After four days of practice with my cross-country team, we are making plans for our first "practice" race. I have already had several discussions about how far it should be, how fast, and even what to call it. One of my colleagues has a mild objection to the phrase "time trial" as that could be intimidating to new runners, creating unneeded stress for kids who still don't have a feel for running, let alone racing, 3 miles.
This reminds me of a point that Peter Martin made frequently: 5K is not a good racing distance for many H.S. runners, especially girls. Specifically, it is too long, leading to a kind of defensive approach to racing in which the runner doesn't really get a chance to run quickly or think strategically.
I find myself thinking the same thing as I try to plan the early season runs and workouts for my team. The biggest challenge is to create conditions under which my runners feel positive about running at a faster-than-normal-training-run pace. I want them to form an association between running fast and feeling satisfied with the level of effort. For many of my less experienced runners, 5K is far too long to really run fast. If they try at the beginning, they'll be staggering in the middle.
Ideally, I'd like them to race for about 14-15 minutes. That seems like long enough to really test the aerobic capacity, but not so long that it fosters bad habits of slowing dramatically in the middle of a race.
I know the argument that XC isn't track, and the longer distance gives some kids a chance to shine that they wouldn't otherwise have. But as i think about it, that really only applies to pretty good runners who don't quite have enough speed to excel in the 2-Mile. For pretty good runners, 5K is fine, and I have no objection. But for all the beginners, 5K -- 25-30 minutes is overdoing it.
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2 comments:
Jon,
I think 5K is a pretty touch race for a 9th-10th grade girl, but it's inevitable that most good ones have to run it more often than not. It's almost too bad we dont have freshman teams with separate schedules in HS like other sports do, and race them at 3 or 4K. It might limit the tempation to jump decent freshman up into longer races.
Jon -
I agree with you. I have been influenced by Russ Ebbets at the USATF certification program. He claimed that Shen had a great advantage in having a flat 2.5 mile course.
I think we forget that 5k is relatively recent as the distance. Back in the 80's, I ran only a handful of 5k's and lots of 2.6s. I wonder if we are so data driven these days that 5k means something.
In the catholic conference, there is a tradtion of freshman XC - and they always race 3k or lower. I remember winning my first race in 8:37 in 9th grade.
Bill Callahan
Brookline HS (retired)
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