8:00 pace for 50mpw... sub 16:00 5K

7/10

this could set some people off

I think the mentality of "easy days easy, hard days hard" is a great outline for productive training. Assuming your guy's current milage is the highest it's ever been, the 60-65 he will be going for is pretty high for most high schoolers, I wouldn't push both a milage increase and a pace increase on him at the same time. The high school cross country season is long and can be taxing on the body. He will likely be racing in early November, there's no reason to exhaust him or lay the foundation for a stress injury in July. Let him run at an easy pace that feels comfortable and just get the milage in for now, then work in the hills and workouts. At this stage in his running career, he will benefit most from quality workouts paired with relatively slow easy, aerobic running. Based on his PR's and target, his easy days should not be 7:15 at this point, but feel free to let him know that easy days do not need to feel like a slog, which is probably what 8:30 will feel like as he builds up fitness.

Why? I'll throw in there in the spring he was generally running all his runs 7:25-7:50 pace. Days after workouts he was running recovery runs at 8:10-8:30 pace. But everything esle was reasonable. He literally has no stresses this summer. Doing nothing but running and recovering. No real hard workouts to be beaten up from. One would think he would revert back to 7:25-7:50 pace on most everything.

Sounds like something you might just have to ask him about then, and ask about the change. You mentioned that it's been hot and humid so that might be why he's running slower for easy runs in the middle of summer than he was during the spring. He might be sleeping in then running around noon/early afternoon and catching the worst of the heat. If you get him to run early mornings or around sunset his pace will probably return to 7:25-7:50 like before.

Yeah personally I like to run after 9pm during the summer cause the heat really does make that much of a difference, after 9pm I can chill at sub 7:00 for my quality long runs but if it were at say 3pm I would be feeling it at 7:30 pace.

Nope. He runs early and late. Usually 7-8 am or 8:30 pm.

I actually think the issue is his natural state is to jog. But when he is with his teammates he runs a more honest pace with them.

To head off the question "why doesn't he just run with his teammates?". Well 1 is in camp. 1 is mia. 1 is just like him. Everyone else on the team (a handful of others) are not very good and are probably not running this summer.

Yes easy runs are the most important piece of training. Get him down to low 6s because that’s what some random calculators say. When he starts bombing workouts, get on his case to keep his easy runs quick. When he starts bombing races remind him that he’s still the fastest runner at practice. When he quits the sport completely after never improving then hopefully the AD can replace you

Then leave him tf alone.

If he feels comfortable at that pace, I'd say let him be, since you don't want to overexert him on the easy days and be fatigued on workout days. Either way, his aerobic gains from running slow will be marginally lower than running fast, so preventing fatigue and injury is more important since he'll be able to run more in the long term and be more aerobically developed.

You guys are idiots. You’ve clearly never coached anyone. Should this guy leave his kid alone if he was running 9:00 pace? 10:00 pace? 20:00 pace? Where does your arbitrary “let him be” stop and you tell him it’s time to train and not run or f around. We already know he is more than capable of running 7:25-7:50. We know he regulates himself after workouts if he’s tired. Right now he’s just being a lazy teenager getting by with the bare minimum. That’s clear.

Bottom line is most kids are lazy and don’t want to work. They’re probably not on Letsrun. So don’t get your panties in a bunch think I’m talking about you. I’ve coached multiple nxn teams and to be at a competitive level you’re running 60mpw, doubles and most runs are 7-8 pace. If he aspires to be great that’s what it takes. But f he wants to have fun and be fine… then 8-8:30 will do it. But there is no substitute for hard work. Going through the motions isn’t training to be great, which is what this kid seems to be doing.

50 mpw usually isn’t just “going through the motions”

Humidity is tough but his PRs suggest a faster easy pace would be better (2:08 800 is very slow compared to 9:45). I know someone who ran sub 16 off only 30 mpw and even less in summer - on a tough course too - but he was a low 1:50 / low 4:10 runner when it actually meant something. He doesn’t seem to have that talent so more mileage is needed