Being in the Marine Corps, running is not an option, luckily, I enjoy it anyway. I have run a few marathons (Hawaii & DC) and my goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
I can't remember my best time in cross country, because of the different courses, but we did win a few invites.
Wow that 400 times insane since you can also run a 10:05!!!
I ran the longer distances all through high school. Some guys graduated and we were weak at the middle distances (400-800m). We didn't realize I was that quick in the 400 till a couple meets before districts my senior year. Made state, but didn't place.
I'm a freshman and my PR last year was 65, but I'm going for under 60 by next year, got any workout plans for me?
Man, it's been a long time CB. Hills I always thought were very effective, though very painful. Wind sprints, mixed with some exercises with the distance crew should do well for you. I'm sure you're already familiar with speed drills, but the toughest thing for a 'sprinter' to overcome in those middle distances is the endurance aspect. Volunteer for some drills with the distance team and do your best to keep up. It'll pay off. I'll sleep on it and see if I can remember anything else that helped. We didn't have the best coaches so it would basically be what I thought worked for me.
youre really curious about this type of stuff citybirds
i run for the sport i do at my high school: rowing, or crew. when i dont row (which is fairly often because im not in the first boat), i run either about 4.5-6 miles or run some stairs. anyone who has seen the exorcist and knows the stairs at the end? i have run those 20 times in a row. its a very strenuous sport, but it gets you into the best shape of your life.
outside of crew, im too lazy to run
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I wrestled in high school and college. I use to have to jog when i was cutting weight, so jogging/running isnt my favorite thing to do. I just lift and typically walk on the treadmills at the gym.
One of the best things that I think helped me early on was running against the upperclassmen. I always considered myself a distance runner first (even though I could outsprint any of our school's DBs), so my view will probably be a little biased. I encourage you, especially in the mid to longer distances to keep on the heels or shoulders of the upperclassmen for as long as possible. We had a freshman do this when I was a senior. I managed to break away in the latter half of races, but he stayed with me for the most part. This kid eventually broke all the distance records at our school.
Also, don't take breaks. If you want to get that time down, there is no off-season. I was told early on that I had a ton of potential and would go on to have a nice career in college. I screwed that up my junior year by drinking and smoking, among other things. My younger brother, who, time-wise and through projections, was substantially slower than myself, enjoyed a full-ride scholarship and did pretty well running track and cross country in college. I never got that and I completely believe it was because I basically took that year off to 'have fun'. You only have such a short time.
The 800m dash was always the toughest, imo, because, while it's considered a sprint, the endurance factor is huge. That goes for the 400 as well, just to a smaller extent. Build up that endurance first and make sure you can sprint the entire length around the track. Have someone time your splits and make sure each 100 is relatively close (my last 100 was always a little faster).
We lived near a rock company of some sort and they had enormous hills of sand. It was hell, but running up those hills of sand did wonders for both building muscle for speed and building endurance.
65 in the 400m is definitely something to build on. While shaving 5 seconds off of a 400 is quite a bit, you're young enough to make it happen and when you do, you'll feel great. It's right up there with breaking 5 in the mile. I always wanted to break 2 in the 800 and 10 in the 3200, but only got close.
Also, I don’t know what kind of diet they have you on, but get in a good habit there too. It’ll pay huge dividends for you later, though you may not even realize it. Don’t ignore arm and shoulder strength either, especially for sprints, when punches of speed shave off precious time.
In short, I’d take the offseason to work on endurance. Run a couple 10-mile runs each week, do hills in between, and lift weights throughout. Stretch effectively and work on your form running. Keep us, or at least me, updated. I’m interested to see how it goes for you.
Next, year during indoor track i'm gonna do the 300 and 500 and that'll probably help me a lot for the 400 in outdoor, also I noticed that i'm also a really good short sprinter (200), since my friend who got a 62 sec. 400 is 2 whole seconds slower than me in the 200.
And the endurance is my weakest point : When I first moved to Virginia in 5th grade I was exhausted in PE class b/c in New Jersey we never did any physical stuff except dodgeball, etc. (Jersey City, near New York), so anyway everyone had to run the mile for class and mine was 13:13!!! Then last year (9th grade) one of my friends did cross country and was really good and said he was gonna do indoor track, so I thought I should try it out b/c i was pretty non-athletic. There were 2 groups : short and long distance, and I did long b/c this friend did and I knew I would suck but I also knew I would get burned by our sprinters. So almost everyday I would come home from track practice about to die and every body part hurting. It also didnt help that my coach was leaving after the season b/c his wife had a new job in northern virginia, b/c he only cared of the top 5 people in each event b/c he was going for his best state performance as a team in his career. We got 3rd .
Anyway, I did outdoor track that year, and we got a new coach, infact 3 new coaches, one was the rb/ db coach, one was a girl coach (who does nothing), and the other was an all-american long jumper in college (26'6''!!!). We had this tryouts thing where everyone ran every event to probably show the coaches. I did really good in the short events and was really happy so I decided to do short distance, and was pretty good. My first 400 was 71 and got it to 65! So back to the endurance part, I am still really bad at the mile but I improved a lot : I got my 8:42 mile in the beginning of the year to probably around 7:45. And during indoor track I always didn't try when we did long practices.
Yesterday I did my first summer workout: I ran a 1.3 mile "circle" around my neighborhood that has a lot of hills and curves, 3 times with like a 10 min. break between each. I have the worst endurance ever, what should I do to improve my endurance during this summer? Thanks for reading this post
The only way I really know to increase endurance is to practice it. I've heard that doing really long distances screws with a runner's sprinting ability, but I don't believe that. One of our best sprinters was also out for cross country just to stay in shape. Muscle tone is the definition of endurance. Start with 3 miles, work up to 6 and finally try to put in 10 miles without taking a break. Always carry a stopwatch. Time yourself everytime so you have something to shoot for everytime. A lot of endurance is mental so get some headphones too and find different places to run. Different scenery. Instead of maxing out in the weightroom (leg weights) go for smaller doses, more reps. I was fortunate enough to always be blessed with endurance (I ran a 6 1/2 minute mile in 6th grade), so I don't know a ton about increasing endurance, but maybe look into what I suggested and go from there. Good luck and keep it up.
Omaha Red Sox wrote:The only way I really know to increase endurance is to practice it. I've heard that doing really long distances screws with a runner's sprinting ability, but I don't believe that. One of our best sprinters was also out for cross country just to stay in shape. Muscle tone is the definition of endurance. Start with 3 miles, work up to 6 and finally try to put in 10 miles without taking a break. Always carry a stopwatch. Time yourself everytime so you have something to shoot for everytime. A lot of endurance is mental so get some headphones too and find different places to run. Different scenery. Instead of maxing out in the weightroom (leg weights) go for smaller doses, more reps. I was fortunate enough to always be blessed with endurance (I ran a 6 1/2 minute mile in 6th grade), so I don't know a ton about increasing endurance, but maybe look into what I suggested and go from there. Good luck and keep it up.
Yah, 2 of our sprinters and 4 of our middle distance people did cross country, but octave (the long jump guy) told them not to, and now they're gonna train by themselves
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its a very strenuous sport, but it gets you into the best shape of your life.
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