Long term coaching for young athletes with potential

Steadily build their aerobic base, with strides 3-4 times a week. Maybe a short tempo once a week later on, some long 5k paced intervals late in cross country, but not too much intensity. Mostly building their aerobic base till track season.

OK, these may not sound like pointers but I intend them that way.

First, the summer I was 14 I ran 90 miles per week entirely on my own accord. This made me a scorer on my team but didn't make me a world beater.

The summer I was 15, I ran my 90 miles per week at about 6:15 pace. Again still not a world beater but it allowed me to compete with the top 10 in my small but competitive state.

The point is if you are paying attention I doubt you can make a bad mistake. I knew nothing but got reasonably good and had a great time.

Next, in my neighborhood I know a national class 12 year old who ran more than 5 seconds faster than your 800 runner and more than 25 seconds faster than your 1500 runner. He does about 15 mpw.

This is not to discourage you just to give you an idea of how far you have to go.

I usually suggest this article by Pete Magill:

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/solving-5k-puzzle?page=single

But now Pete has a book out:

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Running-Body-Ultramarathoners/dp/161519102X

While 14 is normally an age at which one can start to look at specialization, I would still encourage another sport as a break from structured run training (assuming the kid has an interest).

I applaud you for looking at them as individuals. One thing to consider is where each kid is in terms of peak height velocity of growth (google it for a detailed explanation. You likely will get to Canada's LTAD page--well worth the time to read the information on it).

Here's the problem- if you train them for long term development they will not get as widely recruited by D1 schools as they should be.

I have a number of runners at D3 and "lower level" D1 schools who are better than other runners from our area who were faster than they were in high school and went to "bigger" D1 colleges.

It's all working out- they're getting/have gotten an education and three got pro contracts.

Thanks for all the input! My bigger athlete is also a talented hockey player. We usually take august off and have a 2 month cross country season in the fall (xc isn't very big in my area). He then takes Dec-Feb off for hockey season and is building up for track in march and ends in july.

My smaller guy is also in karate, but invests most of his time in running. We usually run from Feb-July and then take a few weeks off in august, then keep going until early november. He does Karate from Nov-Jan.

Workouts have so far gone well with both of them, but in terms of mileage, I had them both peaking at 50km per week. Their average mileage building up for track season was 35-40km with 1 tempo and a few short anaerobic sessions per week. Once track season was in its' final phase, I focused a lot more on speed endurance (200-400 intervals) for my bigger guy, and a bit more mileage (40 vs 30) for my little guy who seemed to thrive off aerobic-style training.

Would you think that I should up the mileage by a bit next year? Training young teens like them is quite new to me as I only began structured training by my 11th grade. Thanks!

If you get a kid from 2:45 to 2:15 you are doing just fine. Athletes at that level need help with goal setting but also with the concept of individualizing training.

Project ahead to the sort of runners you anticipate they will be and ask, what strengths will need to be there down the road? How are these strength developed in the context of keeping the athlete healthy and having fun in the sport?

At this level, a 6%/year drop is good progress.

I've not read Magill's training book but what I have seen of his training theory, his physiology is somewhat limited and or outdated. This is not surprising since most of what he read is also outdated.

If you want to be a great coach, read everything but work towards thinking for yourself. Hanging your hat on one ideology or another ultimately impairs the progress of your athletes since no two are exactly alike.

Focus should be on:

1. Pure speed sessions once a week

2. age appropriate strength training with someone who knows what they're doing

3. flexibility, esp quads, glutes and calves

4. maximum benefit from minimum mileage

Work out what training they need, don't count miles. I've seen a 14yo (and just turned 14) at about 5'7 and 115 pounds run 2.03 off about 15-20km a week, but smart kms.

runn wrote:

Here's the problem- if you train them for long term development they will not get as widely recruited by D1 schools as they should be.

Yes they will. The high school junior year is the only year that matters. If they are training at 14 and have the talent, they'll run recruitable times by their junior year. Long-term doesn't have to mean whey they're 30. At 14-17 they just need to keep running, keep improving, and not get injured or burned out.

I went through this with my son. He's a D1 jumper/decathlete, didn't do any track until 9th grade, and didn't train -- well, actually he was a basketball player and never did any track training. Anyway, very different deal from distance running, but I saw the process up close and what you do in 8th - 10th grade doesn't matter for college. Maybe if you're on the radar in 10th grade an injury junior year doesn't knock you out, but from what I saw it's all about the junior and less so senior year.

Looks like your athletes had big jumps! Good on them and you and steadily increasing the workload from year to year is always effective, as long as it is done gradually.