>I was pretty happy with myself. lol. I've been fortunate to
>never pulled a hammy. especially since I pretty much never
>stretch. when I run after a stretching, I feel more fatigued.

I don't really stretch much any more either. The current stretching consensus seems to be dynamic stretching prior to a run and some light static stretching afterwards. But I'm sore and fatigued no matter what I do, so it's not like I follow that personally.

>cross country seems brutal to me. aren't
>all the races 5k? would you recommend cross country for those
>that run track?

Kids younger than high school run some shorter cross country distances, but basically yeah - every race at HS is going to be 5K(ish). I try to recommend cross country to the kids who are starting to get serious about track, but the good-ness of the idea really varies according to what event the kids are good at or interested in. A lot of sprint coaches get antsy about their runners doing anything long and slow, the idea basically being that the upside of additional endurance isn't worth the wear and tear on the body, and that you can get up-to-400m strong without running cross country.

I don't entirely agree with that, but mostly because it's pretty wide brush. True 100/200m types can successfully move up to 400m without the mileage of cross country, and a number of those might find a fall season running 5000m races leaves them a bit stiff and rickety when November and December comes around. Track doesn't have the same infrastructure for building hype around highschool talent as other sports, but they're definitely trying - and being able to run a hot time in December is now an expectation for a lot of high school kids.

All that said, my view is that most kids would profit from moving up at least one or two events, and if they continue onto college that's what's going to happen in a lot of cases. Most HS programs tend to stream kids to 400m and below or 800m at above, and that means the boundary of "sprint" for the former group and "distance" for the latter group doesn't get breached as often as it should. More 200/400 runners should seriously try the 800. More 400/800 runners* should seriously try the mile, etc. Cross country is a pretty decent, low-pressure way to find out if that kind of move is right for a young runner.

*I should add here though that one of the most interesting effects of the explosion of club track programs the last half-decade or so is that kids are trying a pretty wide diversity of events at a pretty young age. So the dynamic I'm complaining about may be changing.

>the practices can get real boring if I'm just waiting and
>watching. make the time go by faster once I'm doing my own
>thing. its sometimes cool to talk with the other parents, but
>don't want to do that every time.

Yeah dude. You're honestly a hero for this. We have parents come by and watch once and awhile and I'm *thrilled* that they're there because this isn't the sexiest sport in terms of highschool social capital, so if the parents are into it then the kids have a shot of being into it. But when they're around I can't help but think, "who would want to watch this?"

The answer appears to be: good parents who are helping make my job easier.

>I wish I could get mine do practice more with me during off
>times. I keep telling them how much better they'll be when the
>season hits if they get a head start. I tend to get up and go
>hella early. so they're like nah.

You are entirely correct. My team has a hellaciously terrible time running fast early in the season. I mostly coach distance runners and I have a pretty young bunch right now, so I more or less gave up the ghost on running fast times, early. But even our sprinters are terrible at it. No matter how good our team ends up, we are reliably garbage for the first 2-3 months.

But I see these kids from other programs who are ready to go and throw out some eyebrow-raising performances early, and it's like they get streamed into a whole separate set of runners. They get higher seeds in better meets, and the fast times just kind of unfold from there. The risk is that I've also seen some programs that are just red-lining their kids from December through Nationals in June, and it's about 50/50 whether those kids make it through the season uninjured. There is a nationally notable (set the highschool 4x400m and 4x200m national records last winter during indoor) sprint program in our conference, and they are... undeniably better than us. But they've often had to shut down their best runners because the wear and tear adds up.

That's a really extreme example though. You're absolutely right about getting a head start.

>yup, one of the few things to cling on to. my son will be
>doing more zooms with his team. that should be helpful. hoping
>they ramp those up since school is out. he's got to find
>himself. figure out which races he likes and good at. my
>daughter actually has pretty decent speed, but her high school
>coach is terrible. barley communicates and makes everyone run
>400s even when injured. I hoping she's at a new school next
>year. this coach has basically killed 2 seasons for her. I
>feel bad about it. that could be her way into college.

Ugh. That last part is frustrating to hear. Sorry about that. I'm a mixed bag as a coach, but the stuff that you're dealing with is the easiest stuff to get right and it sucks when coaches don't. Just talk to kids and parents about what events you think are best for their kid individually and the team as a whole, and be conservative about how you push kids to deal with discomfort/pain/injury.

Girls track is definitely a fruitful avenue for college. There's not a ton of money in the sport, so scholarships are scarce - but they're way more common for girls than boys, and because girls programs aren't as deep as boys programs - I'm always a bit surprised and impressed when one or another local girl that I'd characterize as "pretty good" rather than "fall over and die fast as hell" ends up going to run at a major program. Seems there are just ... fewer fast girls, so a fast girl is going to get more NCAA attention.

Jesus, this really got me going talking about track. How old are your kids? And what events are they interested in now?

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad