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Re: When/How to start....

guest — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 05:21:00 GMT

It's never too soon to start running, just don't go crazy - just add a small amount of miles each week. If you're running the 100, you don't need a lot of miles, but speed work probably helps. You should probably talk to the coach at your school, I'm sure that she/he has some sort of pre-season training, or can at least steer you in the right direction.

EDIT:

Lifting is a good idea - squats and powerlifts are great for sprinters (at least, that's what I did my freshman year in college for sprint lifting). Work on your core as well by doing crunches, sit-ups, whatever.

[http://This message has been edited by th1nk4yourself (edited Oct-13-2005).|http://This message has been edited by th1nk4yourself (edited Oct-13-2005).]

London, England 5ks?

guest — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:21:00 GMT

Hi! I'm in London for the summer and I was wondering if there are any good 5ks in the area? My googling skills were less than fruitful, so I figured I'd try here!

Re: bonking in second race of the day

guest — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 04:37:00 GMT

How far apart are her races??? She might not have enough energy because she hasn't eaten enough. My coach always tells us we need 100 calories in liquid form after our races to help in recovery. She might also be low on her carb intake, and after running one hard race her muscle glycogen is depleted...I studied this stuff last semester in one of my exercise science classes, but it's been a month since school's been out so I'ma little fuzzy on the details, lol.

And...I dunno...I think that some people just have problems with doubling. I had a great base mileage of 50-55 miles a week (not bad for a college female middle distance runner - not elite, but decent), and I had great workouts, but if I have a great 1500m race I just cannot recover for an 800m race an hour later. Last year I would run around 4:30 in the 1500m, but even though my 800 PR was 2:12 I would run a 2:22 in the 800m after running that 1500. On the other hand my teammate who I was a couple seconds faster than in both events would run slower than me in our 1500 (and main event) and then she would destroy me in the 800 - she would run 2:14s as opposed to my 2:22s! I can't explain that - other than that she has always been able to recover much more quickly than I can.

I don't really have any other explanations other than nutrition, but your runner is not alone! I actually kind of enjoy not having to double, but my team doesn't need me to, either.

Re: Coaching Homeschoolers (Clueless)

guest — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 04:15:00 GMT

Boyerdavea:

It's important for your daughter to lift weights if she wants to be a sprinter, because lifting helps develop the power muscles needed in sprinting.

In addition...can I just say that I think it's wonderful your homeschooling group has a track team? I was involved in homeschool soccer until I went to public high school, but looking back the only thing our team was good at was running. We would have made a fantastic track team and lot of the kids were really talented runners that just never knew it. I didn't get into running until I went to public high school. Good luck!

Re: Five-Minute Conditioning (1600)

guest — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:52:00 GMT

When I broke 5 minutes this year I ran 73's for my splits (4:54 full mile). Breaking 5 would probably be 74's...I think that adds up! ANyway, depending on the amount of rest, I would run anywhere from 68-73 for my 400 intervals (unless we only did 2 for 800m training). I would think that would be a good range for your intervals - if you have very short rest then 73-4 is a good idea, but if you're taking a longer walk/jog then faster might work out. Of course, you should ultimately listen to your coach...I don't really know that much!

I took a week off for a stress fracture (yeah...some stress fracture!), and my first week back I raced and it was terrible, so I can imagine how you feel (only you took 3 weeks off!). If your first race felt anything like mine did then the worst is over! That's incredible that you did so well after taking 3 weeks off, I'm impressed - I'd be lucky to be able to run more than a mile after having surgery! I think you'll do very well this season, even though it might take a while to get back into the swing of things. Good luck with your season!

Re: mile pr

guest — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 06:01:00 GMT

Attainable? Probably. How hard have you been training? How many miles a week do you run? You said it was your first race - there's always a learning curve and depending on how you raced you could improve a lot just based on experience.

Re: Long Run For Mile and 2-Mile

guest — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:23:00 GMT

Everything I've read says that the mile is 60% aerobic...which means that the other 40% comes from the anaerobic systems. So, yeah, 60% is more then 40%, but you can't neglect your speed either to run a good mile! The aerobic base is very important, but when your season is close it's time to start improving speed as well. The off-season is the time to really build the aerobic base.

That being said...I run the mile in college. My longest run is 10 miles. Only the 10k girls on my team will ever do a run longer than 10 miles, so for a high school girl it's probably unnecessary to do more than 7-9 miles for a long run. I would probably stick with about 8, but my team in HS never ran more than 6 miles at once, so I don't know the impact 8 mile runs will have on high school girls' bodies. Don't tell me I need a better long run to run a faster mile and that my coach must be an idiot - he knows what he's doing and my team is not suffering by any means.

Re: I want to drop 45 sec off my mile time, 8th grade girl

guest — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:01:00 GMT

Talk to your coach before doing anything I'll suggest...I don't want to mess you up or anything! You didn't give a lot of information about how you were training when you ran the 6:35, so this isn't exactly exact information for you!

Anyway, it's just one week, so you won't make super huge improvements, but you can definitely start getting ready for a great season. Interval training is the best training, or at least I think so! On my college team, we'll do 400 repeats at our goal pace. When did you run your 6:35? If it was last year then it'll be hard to see where you are right now training-wise, but if it was a couple weeks ago then maybe your new goal time should be 6:25. That's about 96 seconds a lap. Do a few 400's at 96-97 a lap with about a 200m jog in between. I don't want you to get injured, so I don't want to tell you to do too many, but you should probably be able to do at least 4 if have run a 6:35 recently.

Instead of focusing on knocking 45 seconds off right now, work in smaller increments. The faster you get the harder it is to knock more time off, so a 10 second PR now might be equivalent to a 5 second PR down the road.

Also, try to run 5 days a week instead of 4-5. The extra day of training will help! But that doesn't mean you should run 7 days a week - you're only in the 8th grade, so you don't want to burn out too soon, or get injured.

Re: Worried/nervous. need support ]:

guest — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 22:51:00 GMT

My two mile race PR is still terrible...I'm not even sure what it was, but I think it was over 14 minutes (it was indoors...and I got lapped by my sister. Yeah, that wasn't exactly someting you want to have happen!). The upside of that is every time I run a good XC race I PR in the two mile, which is great Just hang in there and you'll get better. If you're doing track workouts with your team during the week you probably don't need to do any on Saturdays, a nice long run will probably be good enough. Talk to your coach about it, too, in case there's something in particular s/he wants you to do.

Don't get too down about a "bad" race. I just ran a pretty terrible 1500 (my 1600 a few weeks before was actually faster...even though it was a longer race!) but that doesn't mean that I stink at track or that I should quit - it just means I had a bad race! Don't be embarrassed by a race - just think about what you can learn from it. What did you DO in your 800m? Did you go out in a 65 and die (I've been there and done that!), or not go out hard enough (probably my biggest problem!)? Think about what happened in the race and then decide on a race plan to improve next time. As long as you learn from your so-called "bad" races, they aren't bad races at all, but a learning experience to help you improve. I've learned way more from a poor performance than from the one where everything was perfect.

Track is a great sport, and you are going to love it as long as you hang in there! Good luck!

Re: can anyone give me a little advice about coaching high school athletes?

guest — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:56:00 GMT

My favorite high school workout was 12x400m - however, it was a "survivor" workout, and if you were a girl you had to stay under 1:30 (boys 1:20, I think). Once you missed it (some people couldn't do it even on the first one) you did every other one until 12 were finished. It was fun - I'm not sure if it actually was a good workout, but since these are younger high school kids they just need to enjoy running in the beginning. You can adjust the time to fit the needs of the kids on your team.