year to get past where I thought I had been but now I have set huge PRs a and am in the best shape I've ever been in. I can honestly say what I did to my body was far worse physically than what happens when you get sick for a week or two. so what I'm trying to say is, it seems big right now, but in monthor so, you'll look back and go "why was I ever that worried about that".your still so young that you'll be back setting PRs in not time and your running career is literally just getting started!

wow sorry for how long and rant-like that was, if you can't tell, I love trying to help younger runners (and people in general) as much as I can and I guess it just manifests itself like that lmao

wow.80% mental. So how does my mind even control how fast or slow I run?? You're really good at helping young runners just like me! I hope I will get back to my PR shape soon because I haven't been in PR shape since April. How much faster do you think I could get before next Friday? I hear '' freshman'' a lot on letsrun but I don't really know what it means. I also don't know what Imao is. Like I don't know a lot of words and I'm bad with abbreviations lol. In year 5 it was so funny how I didn't know the abbreviation for RAF. So I just wrote what came to mind: Royal animal fart even thou the answer was Royal Airforce lol. Anyways I do hope that I'll do well. How quickly did you get back to PR shape? I do hope by next month I'll be back to normal then look back and wish I could tell my younger self it'll be OK.

Freshman is your first year of highschool in the US. I am going into my freshman year next year. Usually you are 13-15 years old.

Ok, so maybe 80% was a bit of an exaggeration, but it is still a huge part of achieving your potential in any given race, run or season. For example, if I just said "I'm going to run a sub 4 mile tomorrow" and I'm really in like 4:30 shape, I'm not going to run a sub 4 mile. The mental side of the sport is more like having confidence in/believing in yourself at the time of the race. For example, if I always got beat last year by a kid who ran a 4:10 mile and I ran 4:15-4:20ish I may develop the mindset of "oh he is way better than me or I'm not as good so I have no chance at beating him". If I have that mindset, even if I am in the same exact physical shape has him, he is going to beat me every time because he believes he can beat me and I think I don't have a chance at beating him. Another example is making it to states, you make it to states and are having a great season, but you go "wow these are the best runners.in the state, I'm going to get killed by them in this race". You won't run your best because you already think it's impossible to race with them and compete with them. The mind is a funny thing, the human body is capable of so many things, just the mind telling you that you can't holds us back sometimes... You get what I mean? If you tell yourself that you can't do something, you won't be able to do it. If you tell yourself you can (and truly believe you can) there is a good chance that you will do it, or at least have a PR/great performance in the process... How long it will take to get in PR shape depends on how long you were ill and what you were ill with. So how long were you ill and what were you ill with? Same goes for what shape you'll be in Friday

Also, Freshman is a term that we use for students in there first year of HS (9th grade) in the US. We also call people in their first year of college freshman.

High school

9th grade = freshman (sometimes call a frosh in this site)

10 th = sophomore (also called a Soph)

11th = junior

12th = senior

College

1st year = freshman

2nd year = sophomore

3rd year = junior

4th year = senior

Is it possible for me to go from 18:20 xc and 11:00 track 2 mile to sub 17 5k by the end of the xc season?

The mind is a very funny thing!

I got sick in the middle of April then got better middish June. It took me a while to adjust back to training. Then last week I went on holidays for a week so when I got back from the snow holiday I had trouble adjusting back to training. (That's why I ran a really bad time a few days ago but I'll forget about that because there's until next Friday) So now I'm like 2 minutes slower in the 4800 than what I was in April. People say that for every day you missed training you need 2 days to get back to where you were. which means on next Friday I'll be in the shape that I was before we went on holidays. Also, it'll take me until September of training until I get back to PR shape( if it's true what people say) Unless it is miraculously possible that I get back to shape quicker. I don't know what I got sick with but it lasted 2 months and my symptoms included: runny/blocked nose, headaches(a lot of them!), tiredness and lots of coughing out phlegm(24/7 ok that was an exaggeration so 12/7)

BenW wrote:

Is it possible for me to go from 18:20 xc and 11:00 track 2 mile to sub 17 5k by the end of the xc season?

Absolutely. Especially if there are a couple flat/fast course for you to run on. My 8th times were 4:58/11:00 for 1600/3200 (doubling) and my 5k (road races) were 18:30s. I ended up running 16:4X on a hilly course. so yes, it's possible for you to do so. just put in the miles (smart and consistently) and STAY HEALTHY/INJURY-FREE and you can probably do it.

Indeed, but it is also one of the most vital components to achieving your potential. Did you stop training incompletely duirng that two month span? if so then yeah, it may take another month or two to get back to where you want to be. If you kept running while you were ill (which is might have been why you were I'll or so long) then you probably didn't lose too much of base and it might just take a couple of weeks to get back to feeling great again. The whole idea of needing twice as many days to get back in shape isn't entirely accurate. For example studies have shown that if you have been training consistently for number of years your fitness could increase when taking 1-3days off since your body rests and repairs fully. in that case the logic they refer to is wrong... this is a good article to read to understand what I'm talking about and to give you an idea of what you lost while being sick (if you stopped running completely).

Here is a quote from a similar article from the same people. They are referring to missing 5 days off running due to sickness, so it doesn't fit your situation, but the point behind it is right.

If you’re returning to running after being sick, it often takes an additional four or five days after feeling normal while walking around to be in prime running shape. Cold and flu symptoms often linger when you push the body beyond basic, everyday functions. Your first hard workout will feel more difficult than normal and even easy days may not feel great. It’s not a reflection of fitness, but rather your body trying to operate while still less than 100 percent. Consider scaling back your first workout accordingly. -RunnersConnect

Considering this is the effects from 5 days of sickness. For your situation, even the time trail may have just had some linger effects of having not run many hard workouts/fast races since getting sick and then having 7 days again. My point is that after another couple of week or so you should be fine, and I personally think you will feel a lot better when racinvnext Friday once your body gets used to running over this next week.

I had a read of the article. Yeah, I hope that I do much better next Friday than what I did last month. I have to do the same hard course again and I really hope I don't throw up this time. Last month when I ran the course at Area championships( the level before state) I did a worse time than last year! I felt horrible the whole race. Well, that was soon after getting back into running. The good thing is I can post my training every week so you can know how I'm getting on and if I'm getting any closer to a PR. While I was sick for the 2 months I did run races at the school Athletics carnival and ran a cross-country race. Not much else besides that. After I get the State race over and done with, I won't have any major races for a while.