Were you a high school runner?

I ran throughout HS, was the state champion in the 2-mile my senior year (10:44), and ran on a D1 college team for 3 years (not a scholarship athlete, though I probably would have been at most schools. I was in a really high-powered program that won NCAA cross-country once and placed second when I was on that team.) As I recall, I didn't run particularly high mileage in high school. I mainly trained with the boys as I was faster than the girls, at least at longer distances (one mile and up). We tended to alternate easier endurance type runs (I guess it would be called Zone 2 now; for me it was probably more like low Z3 as I was generally pushing a little harder to keep up than the guys I trained with) with interval workouts. I'd guess an average day was 5-6 miles total. A very typical interval workout was 6-8 X 800m at 2 mile or 5K race pace, or 3 sets of 800/400/400 (same). Sometimes in the summer we did longer endurance runs, up to 9-10 miles.

My own mileage was a bit higher at times because, unlike many teammates, I usually put in a longer run on Sunday (usually a hilly 10 mile loop) and, for two years, I didn't run track (as a protest, because at the time there was no 2-mile for girls) and instead trained for a half-marathon (freshman year) and marathon (sophomore year). My mileage probably still wasn't all that high--maybe maxed out at 45 or 50, but higher than it would have been when I was focused on 2-mile or cross-country (5K). I feel like my HS coach was really good--he made us work hard, but not "run till we puked" or do ridiculous mileage, and he catered our plans depending on our events, injury history, strengths and weaknesses. His sister was a top master's runner and he also coached her.

I took most of each winter nearly off running--I usually ran just twice a week then, one shorter and one longer, but did a LOT of swimming. I was a distance swimmer on a pretty serious team, and we put in 8000-10,000 yards a day! So definitely there was some cross-training going on! My run coach fully supported this; as I recall, my swim coach was always agitating for me to quit running and swim "full time". No way! (No such thing as junior elite tri back then.) I also swam with a club in the summer.

I do know that I trained more/harder than the other girls on my team, but except for my adventures into marathon-distance races (which was my own idea) in general my training was on a par with most of my rivals for state dominance. That was just what it took to win.

Edited by Hot Runner 2023-05-15 9:55 PM

Well....For the record, I don't think I ever did 2 a days as a runner. To me that was strictly a swimmer thing. Definitely I never topped 60 mpw in HS, nor did anyone else. 40 would be typical in track and XC season, maybe 50 when doing marathons or half. My boyfriend was one of the top milers in the state and I know he didn't do high mileage. And I was state champion in the 2-mile and top 3 in XC. Maybe the kids run more now--I wouldn't know! I have only coached younger kids (age 8-12), not high school.