The Number of HS Track Meets

[ImInTheTruck]

High schools seem to attend a track meet every week during the season. Is this best for the ultimate success of the athletes? University coaches seem to think attending so many meets is disruptive to training cycles designed to prepare for the meets that count. Do high schools have too many meets on their schedules?

[Pitt]

High schools seem to attend a track meet every week during the season. Is this best for the ultimate success of the athletes? University coaches seem to think attending so many meets is disruptive to training cycles designed to prepare for the meets that count. Do high schools have too many meets on their schedules?

 

 

In my opinion, and I have been at this for a while, I have had more success with running meets every week. I have seen a gradual improvement for my kids if meets are done on a weekly basis. I'm not saying this is the best way but it has sure worked for me through the years. I have had state champions in the distance and the sprints.

[buckeyefan1984]

High schools seem to attend a track meet every week during the season. Is this best for the ultimate success of the athletes? University coaches seem to think attending so many meets is disruptive to training cycles designed to prepare for the meets that count. Do high schools have too many meets on their schedules?

 

 

Actually, I'm willing to say that some schools don't attend enough meets. Most of your serious track and field athletes need anywhere from 7-10 meets during the spring and possibly 4-7 indoor meets during the winter. The reason being is that your distance runners run almost year round, and an occasional meet (extra workout) keeps you in tune with how you are progressing. Kind of the reason why some have alright times in high school but get way better once they go to college. I was a 1:58 half miler in Gilmer back in 1984, but lowered that to 1:52 when I got to college. The meets were better and so was the competition. I was able to lower my mile time down to 4:20 because of the extra races due to the extra meets.

 

Guaranteed, I would put my money on a person who ran year round rather than someone who only ran in 3 or 4 meets because the feel of the race gets better the more that you run.

 

So that's my take on the subject. But don't take my word for it, just ask the most successful programs on how they do it, you'll see that there will be something common with all of them.

[ImInTheTruck]

Buckeyefan, You must be talking about universities running more meets. There's no way a HS around here could make 4 - 7 indoor meets. Are you recommending reducing training so runners can be at peek performance for each of these meets? Or, incorporating the meets into their training? If they are training properly, there is a period during the season when they will actually turn in slower times. If they aren't fatigued by their workouts(tired legs), they aren't getting the full benefit of training. Taper before the meaningful meets so they will be fresh. Depending on the runner, for HS, this will be before the district, region or state meet or maybe a big one during the season like the Texas Relays.

[buckeyefan1984]

Buckeyefan, You must be talking about universities running more meets. There's no way a HS around here could make 4 - 7 indoor meets. Are you recommending reducing training so runners can be at peek performance for each of these meets? Or, incorporating the meets into their training? If they are training properly, there is a period during the season when they will actually turn in slower times. If they aren't fatigued by their workouts(tired legs), they aren't getting the full benefit of training. Taper before the meaningful meets so they will be fresh. Depending on the runner, for HS, this will be before the district, region or state meet or maybe a big one during the season like the Texas Relays.

 

 

Actually, the bigger schools around Dallas are running indoor meets. Their runners run practically all year round with indoor meets, road races, and outdoor meets. Why do you think when the outdoor season begins, the 5A runners will already be running the mile in under 4:30? It's because they are actually training properly, instead of waiting until track season in order to start running. Again, as far as distance runners go, there aren't enough meets being ran. Most of the better distance runners actually use most meets as extra workouts instead of actual races because they are gearing up for the state meet. When the East Texas elite comes out in the beginning of the spring, just see how many runners will have slow times as compared to the guys who have been running the extra races.

 

Now granted, when I was running for Gilmer in the early 80's, we didn't have any actual "track" coaches. But when I ran across a guy who started Team Tortuga in East Texas (named Randy Spears), that was when I finally found out what distance running was all about. That there were different training workouts for different parts of the year, where you circled a specific date on the calender and trained for that date. It wasn't about being dead-legged, it was about getting the most out of your workouts and that being translated by the times that you were running. I went from being a 4:43 miler in high school to running a 4:20 on the roads. My first mile in a 5 mile race was around a 4:36 and still being able to run 4 more miles after that...

 

I could go further into it, but I don't really have that kind of time. The bottom line is that most of the distance runners in East Texas are poorly trained and are being coached by "football' coaches who simply don't know what to do. My hope is that some of the former East Texas runners who made something of themselves will come back to East Texas and train our new crop of runners properly. but really, I just don't see that happening since football is the number one sport there. I know that there are a few programs who have the proper coaches, always evident by the teams representing us in the state cross country meet...

 

But again, few and far in between.

 

 

 

 

[ImInTheTruck]

I always wondered where the name Tortuga came from. I know Randy and highly respect him and his knowledge of distance running. I didn't know he used to have a training team. What happened to it? With the Internet, there are training options available but its not the same as having a team to train with. Terry Jessup, in the Dallas, area offers Internet/email workouts (800, 1600, 3200 and XC). The team is the Metroplex Striders, www.dallasmetroplexstriders.com His runners are consistantly top finishers at the state meets. His girls hold many of the of the state records in those events.

[buckeyefan1984]

I always wondered where the name Tortuga came from. I know Randy and highly respect him and his knowledge of distance running. I didn't know he used to have a training team. What happened to it? With the Internet, there are training options available but its not the same as having a team to train with. Terry Jessup, in the Dallas, area offers Internet/email workouts (800, 1600, 3200 and XC). The team is the Metroplex Striders, www.dallasmetroplexstriders.com His runners are consistantly top finishers at the state meets. His girls hold many of the of the state records in those events.

 

Team Tortuga as far as I can remember was a running club set up by Randy himself because he saw that the kids in East Texas simply weren't being trained properly. Before I hooked up with him, I was just another run of the mill kid who knew nothing about the sport and couldn't understand how some of the other kids were better than me. They had more ability than me, but I had heart. The problem was that I didn't know how to channel that into successful times which was evident by my 800 time of 1:58 and mile time of 4:43. But after hooking up with Randy, my times dropped dramatically and I even became successful in the much longer distance races. Now as far as what happened to Team Tortuga? I've been gone from Gilmer since 1990 (military, and now living in Louisiana) and haven't kept up with the guys, but I know that distance running in Gilmer has taken a huge hit because none of the times are anywhere near what we had when we were training with Randy.

 

Now I've heard of the Metroplex Striders, and know exactly why they're so successful. Running to those guys and gals are year round, which is the reason for their success. But the advantage that the Dallas Metroplex has over East Texas are numbers. When you have something successful, you have a following, and that following has younger siblings who want to continue the tradition...

 

Something that most East Texas programs simply don't have. Now that is not to say with proper motivation and coaching that it can't happen in East Texas again...

 

We just need some of the more successful East Texas runners like Damon Martin(Longview), Richard Cooper(Lindale), Brian Absolom(Whitehouse) just to name a few, to come back and get it kick started once again. Until that happens, I just don't think that it will happen any time soon.

 

Speaking of Randy, is he still training student athletes?