RunningNoob420 wrote:
To answer the OP’s question, about two years of running.
I ran 20 low as a freshman in high school during my first XC season. Didn’t run sub 20 until the summer before my junior year in a road race. My coach and training were both really bad.
In what way was it bad?
david45 wrote:
not a great runner wrote:
Took me about 2 months off the couch.
Jesus, you are talented
No, most definitely not.
But I didn't stuff my face with cheetohs and post the same annoying posts on letsrun asking why I sucked day in and day out.
I just went out and ran as much as I could. You'd be amazed at what actual training does to your fitness...
not a great runner wrote:
david45 wrote:
Jesus, you are talented
No, most definitely not.
But I didn't stuff my face with cheetohs and post the same annoying posts on letsrun asking why I sucked day in and day out.
I just went out and ran as much as I could. You'd be amazed at what actual training does to your fitness...
Go tell to that to people in the military who can't run a 5k in under 20 minutes.
watch the last minute of the video david
and check this out too
Been running for 6 years now. Still haven't run a sub-20 or even a sub-21 5k. And no, I'm not overweight. I'm 130 lbs.
I do run pretty low mileage by LRC standards though for two reasons. First, I'm a triathlete, so I can't run as much as someone who only runs. Not sure how much that holds back my running though. Second, I've struggled a lot with injuries whenever I try to build up my running. I do believe I could have improved my running quite a bit more if I hadn't had so many injury setbacks.
That said, after 6 years now, I think it's clear that there's a significant genetic difference between me and the 90% of respondents here who are saying that that they ran sub-20 5k in their first race as a teenager. I believe I have the potential to go sub-20 if I can ever train at the requisite level for that without getting injured, and I would die happy if I could run 18:45 someday (~1.5x the WR). But I clearly was not born with LRC-level genetic running talent. I.e. Unlike a lot of the posters here, there's no way I'll ever run sub-20 5k without doing a lot of training specifically for it.
HUGE flex wrote:
zero. Joined the xc team was hurt to start the season first ever practice was a race, went sub 20 with ease having never ran a day in my life before.
Just about anyone with enough talent to want to run XC can break 20:00 almost immediately. The only guys on my team that couldn't accomplish breaking 20:00 was a chubby kid trying to lose weight and I a guy that quit football to run XC to prepare for the 400 in track. Oddly, he ran about 2 seconds slower than his Junior PR the next track season.
Well technically it took me a few years if you count middle school and the beginning of high school.
But one summer before XC I hit a growth spurt where I grew about 4 inches and my voice dropped.
After that it took me a few weeks of XC training to break 20 (I didn't run at all over the summer)
SDSU Aztec wrote:
HUGE flex wrote:
zero. Joined the xc team was hurt to start the season first ever practice was a race, went sub 20 with ease having never ran a day in my life before.
Just about anyone with enough talent to want to run XC can break 20:00 almost immediately. The only guys on my team that couldn't accomplish breaking 20:00 was a chubby kid trying to lose weight and I a guy that quit football to run XC to prepare for the 400 in track. Oddly, he ran about 2 seconds slower than his Junior PR the next track season.
Then how do some people end up running 25 minute 5ks in their first season?
david45 wrote:
SDSU Aztec wrote:
Just about anyone with enough talent to want to run XC can break 20:00 almost immediately. The only guys on my team that couldn't accomplish breaking 20:00 was a chubby kid trying to lose weight and I a guy that quit football to run XC to prepare for the 400 in track. Oddly, he ran about 2 seconds slower than his Junior PR the next track season.
Then how do some people end up running 25 minute 5ks in their first season?
They don't want it badly enough.
Took me 1 year aged 26 building up to about 18mpw when I hit 20mins
david45 wrote:
How long did it take you?
Are you related to Greg?
david45 wrote:
SDSU Aztec wrote:
Just about anyone with enough talent to want to run XC can break 20:00 almost immediately. The only guys on my team that couldn't accomplish breaking 20:00 was a chubby kid trying to lose weight and I a guy that quit football to run XC to prepare for the 400 in track. Oddly, he ran about 2 seconds slower than his Junior PR the next track season.
Then how do some people end up running 25 minute 5ks in their first season?
25:00 is ridiculously slow for someone on a XC team, so maybe there's far more participation than when I ran in HS.
david45 wrote:
not a great runner wrote:
No, most definitely not.
But I didn't stuff my face with cheetohs and post the same annoying posts on letsrun asking why I sucked day in and day out.
I just went out and ran as much as I could. You'd be amazed at what actual training does to your fitness...
Go tell to that to people in the military who can't run a 5k in under 20 minutes.
Sure, right after you ask them how motivated they are to do that.
Hint: no motivation to do that.
I started running at around the age of 29. took me around 8 years to crack. I have poor speed on top of having crappy lungs, and being somewhat injury prone. I did not consider it much of an accomplishment when I crossed that line, though I was very aware of how long it took to get there.
high school xc coach wrote:
I started running at around the age of 29. took me around 8 years to crack. I have poor speed on top of having crappy lungs, and being somewhat injury prone. I did not consider it much of an accomplishment when I crossed that line, though I was very aware of how long it took to get there.
Odd thing is, I was almost immediately able to run in the 24s. Got under 22 within a month or two. and ran a 1:41 half marathon in my 7th month, off of 10 miles per week. For whatever reason, I just was never able to improve much on that, even as I did 3 straight years of around 1500 miles in years 5, 6, & 7.
high school xc coach wrote:
I started running at around the age of 29. took me around 8 years to crack. I have poor speed on top of having crappy lungs, and being somewhat injury prone. I did not consider it much of an accomplishment when I crossed that line, though I was very aware of how long it took to get there.
That's a great story. So despite being in the bottom 1% of talents, you were eager to learn more about training and running and later went on to help more talented runners achieve what you couldn't.
It also makes you more realistic as a coach - you know how much influence talent has on how fast someone can become, which is important to know since some coaches/HS kids think they can be just about as fast as they want and train ridiculously hard only to get super disappointed or injured through the way.
LateRunnerPhil wrote:
high school xc coach wrote:
I started running at around the age of 29. took me around 8 years to crack. I have poor speed on top of having crappy lungs, and being somewhat injury prone. I did not consider it much of an accomplishment when I crossed that line, though I was very aware of how long it took to get there.
That's a great story. So despite being in the bottom 1% of talents, you were eager to learn more about training and running and later went on to help more talented runners achieve what you couldn't.
It also makes you more realistic as a coach - you know how much influence talent has on how fast someone can become, which is important to know since some coaches/HS kids think they can be just about as fast as they want and train ridiculously hard only to get super disappointed or injured through the way.
That is sad to know that not everyone can be a good runner
LateRunnerPhil wrote:
high school xc coach wrote:
I started running at around the age of 29. took me around 8 years to crack. I have poor speed on top of having crappy lungs, and being somewhat injury prone. I did not consider it much of an accomplishment when I crossed that line, though I was very aware of how long it took to get there.
That's a great story. So despite being in the bottom 1% of talents, you were eager to learn more about training and running and later went on to help more talented runners achieve what you couldn't.
It also makes you more realistic as a coach - you know how much influence talent has on how fast someone can become, which is important to know since some coaches/HS kids think they can be just about as fast as they want and train ridiculously hard only to get super disappointed or injured through the way.
I actually started running because I took an assistant coaching job that nobody else wanted to sign up for. I am drawn to numbers, so I ended up taking to it a lot more than I ever imagined I would.
I have kept a log since the day I started running, and I just checked, I ran a 21:47 on my 32nd day of running, after having run less than 40 miles total. Looking back, I am kind of shocked at my lack of progression through the years!
david45 wrote:
LateRunnerPhil wrote:
That's a great story. So despite being in the bottom 1% of talents, you were eager to learn more about training and running and later went on to help more talented runners achieve what you couldn't.
It also makes you more realistic as a coach - you know how much influence talent has on how fast someone can become, which is important to know since some coaches/HS kids think they can be just about as fast as they want and train ridiculously hard only to get super disappointed or injured through the way.
That is sad to know that not everyone can be a good runner
That is true of almost anything in life. Odd thing is I can still go out and run with my local running group or with friends at work, and I am still better than 95% of them and they think I am great. haha
high school xc coach wrote:
I actually started running because I took an assistant coaching job that nobody else wanted to sign up for. I am drawn to numbers, so I ended up taking to it a lot more than I ever imagined I would.
I have kept a log since the day I started running, and I just checked, I ran a 21:47 on my 32nd day of running, after having run less than 40 miles total. Looking back, I am kind of shocked at my lack of progression through the years!
You became a high school XC coach with no prior running experience?
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