DiabloWags said:
So happy that your daughter enjoys the track!
In my experience of several decades of watching prep track and field, I would say that the 2:21 mark will be the first "test". After that, it will be the 2:15 - 2:16 area. And then sub-2:13
Last year at the State Meet, 2:12.72 was the final qualifier from the prelims into the Finals.
The cool thing about running track in your high school years is that as your body develops and gets stronger, you automatically improve and see your times drop.
But whatever you do, don't burn her out and allow her high school coach to run her in 4 events to rack up points for the team and over-extend her.
Keep it Fun!
DW, what a pleasant surprise. Thanks for chiming-in. You probably forgot, but we chatted several months back. We're down in Morgan Hill, near that animal shelter in San Martin, that you know very well... Heck, just fed our two cats we got from that facility!
As you might recall, she got hooked on running less than a year ago, an 8th grade track meet. She's been running since, trying to "catch-up" with the kiddos who've been running for years. As you'd guess, that doesn't come without injuries along the way, a hip last summer and the dreaded shin splint that had her miss most of her XC meets this past fall. Big wake-up call for her. She was 13 the day HS started, a young freshman, and her HS coach said, a lesson best learned now, as opposed to later. She takes warm-ups more seriously now, hits the weights and x-trains too; and probably most importantly, doesn't increase her volume so rapidly.
To be clear, it's not me pushing her. It's self-imposed. A wonderful trait, most of the time. Even her HS coach asked that I reel in that enthusiasm a bit. In retrospect, I should have done more. After her HS XC practices ended around 5:15pm, she wanted to join her former MS coach's club team which ran at 6pm on the other side of town. And if that was not enough, she'd sometimes have hoops practice (AAU) afterwards. With me driving her to these, I could have done more to limit such. Again, lesson learned, for her, me all of us.
I appreciate you noting those 800 times that often present challenges! Really curious how she does in spikes with competition pushing her. Speaking of events, she expressed interest in the 800, 1600 and 3200. She wants to do all three. Her coach was a bit reluctant, but said she'd support her. So, the coach will not be pushing her to do four…
You mentioned State, and that's a goal for her, at some point. Now that we look back at the XC season, the last qualifier spot in D3 was filled by a freshman, an impressive young runner. With the progression that she would have likely experienced by not having shin splints, it seems she might have been in contention at Crystal Springs for State. Suffice it to say, she's motivated for the next XC season. That said, she was surprised to have made CCS after having not run for 5 weeks! Some KT tape and a Tylenol helped her get a good enough time.
With her HS XC season over after CCS, her former MS coach mentioned USATF XC, and off she went! Joined USATF and made some deadline for a race up in the Redding area. She qualified for the next race near Fresno, the day after HS State, and did well enough to make USATF XC Nationals in Louisville, KY. We were so proud of her. She was still not 100% and her conditioning had taken a hit, yet she found herself in the Championship. What a great experience! She loves the running community. She's hooked.
Gosh, so much so, she told her HS AD, who is the girls hoops coach, that she won't be doing basketball. He was holding a spot for her while she was in CCS. She began hoops in 7th grade, and it had been her goal to make her HS team. She worked so hard to raise her game, tournaments all over the state, and in my opinion, the game was finally starting to come to her too. Fond memories now. After a heartfelt family discussion, with some tears, she told us she wants to focus on running, let hoops go. The main reason is that the overlap was more than anticipated, especially if/when she makes State in XC. She'd miss nearly a month of basketball season (cannot attend those formative practices until XC is done). And now hoops would be overlapping into student-led track practices and tryouts next week. That bothered her, a lot. She never misses practices, of any type. She's all-in on running.
Sorry for the long response. Sort of a proud Daddy... Regarding the 800m, I'll make it a point to post here if/when she gets to the next "test" of 2:21. I can't imagine she'd get there this season, but maybe her sophomore year…. She might be more a distance runner, just don't really know yet. A 5k race this Sat!
Thanks again DW.
Sig test...
