Cross country / track experience & advice
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Anonymous
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Lots of good feedback already. I totally second the advice to run easy runs slower and hard runs faster.
It’s also true that genetics are huge. My neighbor who ran for Stanford used to periodically take up running again. He’d run with me for a couple of weeks. The first week, he’d want to run 8:30 miles. The next week 7:30, and by the 3rd week I couldn’t keep up. Then he’d get busy with work and quit for a year or two, then repeat. |
Anonymous
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College recruiting in XC and track is radically changing. Schools that opt in to the new NCAA deal will in April have roster limits. 35 for track and 10 for cross country in the SEC, the top of the heap money wise and athletically. Look at Arkansas, easily the most successful program of all time. They have 52 athletes, really all of them top flight D1 athletes. They will have to cut 17 athletes, a number of whom are studs (there will be 46 second 400m guys cut). Those 17 are national class athletes and will go somewhere. You can’t do the sport well at the club level. If you can’t score in the SEC in more than one event, your are vulnerable. If you are a vaulter, better jump well over 18 feet as one eventers are under pressure. Even if you are a great 800 meter runner (like sub 1:48) you will be under pressure because very few run cross country well. Now in lesser conferences the marks won’t be as high but D11 and D111 are going to benefit. They are going to get athletes they haven’t seen before. Scholarships will be limited - D11 gives them but it is hard to find a good academic fit in D11.
If in recruiting there is a coach who is solid and the school makes sense (and this is more often going to be D111), I would consider carefully. At the D1 level coaches will recruit ready made Olympian foreign athletes when they can. Let me give you an example. I ran 8:36 for two miles indoors in the 70’s and easily qualified for nationals. At least in the top 8. Today with the influx of foreign athletes it will take the equivalent of 8:20 to qualify, and it might not make it with the two collegiate leaders running the equivalent of an 8:05 two mile, with a number of guys in the 8:10 range. D111 will look mighty fine where you can actually be developed and not race every workout against world class runners 5 years older. |
Anonymous
yep! and is a top recruit |
Anonymous
not true. there are currently 10 girls running the indoor 1600 in Virginia under 5 minutes. And nationally, there is a girl at 4:36. Nationally, 50 girls are under 5 minutes. Get your stats right. |
Anonymous
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the top boys 1600 indoor time right now is 4:05.23
#50 is 4:17. be sure your kid is getting enough calories. Boys (and girls) can have career ending injuries from improper nutrition and over training. If you are in the running community- you will have heard about extreme stress fractures that have stopped very talented kids from running. |
Anonymous
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Lots of great advice on this thread.
Any advice on proper nutrition for growing teens aside from eating a balanced diet? |
Anonymous
None of the VA girls are freshman. The PP specifically mentioned a 9th grade time. Of the 50 girls nationally, only 3 freshman went sub-5. |
Anonymous
| Yes, times have dropped with training and age. Just starting the recruiting process and dc has several D3 outreaches that seem fairly serious (dc clearly hitting and surpassing their posted recruiting times and coaches saying ‘we want you and as long as you meet these basic academic standards, there should be a place for you here’) but d1 has been much more elusive. Some coach outreach, but nothing firm (dcs times are not at D1 recruiting levels for the most part). |
Anonymous
My 10th grade DD has just started hitting recruiting times (per runcruit) for some D3 schools she was already interested in. How did it work? Did your DC reach out first and then hear back from coaches? |