Running the 1600/800/3200 in same Meet

Why? If all the races are competitive, it’s a bad idea. When I ran, people would sometimes run that triple, but it was always in dual meets.

Make sure he gets sugar and electrolytes between the races. Some light walking to keep blood flowing through the legs should help. Mostly it's on whether his training prepared him to triple or not.

The ONLY reason a coach should do this at a Regional meet is that:

1) the field is soft and he knows it wont take a big effort to qualify for state, then your son can pick what he wants to concentrate on at the State meet.

2) The coach wants the team to win the meet, and he thinks he can nab some nickel and dime points by having your son in events where he might not win, but he can place and pick up some pts.

Thanks. He has been training to do this, and ran all 3 for Conference last week but had stomach issues which seriously affected his performance

That 3200 is going to be brutal. I’d make sure he is well hydrated the day before and has ample carbs in his system. Maybe carb load like it was a half marathon. Don’t over do it though because need a bathroom or being bloated won’t help. Personally, I think he should take another gel right after the race that is before the 3200.

Our area has the 800 last so you see a decent number of triples from distance based kids who don’t care about the 800 but figure why not.

hack coach. the name of the game is keep progressing towards state in your best events. in your best events with limited work you stand your best chance of advancing and netting the most possible points per event. which benefits the athlete and the team.

you spread the athlete thin you risk they blow up in one or all and both quit advancing and get few or no points. you're making illness excuses but you just said you tried the same thing a level down and got poor results. but let's try it again with even better kids from the whole region.

mile and 2 mile is usually the most we did where i came from but i also think we had a rule treating that as the equivalent of maxing out. like if you did the distance pair that was the equivalent of 3 running. probably to avoid precisely this kind of nonsense.

the points math idea is confused. the idea is to keep advancing. keeping advancing usually requires finishing high enough you reap points for it. so what keeps your kid progressing also chases maximum points. spreading them thin risks they advance in fewer things and get lower finishes -- when they blow up. and when that happens either they don't make state or they net out fewer points than you hoped for regionals and state.

no, common sense is you set them up in their best event or two, their best chance at 10, have them fresh, get your best finishes to try to keep progressing, and that gets you your points.

re nickle and dime, throwing the kid in another event locally might help with the team meet, but it's one more race on their legs for the following weeks. do you need a few more points locally that bad? and then one usually chases penny points with kids who have no hope of advancement. great he chipped in that 1 point in LJ, every one helps. but if part of the idea is team finish and progression towards state, one carefully manages the ones who can get high points and advance, or they quit going and you're done, progression and team.

re flexibility, a good coach might try you across a few things during the season but the idea is figure out which events to chase money on the table. this is refusing to make a decision, or getting greedy.

There are a lot of states and classifications within states where a good athlete would easily qualify for and even medal in all three events. For those two weeks only, the triple may well be to the student's competitive interests.

I agree that at this time of year you should be racing in your one or two best events, preferably just one IMO BUT..... we do not know the context of this race. There are some regions in my state where a talented kid could qualify with a very average effort, there are some where if you dont bring your A+ game you are toast.

And to answer your question, YES at a regional or state meet one or two points can be very important. IF the coach is wanting a team title, some teams push this more than others.

I recently had a young athlete run those 3 events at Nationals and it did include 800m heat but thankfully all events on different days.

Leading up to race the last 5 days looked like this:day 5 rest day 4 10min threshold +4×200 day day 3 jog day2 off day 1 preface.

Hopefully his best race is first. He will be shattered before 3200. Easy movement cut warm-up for 3200

Not sure why the coach is tripling him I wouldn't recommend it

Good luck

OP, I think it is important to know whether your son is a threat to win any of these events (or all)? Also, is he a threat to qualify for States in any of these events (or all)?

My daughter just did this triple at Regionals last weekend and was fine, but she knew she was not going to win any of the three regardless (solid D1 P5 commit senior ahead of her in 1600 and 3200 and 800 is the weaker event of the 3). She was able to qualify in the 1600 and 3200 and score in the 800.

If she would have been going for the win in any of the 3, her coach would have just told her to stay out of the 800 and focus on the longer races. She was not worried about missing a qualifier in the 1600 and 3200 unless she had a total blowup, which she did not. I guess she didn't need to run the 800 but she gave her team some points and that is why they're out there, right?

At the end of the day, have him stay out of the sun, hydrate, and he'll be fine. It is roughly 5k of racing. Not a marathon. Stay loose, jog in between, a few hard strides before/after each race, stay in the shade, and don't eat anything stupid (no big subs after the 1600, for instance). Stick to a good sports drink and bananas, etc. This is when the old school Powerbars reigned supreme, LOL!!!! :)

I never said anything about trying different things a level down and wasn't making excuses about an illness either. He had stomach problems in two Meets, one when he ran just the 1600 and 3200 and one that he ran those and the 800 . . . We think we figured out that he ate something that didn't agree with him, that he didn't eat before or at other Meets!

He will most likely be Seeded in the top 3 in both the 1600 and 3200, probably Top 10 in the 800. I am trying to convince him to only do the 2 races, but he has his mind set at doing all 3 for some reason. Thanks for the other advice though!!

He has been training for all 3, wish he was doing just the 1600 and 3200, know he could place Top 3 in both of those, but he has his mind set on doing all 3 😕

Does he have to run all 3 to run all 3 at states in your state? There really is no "recovery" between events. That takes a few days. But as others have said, the best you can do is cool down and warm up each time. Keep some glucose going-gatorade whatever is easy on stomach. Just cut it well before next race. Technically, you dont use up all your glycogen even running that many races. Marathon, yes. But anecdotally keeping some nutrition going in easy digestable form seems to help. Especially remember to cool down. Don't sit on the ground for a half hour after the fist race.

As a father, you have the right to veto the triple. If you tell the coach that you don’t want your son to run all three, he’ll honor your request.

My son just told me tonight that he will be running the 4 x 800M instead of the 800M, and the 1600M and 3200M . . . This is so much better for him, he will have more then an hour to recover between each race, and should be in good condition to qualify for Sectionals in all 3!!

He'll be running the 4 x 800M instead of the 800M as well as the 1600M and 3200M, big relief to me, he'll have well over an hour between each event to recover. Thank you for all the advice, it is appreciated!!

At the Idaho state meet Friday and yesterday they were five divisions, so ten total chances for a kid to win each of the 800, 1600, and 3200.

Four did it.