Since the last several posts in the sports topic have been updates from me about track, I decided to make a track topic.

Of course this is great timing, as the Spring season ends for us JV runners on Tuesday with the Novice Championship. This is the only meet where the JV part of the team makes any difference. The coaches showed that they don't care about JV in the slightest by canceling the Sophomore Championship last week, just so the handful of sophs who are on Varsity could rest for the league meet. :angry:

Ah, so the cult makes its entry onto the forums. :ph43r:

My team had a track meet today - my team versus the smallest school in the county. Eight kids were disqualified and we still beat them.

I placed first in every single event I had. In the 100 meter my time was anywhere from 11.34 to 11.71, the times my coach and the timer gave me respectively (I'd believe the coach's time because I really was smoking their runner).

In the 200 meter I had an average time of 23.6, yet still placed first! Not my best or worst, but still not that great overall. I once got a 22.6 in the preliminaries of a meet (check this link if you don't believe me) and I also got a 22.2 as a split, but we all know to never trust splits! I doubt the accuracy of both times actually.

Our relays were slapped together at the last moment, but again, still beat theirs. I suppose that's what happens when you go against the smallest school of your county.

My coach says I'm the least muscular sprinter there is, in fact, he wonders how I am so fast. This summer I was practically ordered to hit the weight room all summer long so I finally would look like a sprinter and probably perform far better than I already am.

Just remember to be dedicated and you'll probably do something good at worst when you're a senior. :P That's what I tell everyone.

The Novice Championship, the last meet of the season for JV, was today. I tied my PR in the 100m at 13.0. I also PR'd in the 200m at 26.4, a full second faster than what I got the meet before! This is the only meet that Ridgewood lost, because there were 25 teams here and was JV only. We finished the regular season ranked 1st in the state, sweeping all the dual meets, County Relays, and the NNJIL Championship. This was actually the best track season in the school's history! B)

First day of Winter Track. Much better first day than last year's. I'm in much better shape compared to this time last year. We've lost a few good runners, but we could still pull off a number 1 ranking again. Most of the old team has been replaced with an army of Frosh, but they will all be weeded out by Christmas break. :P

The stock of Juniors is almost completely dry this season. Of course myself and the few remainders would gladly fill in for all the varsity juniors lost. C'mon, coach, you know you want to... :rolleyes:

Interesting. Indoor track started Nov. 15th for me. I did Cross Country for endurance training before that, and we had made it to the state meet. I have placed 45th in the state 1A division which is damn good for a sprinter (in fact, I think I was the only sprinter there). That apparently puts me about 180th overall (they only list the top 20 overall from what I know). Our team pulled off an unexpected third place in the state 1A division, thanks mostly to our great foreign exchange student Bastien.

I've now downgraded to sprints, which is much appreciated. 3 mile courses are unnecessarily painful.

The 300 meter event this year should be easy. The guy who consistently tied with me is injured (we both were ranked #4 in the county last year). The #1 and #2 ranked people are injured, but less severly, and both are senoirs. #3 last year was a senior. This year may prove to be the easiest ever for me. :rolleyes:

The 300m was my favorite race. Until today, when we ran 7 of them and I realized how much speed I've lost over the summer. Then again I did not use my optimal speed, because with 7 3s that would be a waste of energy to use in even one of them. Anyway, I usually appear to suck in practice [I run a full 5 seconds faster in a 2 during a meet] but that is only because we run them over and over again. I am built to run one race and go all out in it. Niyt endurance.

The team is in serious trouble. Next year, we will have less than 20 juniors and seniors, also losing nearly the entire Varsity team when the current seniors leave. Losing loads of top runners plus not having enough to replace them spells bad news for our 1st ranked team. Kinda like the current situation in Soakerdom: Lost Vets and few to replace them.

We do have over 50 Frosh, but they will be mostly weeded out by Christmas, leaving a ghost team to defend a number one ranking and wins in big meets. :(

^ I used to run track just for the exersise. I had to stop after just 1 year because the schedule got to crazy. I wanted to do summer track to prepare for football, but that didn't work out so I did neither track or football. Like yourself I am a one run person. 100's and 200's were my specialty, I didn't want to do more than that because I didn't have the endurance for it. B)

I think the "I am a sprinter and don't have endurance" excuse is all too common. You do have endurance. Most endurance is a mental thing. I went from 400 meters maximum previously to three miles at Cross Country. I still performed fairly well after realizing that most of your endurance comes from your mind. I am now back to sprints, but one thing I learned was the getting tired was part of the game. You will get tired and you should accept that and take advantage of it. Where others stop is where I begin now. I am the only member of my team who is told to slow down at practice because I might injure myself. That's where I stop. I may not be genetically set to win like a lot of people I'll go against, but I certainly know I am trying the hardest.

Then again, during Cross Country our coach did use my as an example to some people who complained they were tired. Just imagine hearing something like "You see that guy there? He has the 55 and 300 meter school records and still runs Cross Country..." Very funny situation. I am convinced that I will continue to be an example even after I graduate simply because he's said that so often. They also have said that I am fair game to be put in anything from 55 to 2 mile if our team needs it at any meet...

Your team is huge Duxburian. We have our largest indoor track team of all time this year with maybe 35 people, boys and girls combined. Our Cross Country team also was the largest ever at 25 people, again both sexes. I think our spring track team last year had around 40 people around Regionals last year (though I believe about 70 people total signed up). Your school must be several times larger than ours to make a valid complaint like that, but I believe it. If you're worried, do some scouting like I did. Get people who you know are fast but don't run track to join. This year my friends brought in a senior who is about as fast or faster than I am and we're going to easily have relay records this year with him. Of course, you won't always be successful (I couldn't get our top 10 ranked Cross Country runner to join), but you will at least pick up a person or two.

My school has 1500 students. The Winter Track team tends to start out at around 100 members, dwindling down to about 40 by the middle and end of the season. In most years the membership by grade follows a normal distribution, but this year it is stacked on the Freshman and Senior ends with virtually no Juniors and Sophomores. We are in a division with other large schools and therefore need depth to win meets. A handful of great runners won't cut it.

I'm best at the 55, 100, 200, 300, and 600. I could build up endurance without much trouble, but I also lack strength and power. I can draw upon only natural speed which will give me enough energy for short races [or medium races with slower paces like the 300 and 600].

Guys...I suck at track..I run 10 minute miles...but then again I have asthma...

Yep, 1500 definetly is larger than my school and perfectly explains the size of your team. We've got less than 900 students total, I believe 893.

Well...I run like 7-10 minute miles depending on how much energy I've got. I was never meant to run distance and never will be good at the Mile. Or the 400 for that matter. It is really strange that I can do 3s and 6s quite well, yet die in 400s.

People generally think the mile is a lot harder than it actually is. In practice the other day I ran about a 6 minute mile with ankle weights on. The only thing I do for distance is keep a constant pace. Do not slow down ever and you will do fine. Usually I pace with someone else I know is better than myself as well.

I used to be a lot worse, in fact before Cross Country my best mile was about 7:10. During the 3 mile courses I ran 5:50 miles for the first mile later in the Cross Country season. I am sure that I could run a lower 5 minute mile with relative ease. The only thing you have to do is not slow down. Remember too, I am only fairly good at Cross Country... those times are all too common really. If everyone who ran track (sprinters included) also did Cross Country with improvement and effort in mind, they would really seriously stop complaining about running something slightly longer than they were used to. (just trying to hint to people who don't do something in the fall should try Cross Country)

If I did it without slowing down I'd get an asthma attack and die.

Your very good then, but there is this kid at my school (middle not high school) that ran a mile in 5:35. I assume his time wouldn't have been much worse if he had been wearing ankle weights. B)

How do you guys run it so fast...tell me!

It's all mental as someone ^above said. You just need to push yourself mentally. Your body won't break down like your mind is telling you it will. I don't know about you guys, but when I run long distance (2 or more miles), I go into kind of a numb zone, where you really don't feel anything. It's kind of like cruise control for your body. Of course it all catches up to you at the end. :lol:

Hmm...That happens to me too...but I usually take it as a warning to stop...

When I try running distance [well anything longer than 600m is a distance run to me], I lose energy gradually. Although it is mostly mental, a lot still depends on how used to distance running you are. In practice, I sprint. In meets, I sprint. On my own, I sprint. When there is a rare distance run...crap! I actually do know quite a few people who are best at an odd combination like 55m and 800.

Then again it is five days into this season, I shouldn't be judging myself on what I've done in the past 5 days.

I still need help on my running...guys...you are the experts lol...

Just run as often as possible, and work on the particular runs you want to get better at [run miles if you want to get better at miles]. Workout too, get in the weight room at least 3 days a week.

My friend and I are keeping track [no pun intended] of the amount of distance we cover in sprints. We've done a total of 5340 meters so far, which is low because there has been snow on the track and we don't count runs on the streets or inside. Last year's total [Winter and Spring] was over 5,250,000 meters. That's a real shitload of running, so @Hunter, if you want to improve, you'll need to do some serious work... :ph43r:

Oh boy...suddenly I don't feel like trying to get better. :P jk jk

We ran 12 200m sprints today. 12. The most we have ever run in practice. The distance runners have done 22, but they don't count because that is distance.

No track Friday! Instead I will probably be crawling around in a dusty bomb shelter looking for a tunnel... :ph43r:

We have a meet on Tuesday where I am running a varsity 55m, since this meet has a "Sophomore" category instead of a "Novice" category and I am a Junior. It is funny because varsity sophomores have to run as that instead of varsity! :P

One of my friends cut yesterday, so he doesn't know about this and I plan to inform him at the latest possible moment [like on the bus or right before the race]. :rolleyes:

Oh, I almost forgot, I had a meet last week. It was Freshmen and Novice only, since the Varsity team had been at several meets that week already. That was easily my best meet, probably ever. I beat everyone on the team in the 55m and the 200, which never happens. I also reached the Semi's in the 55m for the first time, a huge feat considering the 60 other huge schools of competition at the Armory that day. From 7.8s 2 weeks ago, my 55m last week was 7.3 in the trials and 7.2 in the Semi's. I didn't reach the finals because the other runners really didn't belong in Novice with their 6. somethings. My 200 time was 26.6, .2 off my PR.

One of my friends missed our school record in the 55m by .10 of a second for the 5th time in a row! How demoralizing is that! As if that's not enough, he also has missed the school record for the 200m by .10 of a second twice. :P

I had a meet yesterday. We beat our school's 4x2 record by 2.5 seconds. My split was the usual 23.7, so it was the rest of the people that really pulled their weight. We've got the race on video and I think I might post it because I really thought it was a good race. This was the regional meet and we got an unexpected third and even met the qualifying time for the state meet. We also qualified in the 4x4, which I didn't really expect either.

I sure wish we had a school record for the 200 or 400. We only have school records for the 300 and 500 in indoor, and we only run the 200 and 400 at one meet per year. My brother once got 0.1 seconds away from the 500 record (that's demoralizing!). Luckily, he has one more chance to beat that record at the state track meet. I already have the 55 and 300 records (the 55 record being set once last year - I don't think I got it in reality).

Our list of records includes the strangest races, like the "Walking Mile" and old races in yards which are no longer run. Our 55 and 200 records have stood since 1971, although my friend thinks he's been cheated of them [when you miss a record by .10 5 times in a row, you would get that impression too :P ].

We only run the 300 at one meet indoor, but the 200 and 400 are at just about every meet. I am not a 400m runner, so I generally avoid that at all costs. I would be awesome at a 600 because I sprint the whole thing, but we never run them anywhere. :( We've never run a 500 before, not even in practice. :blink:

Oh, I almost forgot to mention it, our first meet of the Spring Season was today. I ran in a 4x200m relay, and my time was a 26 flat. Not bad for the first meet of the season. Plus, since I led off, that was a real 200. My time would have been faster if I had been running a different leg and if the 2nd runner hadn't of botched the handoff. We had a random frosh and the slowest Soph, so there was no chance at a medal. Despite that, we still placed 2nd in our heat and 13th overall in time. [out of many, many teams]. Both Mike and I pulled off 26 flats which helped balance out the 30 and 31.6 of the others.

This is mainly directed at Ben: How big are your meets? Our non-dual meets in the Spring have about 27 teams in them, while all of our winter meets have at least 50, sometimes 60, teams total. The Spring dual meets are usually against 2 other teams and we have a history of killing them in those meets. The most we've won by was 126 to 12. :lol:

Last meet was about 15 schools I believe. Indoor track had up to 30 schools at a time however, but any more schools would have made the small indoor track very uncomfortable.

Our team kicked some major ass today! We beat both Paramus and Paramus Catholic by over 40 points each in today's dual meet. My friend earned his first Varsity points by running a 56.3 on an amazing 4x400m relay team.

I ran my first individual 400 ever in 61.0, not bad for my first. People say I started too fast and let a like 50m lead melt away when I died 3/4 of the way through. :lol: I came in second, 5 seconds behind the same friend. If I had any kind of endurance, I could have gotten a Varisty time in that 400...awww...

Ironically, I started my 200 too slowly. I passed everybody by the end of the turn, no need to speed up. I did then because I suddenly realized that I needed to run this for time rather than place. I was first by a lot, but only got a 26.8 in time. At least I now know what it feels like to win a good race easily. Up until now, was not a familiar feeling. I'm getting a lot better this year, more than ever!

The 400 is my favorite race at the moment, so I'll give you a few tips. ;)

This year actually was the first year I figured out the 400. During indoor, I ran the 300 and 4x400 completely incorrectly. I ran them like a 200 - near full sprint the entire duration of the race! Needless to say, you hit a wall with that strategy. My 300 was good because I hadn't slowed down substantially yet, but my 400 was torture and I barely broke 60 seconds in most of the early meets.

The way to run a 400, at least for me, is to keep a consistently fast pace. Do not attempt to full sprint the entire 400 because you won't be able to (and if you can, then you won't need to take my advice). With this strategy, you'll at least keep up well with everyone else, and you'll have plenty of energy to kick it on the last 150 meters. Pacing yourself is the only problem here because you will wonder which pace is correct for you. I'm still trying to figure that out for myself.

At the indoor state meet's 4x400 race, after recommendations from my spring track coach, I got the strategy working with an acceptable time for the state meet (55.4? I don't remember well). Several weeks later, I improved my strategy yet again with a 53 in gym class (the gym class record is 52.7 and they didn't expect anyone to come close, so they only gave the times in one second increments). Yesterday, I got about 52.5 in our 4x4 relay, but I don't trust split times very much (and for the record, I'm not the fastest 400 runner on our team). They usually put my brother in open 400 anyway, so I never have a chance to run a real 400.

The 400 is a weird race. There are a lot of people who think it is the hardest race around, and for that reason they don't run it. I used to think that until I got my strategy correct. In fact, I haven't hit the wall since I got my strategy correct, which only makes me think that I am not trying hard enough yet.

My goal by the end of the season is to get 51.0 in the 400... hopefully I'll be able to do that.

Yeah, I came out in a full sprint for the first 300m and then died on the final straightaway. That would have been an amazing 300, but I couldn't keep it going for 4. My 5 second lead vaporized at the end. I was in lane 6 too, which always presents me with pace problems, regardless of what the race is.

My main problem with longer sprints is that I was not blessed with endurance, nor with strength. I've been mostly relying on natural ability to get through these races, since I lack just about everything else. Since I can match my friend's 200 and 100 times, and he can lift at least 50 pounds more in every lift than I can, that's pretty good. I am made for using a short, but explosive batch of energy in a single race, then taking 5-30 min to recover. Practice has taught me to conserve energy in order to get through all the sprints with respectable times, and that's not good for when I come to meets. I was way too lax during my 2 the other day.

I used to have no endurance, but that was before Cross Country. Interesting thing is that I gained 10 - 15 pounds during the Cross Country season, which obviously was completely muscle. Half the Cross Country team was there to lose weight, so I find it funny that I gained a significant amount of weight. I ran 90% of the practices and one meet with ankle weights, so my weight gain wasn't too unbelievable. Recently in gym class I ran the mile in 5:08, which is pretty great for a sprinter (in fact, it puts me ahead of everyone else on our team, mainly due to our lack of a standout miler). That time also caused the coaches to put my brother on the mile, but he hasn't done much better than that at the meets yet.

The amount of weight you can lift actually doesn't matter much with sprinters, at least in my experience. Mathematically, I am the weakest sprinter on the team. As of the last time we did maxes in gym, my bench is only 155 pounds, my cleans are terrible at 130 pounds, and my dead lift is 290 pounds. The one lift I excell at is squat, where I lift a nearly good 355 pounds (which got my 10th overall in the gym classes!). Even still, there are two sprinters on our team who squat 100 pounds more than myself, yet they still are much slower. Obviously I have the right type of muscle for sprint work, as you likely do too.

Work harder at practice and you should improve your recovery time. Last year I had largely the same problem. I would get tired after running a 200! After Cross Country, lots of weight room, and working hard at practice, I barely am winded after running most races. My times haven't improved much, but I am far more comfortable when running.

Had a meet two days ago. Ran the 100m and 200m, won both races with pretty substantial leads. Shortening my stride evidentally helped! 12.5 for the 100, 26.5 for the 2. My goal in the next meet is to improve on that 12.5 and try to run my way into a Varsity 100, since that's my best chance as of now.

I sprained my ankle a week ago, but that didn't stop our team from winning both the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. I'm hoping that we can get the school record in both, but that's not likely. To get the school record in the 4x200, we'd need better hand-offs and also need everyone to be as fast as I am (given I am the team's best 200 runner). To get the 4x400 record, we'd have to take 2 seconds off each of our splits, which I actually intend to do, but I'm not sure about the capabilities of each of our runners.

The funny thing is, thusfar I am #1 in the county for the 100 meter and #2 in the 200 meter. This was only the result of the top two people not running it yet for whatever reason and the third guy being injured. I'm sure that it won't last long. <_<

I had a meet the other day, finally got to run in a Varsity race! I have really improved in the 100m, given that my 12.1 was .5 faster than in the previous meet! In such a short sprint such as the 100m, that's a huge jump. My 200m isn't worth mentioning since I'm still stuck in the 26s.

A graduate of the school came back to help us train. Not only does he still hold several of our sprinting records, but he also runs professionally on the US Olympic Team and his workouts blow away our old ones. It is most likely because of him that I did so well in the 100. :rolleyes:

Sounds good. Hopefully you'll be getting into the 11s soon. When I got into the 11s, I jumped 0.7s from last year! I haven't got too much better since that time, but I don't really need to.

Recently my team has taken a hit with a major member becoming injured. I'm under the impression that he'll be better soon, but to be honest I do not know if that is the case. Due to his absesnse, they've been switching me up on events. In fact, I'm now essentially a permanent member of our 4x800 team (and I still have to run the 100 which typically is the next event). It seems that I'm good at most any running event for our team, though I don't seem to stand out too much. Whatever I do, I'm consistently what would rank as maybe 5th or 6th at a larger meet.

I also ran a 51.9 in the 400 at a small dual meet, which puts me closer to my goal. That's pretty good for never running the open 400. Too bad they took me off the 4x400 to put me on the 4x800... I don't care if it's a rule, I'll run 5 events.

Today was the Novice Championship. I ran the usual 100 and 200, and PR'ed in both of them! 12.0 and 25.6, which beat the unusually fast [for me] seed times I was given. Funny thing is that I ran the 200 with a quarter in my shoe. Earlier I bought a drink and put the quarter change in my shoe sack. The coin must have slipped into my spikes and I didn't notice until halfway into the 200! :rolleyes: Plus, the guy blew the first whistle while I was still adjusting the blocks... :angry: So not bad for a distraction and a bad start.