HS boys XC...? (Read 77 times)

so I came across some old xc times....a friend of mine was the worst on the team I recall....and I noticed he ran about a 17:30 3 mile..

I think the winners ran about 15:30.

none the less, what kind of training are hs boys doing in general I wondered? and why are they so fast?? lol.

I agree with that. Maybe they are just much more athletic because of their age.

My son's 5k PR in high school was 16:09.  He ran about 50 miles per week, typically.  His mile PR was 4:26 and his two mile PR was 9:36. I loved to watch him run.

It's good to be 17 years old.

(Well, in a lot of ways it's not good AT ALL. But in terms of raw speed and having a body that responds to training, it's pretty good even if most 17 year-olds aren't in the right head space to do much with it.)

I’m sure it depends on the coach. Ours has pretty low mileage program during the season. Kids can choose to add miles during practice but I think he usually sends the varsity kids. They are encouraged to run between 200 and 300 miles during the summer.

I agree with Re-Run; the fast and average times ebb and flow over the years. In my district, I had a meet record of only 16:04 5k, and it stood for almost 10 years. And then there was a year where the top 5 were all under 16:00 (same course). at the State level, there were always 3-4 standouts, but some years there were dozens breathing down their necks.

We had only a vague idea of what we were doing, I actually designed the workouts since I was a freshman, because I had gone to Track Camp in the Summer, and the "coaches" were just teachers with zero Xc or track background who got paid a little bit more for being a "coach" (adult supervisor). I think we may have run about 30-35 miles a week, and I did have a bit of periodization going on. In the 8-10 week season everyone improved a few minutes by the end of the season from their first race. Most only started training when school started, and the first race was two weeks later. I wish I knew then what I know now!

As for training, there are no secrets anymore, no secret workouts, arcane knowledge, or special lifestyles. The variations are the coaching ability, and the innate talent of the kids going out for XC.

Coaching ability is a soup composed of technical training knowledge, application for each individual, intuitive realization of too much/little training, motivation/encouragement/trust. And of course recruiting; like luring that kid from the soccer team that can run a mile faster than anyone on the XC team even though they haven't done any training for running...

Talent by the athletes is both genetic and mental. Motivation can overcome a lot of physical average-ness. A good coach is more of a mentor than a "coach", and can help kids focus on improvement by making XC practice a desirable place to be, something they look forward to all day. Stressed and berated kids do not perform at their optimum levels, thus the "angry shouty" gym teacher type coach never develops a good team.

I live in wv .

most meets everyone gets . There a kids running slower than 25 for 5k

my senior year in HS, our #5 runner (we only had 5 on the team!) kicked in for about a 24:30, and we won the meet. The kid he kicked past was the #5 runner for the team that got second, so I credit our slowest runner with winning the district meet for us.

And yeah, NO ONE gets cut from the XC team. Maybe for some meets you can't run everyone, though.