What Your Training Week Should Actually Look Like (by Event)

Stop Doing Everyone Else's Workout

The most common training mistake young athletes make is copying a workout that doesn't match their event — or copying a college athlete's program when they've trained for two years, not six. Your week should match (1) your event's demands and (2) your training age (how many years you've trained seriously), not your birthday. Always build this with your coach.

A universal principle from long-term athletic development research: develop all qualities — speed, strength, mobility, endurance — throughout your teens. There's no magic "window" you miss; broad development now is what lets you specialize successfully later.

Sprints (100–400)

2 speed / CNS days (acceleration and max velocity) with full recovery between reps — this is nervous-system work, not conditioning.
1–2 lifting days, placed on or near speed days.
Tempo runs for recovery and work capacity — never max effort.
Never stack two high-CNS days back-to-back. The 400 adds special endurance (lactate tolerance).

Distance (800–5000 / XC)

~80% of running easy (conversational). This 80/20 split shows up again and again in endurance research as more effective than grinding everything at "medium."
1–2 quality sessions: threshold ("comfortably hard") plus a small dose of faster work.
A long run that grows gradually — mileage spikes are a leading injury cause.

Jumps

Sprint speed is jump performance — train acceleration and max velocity as core work.
Plyometrics ~2–3×/week. Meta-analyses show plyometric training improves jumping, sprinting, and reactive strength when done ~3×/week over 7+ weeks — quality over quantity, full recovery.
Technical approach work while fresh.

Throws

Max strength + explosive power: squats, hinges, and — once technique is solid — Olympic-lift variants and medicine-ball throws (which research links to meaningful gains in throwing velocity).
High technical volume, kept crisp.

The Rules That Apply to Everyone

Warm up well; treat hard days hard and easy days truly easy.
Progress gradually — small jumps, week to week.
Keep total organized-training load sane (sports-medicine guidance: roughly no more weekly hours than your age, and don't go year-round in one sport with no break).