Whats this guys potential??

[Beanfontaine]

i know a lot of threads are like this but fck it.


recently about 5 1/2 weeks ago my coach got a hold of this kid, freshmen, to come out and run track. Reason why is cause the p.e. coach said he was doing good when they had to run a mile, he ran 6:18 which is generally good for someone whose never ran and is just an ordinary kid.

Well anyways the coach ran him the very first week he came into track the guy only got 2 days of "training". really only had him do stride outs and a 20 min. run. Well he ended up running 5:25 and getting like 7th. Next week goes and coach has him do some intervals (4x300's) and 35 min runs. he runs again clocking a 5:22.

Next week goes by my coach has him do 45 min runs and harder intervals (3x800s). And then he starts telling him how to run the mile so he can have abetter kick. and he ends up running a 5:14 at the 3rd meet.

Next meet same scenario and runs a 5:11.

Then coach moved him up to J.V. for there district meet and has him do 45 min runs but has him run intervals with varsity.

At the j.v. district meet he ended up running a 5:02 and won by 23 seconds. his splits were 79,82(2:41), 72, 69. now this kid only had about 10-15mpw of training, for only 5 full weeks, and had absolutely no type of running, summer, fall, winter. The most he ever did was play baseball in p.e. and that one mile run they did.

Also this kid really hasnt hit puberty what so ever and i know that makes somewhat of a difference. All i want to know is how much potential do you think this kid is really capable of if he goes on a 40-50mpw training period throughout summer, runs xc and continues training through winter?

[Wolf River Bandit]

well not exactly bad, I mean there is definatley potential. But I know tons of kids, myself included, that did more with less.

but the potential is good.
by senior year: 4:21, 9:27 if he stays and trains hard.

[ADPre]

this isnt exactly a response to the question, but there's a freshman on my team who came out from football, never ran a full mile in his life, training or racing, cept maybe twice in pe....so basically he's run probably a total of 4 miles ever since 7th grade......and he comes out does some speedwork since hes a football guy, runs a 200 in 23 something, then runs a 400 in 56, and decides he wants to do distance, in less than a week, and still...no more training, no miles no nothing, he runs a 501 mile and is smiing throughout the whole race, he was not even tired at all....btw, he ran in skateboard shoes on a dirt track in 15 mph wind!....i would say kid's got some mad potential

[Beanfontaine]

coo coo. aight thanks for the responses.

[RunforFun]

not too shabby.

tell that fool to go out harder though, out in 2:41 and back in 2:21 is ridiculous.

good, but stupid. too much left over.

[watchout]

this isnt exactly a response to the question, but there's a freshman on my team who came out from football, never ran a full mile in his life, training or racing, cept maybe twice in pe....so basically he's run probably a total of 4 miles ever since 7th grade......and he comes out does some speedwork since hes a football guy, runs a 200 in 23 something, then runs a 400 in 56, and decides he wants to do distance, in less than a week, and still...no more training, no miles no nothing, he runs a 501 mile and is smiing throughout the whole race, he was not even tired at all....btw, he ran in skateboard shoes on a dirt track in 15 mph wind!....i would say kid's got some mad potential

Yeah, we have a whole bunch of kids like that at our school it seems. Only problem is, they all only run in PE because they aren't allowed to do sports. Damn Bymans/Jermus/Huhtas. One of those kids beats me half the time, anything above a 400, and I train a fairly good amount (and I'm a mid distance runner that also ran XC)

[None]

I ran 5:03 in 8th grade pe and I'm nothing special so I'd say he'd need some serious training.

[laxcrunner]

don't get the kid running 40-50 mile weeks his freshman to sophomore year
that's just bad for him, if he's never had a full summer of running in his life, build him up slowly, for young kids you're pushing it going 30-40, especially if he hasn't even hit puberty yet!

[XCdude24]

He could have a lot, It really depends. Like I stated in a previous post, there was a kid in our league who only ran about 20:00 for 3 miles but now(soph track) he's running 4:29.

[runneronfire]

He sounds kind of like a slower less-trained version of me last year. I was probably running 30 mpw throughout most of track season, with some harder workouts, but nothing really rigorous. I had just started hitting puberty and had a lot of growing left to do. I ran 4:33 1500(4:54 mile) and 9:45 3000 (10:30). Over the summer I grew a ton and did about 40 mpw and during xc ran a 16:46 5k. More training over the winter at about 40-45 mpw has led me to my current state with PR's of 4:16 1500 (4:35 mile) and 9:14 3000 (9:55) with about 3/4 weeks left in the season. So i'd say if he gets into training seriously he could do roughly what I did.