Wondering if the freshman/new kids to track get introduced to some of the field events - high jump, long jump, shot put etc… ? Or if they primarily are doing track events.

Just know that there are no regulation sized indoor tracks in northern Va except at George Mason u and some private schools, so many varsity meets including districts and regionals are at pg county sports complex near fed ex field. This is only for the varsity meets though. Jv and other meets are either outdoors, or on a non regulation (not 200m) tracks.

It’s basically an outdoor sport, unfortunately

Anonymous wrote:Interesting PP - thanks for the scoop on winter track

Same w ds schiol

In Northern VA the kids practice everyday outside. There are both track and field events. There are local indoor meets held once a week in Arlington. What makes the season fun is that there are multiple overnight away meets at Universities or big event centers like in VA Beach…the only thing is that those meets are limited to the top performers on the team due to travel cost and meet entry limits. The PG Sportsplex is closed this winter so it will be interesting to see how District Champs and Regionals are handled.

Track kids tend to be a nice group of kids in general so I would encourage your son to give it a try

Anonymous wrote:I live in PA. In my opinion, winter track is the toughest of the seasons. The kids practice outdoors, but meets are indoors at a university field house.

They compete all distances, throws and jumps. The tracks are 200 meters around, so twice as many laps as they would be doing in spring track. That alone is a little tough on their minds and bodies.

It IS a great way to get in shape or stay in shape for spring track, but it's not my favorite or my runner's favorite!

I also grew up and ran in PA. I remember the meets going until late at night, including races at 11 p.m. I don't know if it's the same these days but remember it fondly.

I live in PA. In my opinion, winter track is the toughest of the seasons. The kids practice outdoors, but meets are indoors at a university field house.

They compete all distances, throws and jumps. The tracks are 200 meters around, so twice as many laps as they would be doing in spring track. That alone is a little tough on their minds and bodies.

It IS a great way to get in shape or stay in shape for spring track, but it's not my favorite or my runner's favorite!

I ran seriously in high school, winning the Millrose Games and Sunkist Invite high school races. 4:08 mile on an 11 lap board track. From the Chicago area. We had no indoor track but race locations did. Except for races, we never trained indoors. It really does not get that cold here and it is not difficult to train compared to Northern Illinois. An added benefit to outdoor winter training is that you peak later. This was a real benefit running against west coast kids in the national outdoor races. Track is not for everyone but the weather here is not an impediment.

Interesting PP - thanks for the scoop on winter track

Practice is every day and gets really cold (it is outdoors). Meets are very long and a lot of sitting around and waiting for your event. At our school, most kids who did XC participate, but my son may not this year, he really did not enjoy last year.

it is called winter track at our HS because indoor was false advertising.

I thought it was just the running events and no field events

Kids are always outside and most meets are outside, as well.

Wondering if the kids are outside as weather permits during the winter? How about for meets as most schools don’t have indoor tracks?
Thanks! I have a freshman considering winter track

Practice 5 days a week and a meet approximately once a week. The practices were broken up into groups: distance, sprinters, field events. The distance folks ran more distance than the sprinters.

Is indoor track long distance (lots of laps) or shorter sprints, relays, etc?

How often does your child practice? How much if it is focused on their event and how much of it is general conditioning or running? How many meets are there and are they mostly larger regional meets?