High School Running

Question
I am going into my senior year of High School, I am extremely competitive and driven in varsity soccer and alpine ski racing. After several eventful years of playing golf, I have decided to take up cross country as a fall competitive sport. I came to this decision after running a 5k race in about 21 minutes without ANY training. I weigh 165lbs and I am just over 6ft tall. I want to be running with the top state runners going into the fall, so I have started my own exercise program by running 9k six days a week. Is this enough to put me in the 17 minute category come fall? If not, how should I amend my work/ diet?

Answer
Hi Michael
I always feel anything is possible if some one is willing to work hard and stay focused on a realistic schedule.It would probably take another year before you could be running in the 17 area,but the only way to find out is just work hard and the results will surface.I would contact your school coach and ask him to put a real well rounded schedule together for you since he is the one that will be working with you.What your doing now is good but you will need a lot more variety with your workouts.


All the best

John