I just got off my arse last spring and did something. I started doing sports. I did football and sat on the sidelines most the year, baskeball had similar results, but track. I was the the freshman stud.
As I go into this year I have a lot of choices and I want your personal opinion on what A)I should be doing b) why I shouldn’t be posting this here.
My first race EVER was at Aptos High school in California. I ran a 400m in 56.4 secs winning for frosh/soph.
my last race that season was at Aptos where I ran a 53.2 for a second place league finish.
I ran the 800 (2:10) and the 200 (24.2) and got 3rd in both of those.
I’ve got a high top speed but I lack some muscle mass. At six one I’m only 150 lbs and my wrist is (_________________) wide. I’ve read a lot up on the 400 and sprinting in general and just wanted your biased opinion on whether I should focus on the 800 or start my weight training.
Right now, however, my track/xc coach has me running for him about 50 miles a week, but later we will be doing mile intervals etc.
Just looking at your times I would say you are an interesting case because all 3 of your times are respectable for a high school freshman. But the question is, how were you trained? Did your coach train you as a 400/200 meter runner, which could look familiar, or were you trained as an 800 meter runner? How many 800’s did you run over the season? Do you feel comfortable running cross country right now? Are you one of the top runners on the team? We have a similar situation at our high school in Manteca Calif also. A freshman who ran 52.9 and 2:12, but did very well in the 2 mile cross country race this weekend. He also ran the 200 and was one of our top sprinters on the 4x100.
Here is what I believe. The 2:10 is very good, especially if you trained as a sprinter. I think the 53, is good also, but I am thinking about your weight and height and it seems to have 800/1500 written all over it. If you are emerging as a cc runner, then I think you want to concentrate on the 800, if the 1500 is too much, be an 800/400 runner, but just by what you wrote, I think you are an 800 meter runner first. Hopefully this helped, maybe if you let us know what you were trained as and how many 800s, 400s, and 200s you ran, as well as your weight training regimen, we can help better.
Well he implied he’s not lifting weights right now when he said that he wants to concentrate on the 800 or lift weights.
But, looking at what you wrote, your 400/800m time ratios are much better than your 200/400m ratios. Stick with the distance.
But, if you aren’t comfortable running the 1/4, 1/2, then try the 200/400 and see what happens. It really all depends on how you were trained as Dazs mentioned.
My coach was a dofus, besides that he had us doing long tempo runs
15min warmup
100+200+200+100
200+200+300+200
200+300+300+100
100+200+200+100
15 min cooldown
That was one of our workouts at about midseason, he had us doing these at about 70-80%. He was trying to train me as an 800meter runner. I started out in the sprint camp and the workouts weren’t “hard” enough and I heard from my twin brother ( a steady 4:55 miler) that the workouts in the mid distance camp where tougher. The coach had me change a lot of things with my form that just felt totaly awkward and I think if it hadn’t been for the poor coaching, lack of weightlifting, and a bad pair of spikes I could have done much better in all of those events.
What I did fail to mention is that I do love the quarter mile, it’s a man’s race. I do the 800 mostly for bragging rights, “my races are harder and more closely bunched together than your races”
XC right now isn’t that bad, but our team has a lot of strong runners and at best I would be our teams 4-5th man.
Another thing that was spinning through my head was that there were a lot of other sprinters that year with a lot of muscle mass that I was faster than. If I where to train and get my already higher quality muscles in better shape would I not be exceptionaly faster than I was last year? Is that anywhere near an accurate assumption?
That’s actually a pretty good workout for a 400m runner. You probably could be better suited for the 400/800m. If you are training as a sprinter and running that fast of an 800m time, stick with it.
Don’t go for workouts becuase they are “tougher” because that will get you nowhere. Go for workouts better suited to help your needs. That probably held you back a little this past season, because you changed your training style. I think you would be a great 400/800 runner with predominantly sprint-based training as you have been doing.
I was asking about his weight training regimen during last season. I was under the impression that he wasn’t lifting now, but had lifted at some point last season. But whatever.
I do think the tempo work you were doing is an excellent workout for a 400 meter runner. I think the 400 is a man’s race, but there is an argument that the 800 is equally a man’s race. If you are the 4-5th man on your cc team, what is your 3mile time. What did your 800 meter workouts last season consist of, 1000’s, mile repeats, let me know. Also, 800 meter runners weight train, I don’t think it should be one or the other.
I was just thinking…you know what would be different. An athlete who decided not to run highschool track in favor of running college/open meets unattached. Maybe this will be the new trend in the future to have better chances of receiving scholarships.
I did NO training prior to track. My basketball season lasted almost into february for some stupid reason. The most I ran before track was maybe 5 laps around the court. And I had done no weight training which really surprised me about how well I did considering how important weights are. (at least that’s what i’ve gathered)
Right now the XC season hasn’t started our first race is on this upcomming saturday, the Early Bird Invitational.
My mid-distance coach didn’t have us do ANYTHING but tempos. No speed workouts, no stairs, no flying 40’s, just tempos. It was quite boring.
I don’t know about running college/open meets unattached to have a better chance at getting scholarships. I mean track is a sport where the clock and tape measure is all that really matters. I guess if you are going to run a fast time you would do it on a high school track team too. If I were recruiting, I would wonder why a kid didn’t run high school track. Was it his attitude, grades, cockiness, inability to work with a team? Seems like a lot of questions as to why he/she wouldn’t be running for their high school team.
Now on the other hand, If a high school kid was running 46.5/53.5 I would try to find a way to work around his/her problems. But, if he/she were running 50.5/62.5, I’d probably never have heard about them, and if I had, I definitely wouldn’t be recruiting them.
Just this year there was a young lady we were recruiting who didn’t finish her high school season. She was a 12.3 100meter runner. When I asked why she didn’t finish the season, she said, “My coach is an idiot.” Now maybe he was, but that’s not the right answer. Being that we are a Junior College, a 12.3 sprinter is pretty respectable, but after speaking with her coach and other teammates we decided not to pursue her anymore. She might walk on but if not, I don’t think we’ll miss her too much.
I still don’t care. My coach is a complete moron and knows absolutely jack about training sprinters and I’m not going to jeopardize any chance of running in college by continuing to train for this idiot.
Everyday he possibly can, he does Int. Tempo workouts and doesn’t even know the name of the workout. He says that 10x300m will get you faster for the 100m and 200m, especially if run at 85-100% (based on times…he has no concept of effort). My coach is a dork.
Training with him my PB’s were 12.5/24.51/55.90 and after 5 weeks of training on my own (3 weeks for the 200m) I dropped to 11.87/23.91/54.42. See the difference? 2 years w/him…nothing. 5 weeks alone…results.
I understand what you are saying, but you have to take other things into consideration as well. Just because a kid does not want to run for his/her HS team does not make them bad or not a team player. In some cases, like mine, it is the smartest thing I could have done.
Here’s another example…We had a Frosh. this past year that at the 4th meet (2nd week) of the year ran 11.44 for 100m FAT. He never got faster than that the rest of the year until Regionals when competition took over and it had nothing to do with him really. See what I am saying. State qualifying was 11.20 this year and he should have easily got that but didn’t because our coaches are retards. I say he could break under 11.0 by his Jr. year, but not if he keeps training with our coaches.
Damn!!! Now I’m getting pissed. Does anyone understand where I am coming from here or do you all think I’m an arrogant asshole teen who needs to shut his mouth and quit bitching? I can give you guys example weeks for us and what our coaches make us do if you want. That’s not a problem.
I just wish you guys could understand that training/running alone isn’t a bad thing. I might only be a walk-on, but at least I’ll be running in college, compared to if I stayed with the team I would be lucky to break under 24 in the 200m.
Relax bro, It’s not about being against you, it’s about relaying facts.
Dazs has stated information based on his experience, which is valid. Don’t take it personal, young fella…Try to learn from others experience/advice.
Nevertheless, I do understand where you coming from…Been there done that. When you live in this world long enough, you will find that incompetence is pervasive. The secret is making it in spite of it -without burning bridges, or cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Dazs, this is definitely a very interesting post. When I raised the issue with my parents they said the same thing: that would raise a lot of questions. I understand that you don’t speak for all coaches, but if you did have an athlete that was able to answer the questions that arose with reasonable answers that didn’t show cockiness, but they were saying they feel that they could do better without their coach would you try to look past this to even recruit them the same as someone running for their high school? Winter track gets pretty bad, so I think I’m going to try what 400 suggested for that season, but will be running high school track for spring. I don’t expect this to look better, but I think I will be running much faster times if I train myself.
