Track and running thread

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SSCBen
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Track and running thread

Post by SSCBen » Sat Jun 24, 2006 4:12 am

A few of us are involved in running, whether it is competitive or just plain running, so I thought it would be appropriate for us to have a thread on it.

Track season's over right now. My team, Brunswick, finished second in Maryland class 1A. Our 4x400 team won the class 1A relay, and I was a member of it (tied for fastest leg too I might add - 51.3). The 4x400 really was great because it didn't rely too heavily on standouts, as there were none. The fact that I tied for the fastest leg shows that.

Next year I have been told that my events will change. They're not getting too many points from me in the 100 and 200, so I'm switching to the 400 and 800. I'll run the 200 again of course to break the school record (which I was right on top of this year).

This summer will be intense with heavy training. I'm doing both the cross country training and I'll attend the football weight training. Those on top of my planned training should get me more than ready for next year.

Likely, I'll be a jack-of-all-trades as I was this year. I'm no good at field, but at running you can't go wrong with me on anything. Hilariously, they put me on the 4x800 at the county meet and I still had to run the 100 finals seconds after I finished. Even more hilarious is the fact that I still placed 6th with my worst time all season. I actually beat people and I was dead tired.

My goals with PRs adjacent:

100 - 11.3 (11.3)
200 - 22.8 (23.0)
400 - 50.0 (51.3)
800 - 1:56 (2:05)
1600 - 4:40 (5:00)
3200 - 10:30 (never ran)
4.8-5K - 17:00 (18:39)

Likely I won't meet half these goals, but they're something to shoot for. I think the most realistic goal for me to meet is my 200 because I nearly was there to begin with. I always got 22 splits in the 4x200, but never broke 23 in a real race.

If you run, what do you run? What's your best time? Stuff like that. :p

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Sat Jun 24, 2006 3:38 pm

Well, I am currently not on the track team, although I am certainly doing cross country next year. I'm fairly short, but I've been growing quite a bit (at least 4 inches in the past year)--and I am much faster than I was before. I haven't done too many timed events for a while now, but I am quite quick in soccer and other sports.

The thing is that all my life, I've been using extremely long strides while running--very suitable for long distance, but simply terrible for sprinting and in sports where you have to use bursts and change directions often. However, after considering the matter and receiving lots of advice on the subject, I've really started to speed up my step frequency (probably not the right term), often without reducing the stride. Needless to say, the results are extraordinary for me--while I had long since reached my maximum stride due to height, I can give now produce immense bursts of energy and sprint quite well. I didn't do a team sport at my high school this year, but my plans are for:
- cross country in fall 2006
- track or soccer in spring 2007, depending on how well my soccer skills and even my sprinting hold up to those of other people
Either way, it looks as if I'll be doing a lot of competitive sports next year, which should be fun. I partially dislike running alone, as I find it somewhat boring--but being part of a team might be as interesting as soccer.

Ben, those are excellent times, though I don't know how well most track team members perform in comparison. You might not be able to meet 10:30 on the 2-miler, though it is entirely possible--your 5K time is extremely competitive, a few minutes below what I got (which I ran a couple of years ago, though). Well, good luck for the next season!

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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Sat Jun 24, 2006 3:58 pm

The 5K time actually isn't that great for local teams, and I'm not sure if that course was a 4.8K (3 mile) one or a 5K one. I realize that I run in an extremely competetive area, so I know that I'm not bad by any standard. I actually placed slightly better than average at the state meet (45th out of ~100), and distance wasn't my specialty. My coach commonly said that I was the only member of the cross country team to hold sprint school records, and I still beat our distance runners (who admittedly were not that great).

A good time would be 17:00 or better, and that's what I'm shooting for next year.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Sat Jun 24, 2006 4:25 pm

I suppose it is quite amusing, really--a strongly-built (seriously) sprinter crushing long-distance runners in the 5K. Anyway, if I ever host a water gun war here (I doubt I will though), I'll be sure to time it so that you can partake in a few local races. It's pretty weird--the winners of our 5Ks usually get no better than 18 minutes, so you stand an excellent chance there. Also, the prizes are fairly good, but I'm sure that's the case in some uncompetitive places less than 3.5 hours away...

I forgot to say that I got about 25 minutes on my 5K--and since I currently have about 5:40 on my mile (haven't checked in a long time, though), I'm probably a longer-distance runner due to less pace issues that some people might face with a 5K. Granted, around the time I last ran the 5K competitively (I run that far now and then, but not in races or timed), my mile was an even weaker 7:00--so 25/3.125 equals an average of 8 minutes on the mile, which is decent pacing. Now, I would practically hope for 19-20 minutes for a 5K, given the long-distance pattern that I've had.

I've found that 8 MPH is a speed that I can easily keep up for an extended period. It's pretty slow for a single mile, but it's something that I have used for at least 5 miles before--I didn't measure how far. However, I can keep up 10 MPH for about a couple miles--so you can see that it's a bit much for me, although the growth that I've mentioned has really helped increase that. More importantly, this difference shows how important it is for me to stay at a constant 8 MPH or so--even a little more seems to require so much energy that I just tire out quicker. Needless to say, after 5 miles at 8 MPH, I'm just about dead--and these are also just approximations.

For distances, I just use a tape measure on a string in the telephone book's map to find road distances and all, so I really don't know whether it's correct or not. This area is extremely hilly, and it can prove a problem for both bikers and runners who don't pace themselves properly. The 5K time I cited was done in a local 5K run/walk that traverses several extremely steep hills, both up and down. Even though I live close to where the race was and run on similarly steep hills, the race was simply brutal. However, even the hills help make running on suburban roads much more interesting than running boring laps around a track.

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DX
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Post by DX » Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:37 pm

I am unique among sprinters. I have absolutely no upper body strength, and ok lower body strength. I got my times to jump lower last season while visiting the weight room once in a blue moon. I am easily one of the physically weakest people in my grade level, and yet still managed to shave 1 full second off my 100 time over the course of 6 races.

My sprinting power appears to come from raw energy. Hence why my 200 time in practice is always up to 6 seconds slower than my meet time. Also why I cannot do well when we have practice. A 6 200 workout kills my energy and each one after the first gets progressively worse.

I tried one open 400 and managed a 61. I started way too fast, having never run a 4, and so died on the last quarter. I still came in second though, probably because of the huge lead I got from sprinting the first 3/4. So I only run the 55, 100 and 200, with more success in the 100.

I figured out that changes to your form can have a huge impact. When I cut my strides in half, my times started falling significantly. Just this year, a school graduate named Dusty Thomas [who also runs professionally] came back to help coach the team. He changed our workout to focus on sprinting endurance and faster repetitive motion, which really got our times better. I gained a bit of endurance, but I still can't run for distances at competition speeds.

Next year's goals:

Goal:
55: 6.7 [PR 7.2]
100: 11.5 [PR 12.0]
200: 24.0 [PR 25.6]
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Post by joannaardway » Sat Jun 24, 2006 8:47 pm

I'm really not a sprinter.

I have massive strength, but no speed. My best 100m times are in the 15-16 second range, although I've not measured it in some time.

Thus, if you ever get into a race with me, I'll just stand still - it's less effort to do.
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Post by wetmonkey442 » Sat Jun 24, 2006 10:03 pm

I'm not on the track team, but I'm on my high school's lacrosse team (season ended about a month ago). I do run in my spare time, either on a treadmill at my local gym or around town. I try to do a few miles every session, I've found that my pacing has really improved this year. I can do a mile in about seven and a half minutes which isn't terribly great, but not bad, and I can keep up that pace for a few miles. I take Tae-Kwon-Do three times a week which also helps to improve cardio-vascular ability.

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Post by joannaardway » Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:21 pm

I've got a new time for 100m.

It's now sub 15 seconds, which is impressive for me - however, I've never been 100% on the sprint track. I would say that my best performances are cross country - I am lightning fast uphill, but have never worked out why.
"Over the hills and far away, she prays he will return one day. As sure as the rivers reach the seas, back in his arms again she'll be." - Over the Hills and far away, Gary Moore

"So many people have come and gone, their faces fade as the years go by. Yet I still recall as I wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky" - More than a feeling, Boston

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Sun Jul 09, 2006 1:35 am

I'm a bit like that too. I am certainly not too fast a runner as it is, but I don't slow down too much when I'm running uphill. Often, I'll be running with some other people at least partly competitively, and I'll be keeping up while not being able to do much better. Then we hit the hill (ugh, this city is full of hills--it's a nightmare for runners and bikers from other cities who aren't prepared for it), and then everybody seems to drop behind. I really can't understand why everybody seems to slow down like that, but it's just weird.

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DX
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Post by DX » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:53 am

I can't run up hills very well. Especially those with very steep gradients, such as some we use in water wars. Despite being physically weak, and actually having the perfect build for a distance runner, sprinting appears to be in my genes. I can't run with bare feet, because when I do, my feet end up repeating faster than my brain can process the motions, and I trip over them. :rolleyes:

Maintaining fast speed up a hill probably requires more strength than running skill.
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Post by Silence » Wed Aug 30, 2006 1:08 am

How's the cross-country season shaping up for others here? For those who've already started, that is.

We've been having another heat wave, which is not good at all. Team time trials in 100+ degree weather are not good, but apparently we'll need to learn how to run in the heat come our first meet next week.

We've been doing a lot of uphill training, mainly to improve strength. We'll be getting into more speed workouts later in the season. Cross country is fun, but it takes up a lot of my time.

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DX
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Post by DX » Wed Aug 30, 2006 2:03 am

My weather couldn't be more different: 60s with flooding rain at all hours of the day/night. It's been several days since the sun last came out. Lucky that I don't do XC! :p I've seen some of the school runners out, on a 20 mile route. The season here started back in July. While I couldn't possibly do cross country, my track season starts in November and runs, bad pun, uninterrupted, until June. That's quite long enough for me! :rolleyes:
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Post by SSCBen » Wed Aug 30, 2006 10:51 pm

Cross country has been going fairly well for my team this year. The boys team doesn't have any real standouts, but we've got a lot of really consistent people. I'm hoping to pull off a big surprise at later meets once everyone gets in shape. There's only one person we didn't get to run that I wanted to run, but he was injured anyway.

As always, we're doing very varied practices. Today we ran lots of 800s. My brother usually goes crazy on these, while I go for consistency.

I don't have too much time to write, so I'll just leave it at this. Results will be posted after the first meet. I'm really wondering how well I will do this year.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:23 am

We had our first Cross Country meet today, and it was pretty hectic--Hurricane Ernesto and Labor Day helped disrupt the regular meeting schedule, so I didn't get my uniform and T-shirt until today.

As a team, we didn't do so well, since there are a ton of hot XC programs in this area--the Fork Union Military Academy naturally does well for the boys, and there are also some private and fancier schools that have huge teams.

I placed quite well (top 10%) for a first meet with hundreds of people, but only for JV. I'm probably going to get into Varsity later in the year, but for now, I don't know...

Our next meet is very soon, along with a hectic marching band program, and I look forward to hearing from others.

However, that (along with the Parent-Teacher Orientation at school that the bus had us catch the tail end of) was what stopped me from posting earlier today...and I've still got a bit of homework.

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Post by SSCBen » Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:10 pm

We had our first meet today. My main goal was to try to keep in the front, and I did. I was 4th place with a moderately good time of 19:31. I beat the guy who got 7th last year at the Maryland state meet. He wasn't doing too great from cramps and breathing problems, but I'll still say I beat him. :p

Andrew, my brother, was first place with something like 18:54. Our second place runner was second as well with something like 19:11.

Pretty good for the first meet. We just need to pull up two other runners to where we are and we'd be real competitive.
Last edited by SSCBen on Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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