<p>hello, I'm a male sophomore, running track and cross country, and i am hoping to be recruited to run at either Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, or Yale. here's my general profile:
-4.0GPA going into junior year (took all honors courses fresh/soph years)
-in my highschool's highest band
-will be taking pre-calc and 3APs junior year(bio,eng,u.s.hist) and multiple APs senior year
-my grandfather attended Dartmouth (will this help in overall admissions to dartmouth?)
My strongest track events are the 1600m-4:38, and 800m-2:03. im hoping to greatly improve these times next year! any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
(as for cross country, i was injured sophomore year, so i will see how i do junior year) my last 5k was 17:40.</p>
<p>yeah, sorry to say, but those times won’t lift an eyebrow at any of these schools. i had a 4:30 and a 1:59.xx, and the penn coach didn’t even let me walk on (probably reflects poorly on the coaches themselves for not taking someone who’s decent with a real passion to keep running, but i digress). you will need probs sub 4:20, at least 1:56 (penn has a pretty good mid-distance program), and i couldnt quote an xc 5k…and probs sub 9:20 3200. try and use those as “guides”…ALSO keep in mind that if your grades/ECs are decent enough, they may gamble with you and not waste a recruiting spot if you may be able to get in on your own.</p>
<p>And I can speak for the cross country part…sorry man but a 17:40 5k is not nearly enough. As a high school runner, what would give you en edge in college admissions would be to get top 10 in the Footlocker or Nike Cross Country Nationals races where top runners get high 14’s low 15’s so if your real goal is to get into Penn or any other Ivy League college, I’d say your better off hedging your bets on academics.</p>
<p>thanks. but i’m only a sophomore so i can and will improve.</p>
<p>if you’ve been mainly running on your talent with low mileage, then such an improvement certainly is possible…otherwise not so sure it’s feasible. either way, make sure you get a lot of mileage in over the summer and don’t slack off…summer base mileage is what makes you the champ.</p>
<p>thank you. and i’m hoping what you say is right, because my mileage has been low! you have completely summed up what i’m doing! now that its summer, i am really stepping up my mileage and i have a feeling my times will shoot up in this important year. slacking off is not a problem. i’ve been doing about 6-8 miles a day, and i will be running even farther toward the end of summer. by the way, have you experienced “summer base mileage making you the champ”? any other advice would be great</p>
<p>yep my whole high school team could attest to it…2 xc state open championships out of my 4 years, top 3 in the state the other 2 years…many indoor/outdoor state titles as well with the distance bringing much of the points…our coaches’ philosophy was on big (relative) mileage…so it wasnt unusual for the varsity guys to have mileages around 70 during the majority of the season, and then we’d drop down when we peaked…over the summer some would go as high as 90…over the summer we ran a lot of doubles and a lot of tempo…very little speed work til the end of xc. but you have to listen to your body…two people with equal pr’s…one might be able to run 65 a week no problem, while the other would burn out at anything over than 50. it’s about miles, listening to your body, not taking days off til the end of the season, and a good pace…meaning you get your heart rate up, but you can hold a conversation throughout the entire run. speed is the killer.</p>
<p>what 3mile/5k times would that mileage typically result in? and does the mileage simply give you more endurance in the races? does the runner themselves notice it during the races? hopefully this base mileage will carry over into track, so i have a strong season.</p>
<p>WoW! Your 1600 m makes mine look horrible( best time is 6 min )Have you considered Princeton, i heard they did REALLY well last year in track.</p>
<p>times don’t correlate to the summer mileage you run…it depends on your talent, your previous mileage, dedication, pain tolerance, etc. your summer mileage will absolutely carry over into your track season as well as long as you don’t take off any days except for maybe 5-7 days after xc, and 3-4 after indoor. days off ruin your aerobic base. the mileage gives you aerobic strength</p>