I'm coaching my high schoolers online, and I'm going to start having mid-distance/distance do some time trials to keep this season competitive and fun. It is going to be a competition that will last the next 5 weeks, and the boy and girl who win will get a Time Trial Champion shirt.
The schedule is:
Week 1 - 400m
Week 2 - 3200m
Week 3 - 800m
Week 4 - 1600m
Week 5 - athlete's choice (400-3200)
In an effort to make it more fair across the grades, there's going to be a handicap based on typical improvements year-to-year in an event. Here's an example of what the handicap might look like for the 800:
9th 10th (+5%) 11th (+3%) 12th (+1%)
0:02:20 0:02:13 0:02:09 0:02:08
0:02:10 0:02:04 0:02:00 0:01:59
0:02:00 0:01:54 0:01:51 0:01:49
A freshman might experience a 5% improvement his sophomore year. A sophomore might experience a 3% improvement his junior year. Etc. I know this isn't perfect, but it's better than nothing.
In the time trial results each week, everyone will be placed according to his 12th grade handicap. For example, a freshman who runs a 2:20 will be rescored as running 2:08 instead. They will get points based on their finishing place.
For week 5, they have the opportunity to re-run one of the distances and replace their previous time.
What do you guys think? Can you think of anything I can do to improve it?
What are some of your ideas for different virtual time trials?