Mile training plans for HS’ers (Read 47 times)

I wouldn't trust any plan I found to be suitable for all runners.  The mile attracts both 800m/mile types and mile/5000m types, and they require different types of workouts, one leaning more toward speed and the other more toward endurance.  You'll also discover that you can't use the same training schedule for a 4:30 miler as you would for a 7:00 miler. You still need base workouts and tempo runs for endurance, then intervals and repeats for speed, but the pace and volume will differ.  Your biggest asset will be discerning what each runner needs most and adapting workouts to their needs.

I don;t know how it would works for HS, but Jack Daniel's books have mile plans. I'd have to go grab to the book, but I think it has 800-1mile and then 2 miles. There are different weekly mileages associated with the plans.

I'm just impressed that there's a high school in New Hampshire with 4 sub-4:30 milers.

High school track is banans nowadays. The fastest kids are faster (and it's not all the shoes) but the average kid is A LOT slower than we were.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately since there's a documentary being made about my high school coach.

Oh, wow! That is going to be very interesting. What kind of things do you remember about him? Did you also have him as a teacher?

Oh God, where to start. He was and is one of the most influential people in my life for sure.

In high school I hated him most of the time. He had the most uncanny ability to cut through the teenage bravado and make you feel really small. And he could also motivate in a way that's just different from anyone else I've ever met. He never yelled. It was when he got really quiet that you had to worry.

I feel like I was among a small group on our team that he was hardest on -- I think in part because he saw more potential in me than I saw in myself, and in part because of the group of friends I hung around with. But then again maybe everyone felt that way.

High school is a difficult and awkward time for everyone but it was especially for me and especially my senior year. My dad was dying (he passed away a few weeks after graduation) and the stress of my household was affecting my physical health. I spent most of the winter and spring seasons nursing injuries and only ran a few races that year.

All my best races and best memories are from junior year. We won everything that year and that team is in our school's all of fame.

I thnk because his two oldest kids overlapped my friend group, I had some wierd and unique experiences that most of the thousands of guys he coached didn'tt. I saw the movie Platoon in the theater with Croft. The only words he said to us before or after were, as we were walking out, "That was realistic enough."

There's a quote at the end of the movie where Charlie Sheen's character says that he often felt like he was a child born of those two fathers, Elias and Barns, and that they would be there forever, fighting for possession of his soul. Not to get too corny but over the years I've thought about that quote a lot in reference to Croft and my own dad.

I definitely didn't appreciate him until years later. I've talked to a lot of guys who "survived" Croft and it's the same for most of us. As you can imagine, the secret of our success was there was no secret. We literally worked harder than any other team, and success attracted success such that most of the good athletes in our school wanted to be on the track team. Our program was built on dominating the mid-distance events with depth and so our group took the brunt of Croft's focus. You couldn't do what he did now--you'd get run out town by the parents or arrested for child abuse. There were plenty of parents who didn't appreciate him even then. He was a very polarizing figure in the town and even within the high school.

The thing was no matter how hard things got you could never complain because, although he never talked about it, everyone knew what he had been through.

I never had him as a teacher, unfortunatly. Everyone who did really loved him. And you weren't allowed to call him coach in class or out of class. He was Mr. Croft. He used to say he taught English and Track. I saw him a few weeks ago and he still says that.

I ran my fastest mile ever in a 5k months after my college pole vault season ended... and having not really run since college track ended...I ran a 5:15 during a 5k race which was my fastest ever mile...which makes me wonder at that time had I gone all out for the mile, I'm pretty confident 4:59 would've been pretty easily accomplished.

as a pole vaulter in college, we never ran anything longer than 300m intervals, and even more 100-200m intervals, also plenty of stairs and lifting.

now on top of that, Had I don't some distance training.... as well as raced the mile in the midst of training...

basically my point is you can run a pretty fast mile on intervals alone I think.... but I'm sure a long run of 90mins and some other easy runs would have only helped...

...Which reminds me of another thing! I basically had no base built into my training when I went into my season.... which I think having an aerobic base would have only helped me smoke those intervals even better! I think that season I went into it at about 180lbs....and at my peak was about 163lbs...

hope this helps/gives ya a little insight.