Anonymous
02/14/2025 14:16
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My daughter ran a 4:58 as a freshman. 5 minutes is not that fast for a boy.
OK pal. Now run along.
OP-
It is true that 5, while a good time, even better than a majority maybe, is nothing unusual for a boy and not indicative of being a college athlete. Especially if he has run 5min while following a solid training regimen. A kid with sub 4:20 (let's say) potential can often run 5 on basic non-running specific fitness. A guy I know that was a HS star ran a 5k some years later off no recent running training and ran mid 17s. Normal people can't do that.
How much your kid can improve is a very individual question. Could be a lot, could be a little. There is no way to know really but on average and not knowing anything else about him, I'd say high 430s would be very solid progression. Just the fact that there are many 5-ish minute 9th grade boys and few 4:20 is boys of any HS grade should tell you something. Response to training is just highly variable. Your kid may be a high responder, he may not.
There are also many D3 schools that take basically anyone on the team. But if you're looking for admission help to a fancy D3school you need D1 adjacent times. And if you want to run D1, you usually need faster times than you think.
Finally, if he enjoys it, that is the most important part.
Thank you PP. I'm surprised my post got so many responses. My son is the one driving it. I'm the newbie who's just asking questions. He will be academically well qualified for the top schools so I'm hesitant to put all his eggs in the running basket. I mentioned his mile time of 5 to say I think (as a non-runner) that his time is already pretty fast and that it's hard to believe that he can improve much more... not that I think his time is the best of all 9th graders. lol. I prefer him to enjoy college life as a regular student.
Our state champion girl ran a 4:51 mile, so for the PP, your daughter should be state champion!
Anonymous
02/14/2025 13:35
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Anonymous wrote:My daughter ran a 4:58 as a freshman. 5 minutes is not that fast for a boy.
OK pal. Now run along.
OP-
It is true that 5, while a good time, even better than a majority maybe, is nothing unusual for a boy and not indicative of being a college athlete. Especially if he has run 5min while following a solid training regimen. A kid with sub 4:20 (let's say) potential can often run 5 on basic non-running specific fitness. A guy I know that was a HS star ran a 5k some years later off no recent running training and ran mid 17s. Normal people can't do that.
How much your kid can improve is a very individual question. Could be a lot, could be a little. There is no way to know really but on average and not knowing anything else about him, I'd say high 430s would be very solid progression. Just the fact that there are many 5-ish minute 9th grade boys and few 4:20 is boys of any HS grade should tell you something. Response to training is just highly variable. Your kid may be a high responder, he may not.
There are also many D3 schools that take basically anyone on the team. But if you're looking for admission help to a fancy D3school you need D1 adjacent times. And if you want to run D1, you usually need faster times than you think.
Finally, if he enjoys it, that is the most important part.
Anonymous
02/14/2025 11:21
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Kids without much of a running background will improve significantly with training. No need to overdo it in 9th and 10th grade.
I did have a running background. In the 70’s ran a sub 5 minute mile in 5th grade. 4:08 mile as a 10th grader. Recruiting took care of self after that - I was recruited by many.
Not sure I liked the sport all that much. I always studied and was a good student and was indeed I used the athletic scholarship rather than let it use me.
I was trained by a coach who ran for Igloi and in hindsight it was such an advantage. I just felt I always had sprint speed. I was 100 pounds in 9th grade - ran a 9:10 2 mile - and ran a 52 second 400 as a little pipsqueak. Igloi training is intense and requires a lot of coaching oversight, including the practice of accelerating quickly and changing speeds. There are very good modern approaches to training but query how to fold Igloi’s methods into it. It really opened up my world.
I did have a running background. In the 70’s ran a sub 5 minute mile in 5th grade. 4:08 mile as a 10th grader. Recruiting took care of self after that - I was recruited by many.
Not sure I liked the sport all that much. I always studied and was a good student and was indeed I used the athletic scholarship rather than let it use me.
I was trained by a coach who ran for Igloi and in hindsight it was such an advantage. I just felt I always had sprint speed. I was 100 pounds in 9th grade - ran a 9:10 2 mile - and ran a 52 second 400 as a little pipsqueak. Igloi training is intense and requires a lot of coaching oversight, including the practice of accelerating quickly and changing speeds. There are very good modern approaches to training but query how to fold Igloi’s methods into it. It really opened up my world.
Anonymous
02/14/2025 10:36
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Anonymous wrote:My daughter ran a 4:58 as a freshman. 5 minutes is not that fast for a boy.
If your daughter is running 4:58 as a freshman she is in the top 300 freshman female milers of all time! Has she one a state championship?
Anonymous
02/14/2025 09:56
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
A thing I didn't realize but which might be useful for you to know is that because of Title IX (though who knows how long that will be around) and the requirement that colleges spend equally on boys' and girls' sports, boys are rarely recruited for a lot of sports that girls are heavily recruited for, because the colleges are spending so much on football programs. So for crew for instance: tons of recruiting for girls, almost none for boys. My observation is that track/x-country is similar. A lot easier to be recruited as a girl.
Anonymous
02/14/2025 09:53
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all the advice!
He's eating really well - but hard to keep up as I need to have something ready when he gets home from practice and then another dinner later (and also pack something nutritious for lunch). He's also sleeping a lot for a high schooler - probably 9 hours a night bc he's ready to sleep by 9-10pm.
This is all new to us.
His mile time is right at about at 5 minute in 9th. We are encouraging and supportive, but I feel like this is already pretty fast (and will need to improve by like 45 seconds for recruiting to D1). Part of me doesn't want him to put all his eggs in this one basket... but we will support him as long as he is determined to keep training.
It's absolutely great he is so dedicated and putting in so much work, and he'll get better. Recruitment for boys x-country is minimal as far as I can tell, so I wouldn't spend any time thinking about that. My child was on a state champ team and the unbelievably fast boys went on to D3 schools, mostly small liberal arts colleges. Regardless, it's a great sport.
Anonymous
02/14/2025 09:48
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all the advice!
He's eating really well - but hard to keep up as I need to have something ready when he gets home from practice and then another dinner later (and also pack something nutritious for lunch). He's also sleeping a lot for a high schooler - probably 9 hours a night bc he's ready to sleep by 9-10pm.
This is all new to us.
His mile time is right at about at 5 minute in 9th. We are encouraging and supportive, but I feel like this is already pretty fast (and will need to improve by like 45 seconds for recruiting to D1). Part of me doesn't want him to put all his eggs in this one basket... but we will support him as long as he is determined to keep training.
Why are you so fixated with college recruiting? It is extremely competitive for boys. Lots of kids can get to the 4:30 range. It gets progressively harder after that.
Anonymous
02/14/2025 09:40
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
My daughter ran a 4:58 as a freshman. 5 minutes is not that fast for a boy.
Anonymous
02/13/2025 10:59
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Thank you for all the advice!
He's eating really well - but hard to keep up as I need to have something ready when he gets home from practice and then another dinner later (and also pack something nutritious for lunch). He's also sleeping a lot for a high schooler - probably 9 hours a night bc he's ready to sleep by 9-10pm.
This is all new to us.
His mile time is right at about at 5 minute in 9th. We are encouraging and supportive, but I feel like this is already pretty fast (and will need to improve by like 45 seconds for recruiting to D1). Part of me doesn't want him to put all his eggs in this one basket... but we will support him as long as he is determined to keep training.
He's eating really well - but hard to keep up as I need to have something ready when he gets home from practice and then another dinner later (and also pack something nutritious for lunch). He's also sleeping a lot for a high schooler - probably 9 hours a night bc he's ready to sleep by 9-10pm.
This is all new to us.
His mile time is right at about at 5 minute in 9th. We are encouraging and supportive, but I feel like this is already pretty fast (and will need to improve by like 45 seconds for recruiting to D1). Part of me doesn't want him to put all his eggs in this one basket... but we will support him as long as he is determined to keep training.
Anonymous
02/13/2025 09:00
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
We found more success when adding a club team (Seven LocKs, Bethesda…)
Anonymous
02/13/2025 08:55
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
If your kid didn’t run track before high school and is really committed to the training, his times will likely improve a lot through high school. They need to eat a lot of protein and a lot of calories when they’re training for distance - we had been leaning away from meat before my kids started running but now we eat chicken, turkey, pork, beef pretty much every night. Sleep is super important for recovery, so have him prioritize sleep if possible. Some of the kids take a ton of supplements but I’m a bit wary about that. We are just starting the recruiting process so no advice on that but I’ve heard that unless you’re at the winning NXN level, the kids start the process by contacting the college coaches.
Anonymous
02/13/2025 07:19
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Anonymous wrote:For those families with kids in cross country & track, with consistent training, did your kids see significant improvement in their times? I'm just wondering if there is a point where you are at your fastest time and won't improve much more.
Also, any special considerations for daily diet and snacks for our son who runs on some days 12+ miles. He loves running and determined to improve his time over the next couple years. I want to make sure he's getting all the nutrients he needs.
Finally, would love to hear experiences of families who've gone through the recruiting process to D1 or D3 schools.
Both my DCs ran track. One of them ran mostly for fun, and the other was very disciplined and competitive. She will be running D1 next year. Times can improve drastically if they are training and dedicated. My DD asked for a private coach. The private coach really helped individualize her training and give her personal times to hit during workouts, how to fast to run her easy runs, etc.
Nutrition was also key. Her times started to slow at one point, and she wasn't feeling great. She had also lost weight, so her doctor recommended talking to a nutritionist. The nutritionist gave her a meal plan and helped her plan when to snack and what to eat after runs. They need a lot of the right kind of food.
Anonymous
02/13/2025 04:05
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
Mine did cc and track. I wouldn't worry about hitting a wall in high school. Very few runners are hitting their peak at 17. There will always be room for improvement at that age. DC went from light jogging sophomore year to state finals in middle distance by senior year. Colleges will see times and will generally contact coaches. D1 times are basically for superstars. But talented runners can hit the D3 times with training and discipline. To get an idea, you can usually find the recruitment times on college websites. Just go to the track team website and look around. It'll be there somewhere. If I remember, the 800m was around 1:54.
Anonymous
02/13/2025 02:51
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
He should do his practice runs at a slower pace than he finds natural. Theirs is room for strategic speed play, but I got SO fast when I started training slower.
80-20 Running. There’s a book / other off shoot blogs, books, sites.
80-20 Running. There’s a book / other off shoot blogs, books, sites.
Anonymous
02/13/2025 02:06
Subject: Cross country / track experience & advice
For those families with kids in cross country & track, with consistent training, did your kids see significant improvement in their times? I'm just wondering if there is a point where you are at your fastest time and won't improve much more.
Also, any special considerations for daily diet and snacks for our son who runs on some days 12+ miles. He loves running and determined to improve his time over the next couple years. I want to make sure he's getting all the nutrients he needs.
Finally, would love to hear experiences of families who've gone through the recruiting process to D1 or D3 schools.
Also, any special considerations for daily diet and snacks for our son who runs on some days 12+ miles. He loves running and determined to improve his time over the next couple years. I want to make sure he's getting all the nutrients he needs.
Finally, would love to hear experiences of families who've gone through the recruiting process to D1 or D3 schools.