If your race pace is about 6:50 per mile or so, running 8:00/mile is pretty quick. I would recommend discussing with your coach, and showing him how close that is to race pace. It is not unreasonable for you to hit that pace occasionally, especially in the last few miles of some easy runs. If you would really like to improve at running, you will need to get comfortable at that pace in the future.
Just for a reference according to vdot which usually goes too fast for easy runs,
Type 1 Mile 1200M 1 Km 800M 600M 400M 200M
Easy 08:39 - 09:12 05:23 - 05:43 04:18 - 04:34 -- -- --
Marathon 07:40 04:46 -- -- --
Threshold 07:13 05:23 04:29 03:35 02:41 01:48 00:54
Interval 06:37 04:56 04:07 03:18 02:28 01:39 00:49
Repetition 06:13 04:38 03:52 03:06 02:19 01:33 00:46
The coach cannot "force" you to run no slower than 8 minute pace.
If he does try to force you, then you and your parents should have him arrested and locked up.
Blejlbeleh wrote:
This isn't what you're going to want to do, but keep going as you are and let him take you off varsity. Once you (most likely) destroy some JV races and run faster than the other girls on your team, that may change his mind. You'll also get to passively rub his nose in it
I think this is bad advice, this would look bad for college and the coach doesn't sound like much of a mind-changer-type-of-guy.
Obvious troll. I was going to give it 1/10. Any post beginning, hey, I'm a teenage girl . . . .
But that it garnered SO MANY responses, I'll go with 3/10/
What kind of mileage are you girls doing? 8min pace seem a tad too fast for ALL runs but it sort of depends on the mileage.
thetrolldestroyer wrote:
Obvious troll. I was going to give it 1/10. Any post beginning, hey, I'm a teenage girl . . . .
But that it garnered SO MANY responses, I'll go with 3/10/
Why would it be a troll? It would be completely uninteresting as a troll post because many high school coaches are really this stupid.
Sasha Pachev wrote:
I see his point. I actually have a daughter that is a 21:45 5 K runner. She naturally wants to run around 8:30 on her mileage runs, but it does not look like she responds to it very well. Her older sister was in that range for a while, and got out of it by running 8:00 as much as possible. She now runs 19:56. The younger daughter, however, does not respond to 8:00 pace either. What seems to work for her best is one mile under 7:00 in the middle and the rest in 8:30 or so. I think it really depends on the individual.
The problem with paces slower than 8:00, and in particular slower than 10:00 is that they are too close to walking and provide very little muscular stimulus. So your cardio develops to a point, but then the muscles stay too weak and you do not progress.
OP, it depends on what the rest of your week looks like. Maybe your hard days aren't that hard or stressful. In that case, you wouldn't need especially easy 'easy' days. An aerobic run at 8s or a little faster could be good value, as mentioned above. If you run relaxed on these runs you shouldn't have a problem recovering for the next day's hard session. When you're older and running more mileage you may need more distinct hard and easy days.
It sounds as if you are well-read and a numbers girl. Your coach may not have a math background and just does what always has been done. It probably is easier for him/her to have all the girls in one pack than try to understand the science of training. I doubt this coach has read or will read anything. Do you have a trainer? The best solution for your improvement is to have at least one easy day during the mid-week. Do you race every week.?
Just run 9:50-9:30/mile, and tell the coach to stfu. I really don't understand how us highschool distance running works, but if you think you're coach is wrong then do your own thing.
I am with you on this one. I wouldn't even time the slow days. The great thing is XC is a bit of a meritocracy ... if you aren't on the cusp of like 7th or 8th on the team, it will be hard for him not to run you on varsity if you can beat other girls.
A good coach should welcome the discussion. I feel the biggest mistake coaches make is they don't explain "why" certain workouts and paces are being done. There should be a reason for everything and kids respond better when they know the reason. There is plenty of evidence that taking it easy on the easy days is a good move.
If you do it your way, if you don't have a good race it will probably get blamed on your slow days whether that is accurate or not.
But, give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he will explain why he wants you to do this. And, maybe try it his way for a few weeks and see how you respond.
Coach Rx wrote:
maybe try it his way for a few weeks and see how you respond.
Run your own pace. Always run your own pace.
Rater of trolls wrote:
FD1 wrote:
As a former D1 guy I'm going to second the 2/10. The effort alone merits at least that.
Cheers.
5/10. Solid.
8/10 and I would register that handle !
LOL !