COROS NextGen: Sadie Engelhardt's Data-Driven Road to the Olympic Trials

In the world of track and field, few young athletes have made as significant an impact as Sadie Engelhardt. The 2024 season marked a historic year for this rising star as she focused her efforts on the Mile and 1500 meters. Along the way, she captured several major race victories and even earned her place at the US Olympic Trials.

Her journey wasn't without its challenges—which included the rigorous demands of racing almost every week. Yet, through it all, Sadie remained resilient, driven by a belief in her potential and supported by COROS' cutting-edge technology.

Watch: PACE 3 Retro Pack

Accessory: COROS Heart Rate Monitor

Analysis: Training Hub

A Preseason Breakthrough

Sadie's 2024 journey began with cautious optimism. Her sophomore campaign in 2023 had been successful, resulting in CIF and New Balance National titles in the mile. However, her times were similar to the year before. Knowing that progression was not a given, she trained hard in the offseason and during cross country.

Early in the year, before any major indoor races, Sadie ran a 1000m to test her fitness. The result was a major eye-opener to her true fitness and potential for the season. She dropped a 2:41, the 4th fastest all-time for high school. At that point, the thought of qualifying for the USA Team Trials went from a dream to a realistic goal.

With the focus on a qualifying mark, Engelhardt's season contained a lot of chasing the clock. At New Balance Nationals Indoor, she felt the pressure of winning expectations along with the need for a fast time. She handled it well, winning in 4:36, but knew she needed a better mark to make the Trials.

A week later, in a completely different environment, she ran the 1500 at The TEN, a professional outdoor meet. As a high schooler in a pro race, there were virtually no expectations. Looking back on it, Sadie says, "I went from the most nervous I've ever been to the calmest I've ever been in a week. And I think it was mainly just because there's not a whole lot of pressure on me to do something crazy in a pro race."

With the pressure off, Sadie Engelhardt took down the entire professional field, finishing in 4:09.7. Not only that, but she was one of the top Americans in the 1500 for the year. The qualifying window was open for another 2 months, though, so she knew she may need to go faster to stay in that position.

Leveraging New Data

Prior to this outdoor season, Sadie began using COROS. The PACE 3 provided cutting-edge technology, meaningful data, and a colorful style. "My first impression, I was super excited about the watch bands, and the variety", Sadie said. "Once I got the actual watch, I was pleasantly surprised with just how much data's on there. I'm super data oriented, very analytical."

Sadie viewing stats on her PACE 3 after a workout

Throughout her training, Sadie stayed attentive to her data. "I am always looking at my heart rate" she says. She also keeps a close eye on her intensity trend and training status. These two metrics show how your current training compares to your base fitness, indicating how well your body can handle your current load.

"I think those three things have been super helpful" Sadie says.

Building Confidence

After The TEN, Sadie started following a more typical California high school season. She built up to a key midseason invite, took a brief down period, and started her final build into the postseason.

"The season was a little different just because we were trying to get that time for the trials pretty early. I'm pretty sure we started doing Mile Pace in January" Sadie said. She and her coach replaced much of her early-season strength work with faster-paced workouts. One of these was a "Race Simulation" workout, where she completed 2 sets that each totaled to 1500m at race pace.

Sadie's Workout graph on the COROS App

The workout broke each set into 3 reps: 400, 800, and 300. Her rest was 90 seconds between reps and 5:00 between sets. Her pacing was impeccable, with splits of 65, 2:15, 46 for the first set and 65, 2:15, 47 for the second.

"Those 800s at mile pace are super tough" Sadie said. "Stuff like that, where I could do longer reps at mile pace, definitely gave me confidence. Doing it in practice made me feel like I could actually do that in races."

With that confidence, Sadie went a perfect 8-0 in the mile during her high school season, winning the CIF State Championship for a third time. Despite the successful season of racing, though, she still had work to do. Her time from The TEN had fallen off the qualifying list. Despite being one of the best high schoolers in history, Sadie Engelhardt needed to go even faster.

Sadie's season-long stats, with key race dates highlighted

COROS Note: Sadie's season graph does not include race data, so numbers trend downward during periods of frequent racing. When accounting for her races, Sadie maintained fitness during the postseason.

The Final Rally

Sadie and her coach had picked out three professional meets to make one last push for a qualifying mark. The HOKA Festival of Miles on May 30th, the Music City Track Carnival on June 1st, and the Portland Track Festival on June 9th.

"I seem to run my best times in June, so we just picked a couple races in June and late May" Sadie points out, "definitely wanted to put it all out there on those 3 races."

At HOKA, she split 4:11 for 1500 en route to a close runner-up finish in the Mile. Two days later, she ran 4:10 at Music City. While both were excellent performances, she had yet to better her early-season mark of 4:09.

A week later, she was competing against some of the best in the world. On the line with Sadie was former world champion Sifan Hassan, who is 14 years her senior. In her final chance, Sadie Engelhardt pulled off a 4:08.86.

"We actually were like, 50/50. We didn't know if that was gonna get me in or not" Sadie recalls. She would have to wait for the accepted entry list to know her ultimate fate.

Four long days later, she got a call from her dad. He told her two words she'll remember forever: "You're in."

At the Trials, Sadie described her experience as "a little chaotic." A new level of meet brought new challenges, but she settled in. "As soon as I got warming up and, got kinda grounded, I felt good."

In a packed stadium, Sadie got the full experience of the Trials. "We did a stride towards the start line, and, that was the most people I'd seen at Hayward in person" she remembers. "I think that was favorite part."

Sadie only competed in the preliminary round, but she will take the valuable experience with her into the future. "It definitely is something under my belt for the next Olympic Trials or USAs."

The future ahead certainly looks bright for this rising Senior. The NC State commit has one more year to continue rewriting the history books before moving on to college, and we can't wait to see what she has in store.

Sadie showing off her COROS gear

Sadie is a member of COROS NextGen, a program which aims to work with elite high school athletes as they push their boundaries as the next generation of distance runners in the U.S.

NextGen athletes have won over 25 state championships in 2024 as athletes across the country gain better insights into their training. Sadie's historic season is the perfect example of what COROS NextGen aims to accomplish. For any high school athlete chasing their best, go to www.coros.com to learn more on products, training tips, and insights from athletes of all levels.