Im thinking about not running track for my school next year. I am thinking about running track next year as an unattached runner. At the beginning of the year we had about 12 varsity guy sprinters. Now we have less than 5 because of our coach kicking people off the team, injuries, and people getting bumped down to JV. Also, he gives us the same workouts every day, 300’s, whether you run the 100 or the 400. We never do anything shorter than the occasional 150(very rare). I don’t see how i could bring my 100 down to around 10.8-9’s training like this. Do most HS track meets let athletes enter unattached? Is it a bad idea? What do you all think about this?
Alot of people would give a lot to have your speed at your age. My Hs coaches dont give the best training workouts but I still wont back down. Deal with the sorry workouts, and do some other stuff on your own later in the day.
I dont run 10.8 or 10.9, im probably around 11.2. I just dont see me going under 11 without some kind of change.
That is still pretty fast. Arent you only 16 still? Since you are young still you can probably handle more volume. Run some 100’s on your own at a different time.
im still 16
My friend and I both got worse when we started doing our team’s workouts our first year sprinting. We talked to the coach and he was one of the nicer guys in acknowledging he didn’t know much about sprinting and all he wanted us to do is perform well for the team (not always the best thing for us since he had us run 1/2/4x1 and sometimes 4x4 2-3x a week, but it worked). We figured something out and we both PR’d our senior year’s and made massive improvements. I would try talking with the coach and present a possible plan or some ideas. Some coaches will be receptive, others will not. I have had both types of experiences and it is hard to say what to do.
Regarding running unattached, you can do it fairly easily, though you won’t get into many high school meets and your races will tend to be in may/june/july rather than march/april/may like the typical high school season since you will probably have to enter into open USATF meets or something like that. If you are in southern california or somewhere with a crap load of open meets, that may be different, but I doubt it.
I live in Alabama. If i competed in USATF meets, would I not be competing against people much, much faster and older than me.
Maybe. A lot of the meets are not that amazing competition wise with a wide variety in abilities (from low 10s to well over 13 seconds). I went to a small open meet that had Roger Kingdom (2x olympic gold medalist in the 110mh) competing and I have been to open meets where I was the only person even under 12 seconds (no joke). Look around your area and see what the competition is like to get an idea.
if you know that your workouts are bull and you truly believe they are a detriment to your athletic progress, lie, cheat, steal whatever you need to do to get away from the influence of a less than desiarable coach. what im saying is dont stay in a situation you are uncomfortable with, ive been in the same postion, just make sure u are willing to put in the work yourself or find a coach that will help you accomplish your goals. tell your current coach youve got school work or that you have afterschool requierments , anything to keep you on the team and out of his control. whatever it takes man, it doesnt matter who he is, this is about you and your development.
Or else just turn the 300s into easy relaxed tempo around the 48 second range or higher and maybe open it up on the last rep and run it at 40 seconds or maybe lower. Maybe add in some acceleration runs, perhaps 6-9reps from 20-40m, before practice twice a week. Since the 150’s are rare you could probably run them at full-effort but still in relaxed manner. Mainly, just optimize the weeks workouts to your strengths, presumably the shorter work(the 150s and the accel ,which u maybe have to do on your own), and how your feeling that day.
you could also, run 50m easy, 20m hard, 100m easy, 20m hard, 110m easy. Or any combination thereoff.
hey i was in that same spot. it’s quite simple, if you want to be a mediocre 100m runner who has so so 400m capabilities, keep doing those 300s and 400s with your high school coach. if you want to get under 11 and really improve all aspects of the 100m, follow the CFTS or other power-oriented sprint program. 2 years ago i finally decided that my school’s coach was BS and quit the team. i joined a local track club to compete with but started training by myself. now, i wouldn’t see any other way to do it and can say that it was because of that smart change i made that i’m at 10.9 and not 11.6.