How is this schedule for a 14 year old boy wanting to train for the 800.

No no can answer this question with certainty. You are dealing with an individual. He may or may not respond to that training.

Also, we know very little about the runner.

Training is not just plugging info into a spreadsheet. You have a person on the other end.

Not enough speed work. need some 200s and 400s and a few 600s in there too.

Plyometrics should be integrated too.

He's old enough to run 6 days a week.

Running more than 30 minutes won't hurt his speed.

He's old enough for a long run (like 7 miles) and needs it to be good at the 800.

Why put the AM/PM thing in? He doesn't double a single time. He just lifts once.

He should lift more than once.

Hope he's doing drills as that's how you actually get faster.

Just to clarify he's going into 8th grade and turning 14 in September.

14 that's a HS Freshman wrote:

He's old enough to run 6 days a week.

Running more than 30 minutes won't hurt his speed.

He's old enough for a long run (like 7 miles) and needs it to be good at the 800.

Why put the AM/PM thing in? He doesn't double a single time. He just lifts once.

He should lift more than once.

Hope he's doing drills as that's how you actually get faster.

This is classic old school outdtaed advice. Do NOT follow it.

Running long WILL hurt your speed, if you do it often enough and neglect your speed work.

He does NOT need to be good at the long run to run a good 800.

Drills are NOT how you get faster. That's a small part of it.

I coached a 14yo to 2.01 on no more than 10 miles a week. He certainly did NOT master the long run. He sucked at it. But we adjusted his program and he did cruise intervals instead (6-7 x 1km at 6-7km speed with 90 sec recovery). He could do these at a good speed, and it got him through the 800.

I think for this kid you need 2 x speed development a week. Talk to the sprint coach about what to do. Short sprints are part of it. A session might include:

- warm up

- drills - the Dan Pfaff sprint drills, including stepovers, mini hurdles etc

- short resistance sprints - sleds, short hills, steps. Maybe too young for sleds, but the others are ok

- quality plyos, speed bounding, box jumps etc

- short sprints, flying 20s

You do need a good sprint coach whoknows how to coach this sort of stuff. You also need to do it when fresh.

fdor this kid, I would set it up like this (taking into account he needs to improve speed and has decent endurance.

Day 1 - day off

Day 2 - 1/2 a sprint session, then diagonals or relaxed 200s at 800 speed, say 1 min recovery, diagonals are great as they get you used to running relaxed and quick at race pace, but with the short recovery they are quite arobic too

Day 3 - easier run - I used to use a run with a 10 min warm up and 15 min tempo, hard enough to get aerobic benefit ut not so hard he can't back up for training the next day

Day 4 - fartlek - classic is vVo2 max work, say 1 min hard 1 min easy, or 2 min hard 2 min easy, hard at 2km speed and easy at 60% of that speed

Day 5 - day off or an easy run

Day 6 - short sprints, as abovce

Day 7 - Morning aerobic work, so either cruise intervals, or a 40 min progresive run (ie getting faster and ending at tempo pace), circuit in the evening

This is base. Preseason the sprints on day 6 get stretched out to special endurance 1 (200 work), day 4 is mile speed training, and day 2 becomes harder core 800 work, like 300s and 400s at 800 speed. This is pretty hard for a kid turning 14, but if he has good endurance he might be able to handle it.

the only thing there that's helpful is the fartlek.

Running fast is not about reaction time. The 30s will throw any correct technique awry.

Its speed endurance you are looking for.

200, 300, 500, 600s

Make sessions out of those distances. And no more than 3 - 4 days a week. He's a kid. Enthusiasm is more important.

fartlek Monday all out the sprints - 40 to 70, from a running position not a standing position. 2 - 3 miles, but with a max of about 10 total sprints. Coach calls the timing.

Tuesday off

Wednesday ladder. 200, 300, 500, 300, 200, 80% focus on rhythm and tempo ( 200 walk recovery )

Thursday 10 X 150 off the turns. 75%, walk 50 recovery.

Friday off

Saturday Race day. Or if not, then 3 X 600. Full recovery. 90% Focus on technique and holding it together.

If any of this is too hard, back it off. It should be about developing sustained speed. Even if he is a big kid, he's still only 14. Unless he's from Africa, and he could be anywhere up to 27 years old.

spokeaboutballs. wrote:

Its speed endurance you are looking for.

Eventually, but improving top speed will improve both speed endurance and speed reserve, plus this is a 13/14yo kid, and you need to train them to run fast with the right work.

Getting this done right is the most important thing you can do. Land right with legs not too bent, get extension when pushing off, hips high, recruit the hammies and glutes, dorsi flexion, all that stuff is part of running fast and will eventually help your 800.

Watch Rudisha run - he is poetry in motion.

Basically start off with aerobic and alactic, then move into anaerobic. Start at the ends and work into the middle is the principle.

Racing the 800 + 400 or 1600 should be enough aneorbic work right? I mean it's good to focus a bit maybe close to the main meet but racing should serve as the workout. Also would you say that it would be fine to triple the 400,800,1600 it would it be better to stick to two a meet.

And he doubled the 16/32 every meet this season and was fine. He didn't burn out and PR'd every meet.

You'll have to explain this to me. I am not American and don't understand the system.

When does season start, what meets are you peaking for, when are they? If it is an important meet, you do one race per day, or at least your main one first.

If you are using the meet as part of the training, then do that. But you have to be clear what your goals are.

For example he could run a 100 and 200 at the meet, having done drills and light plyos beforehand, and count is as a speed day.

Certainly racing is not enough anaerobic work on its own getting closer to main meets - and the 400 gives you a lot more of this than the 1600 - but it might be enough for now.

The way it works here is that the racing is usually within a one month period. The first race is the beginning of April usually on a Saturday. Then it is followed up with another meet on Wednesday. The next meet is the next Wednesday. Then there is about a eleven day break with the qualifying meet (for county championships) on the next Saturday. Then the championships are the next Saturday. So basically this year the first meet was April 2nd with the championships on April 30th.

Schedule from this year:

April 2nd: Meet

April 6th: Meet

April 13th: Meet

April 23rd: Qualifier for Counties

April 30th: County Championship

The 400 is first with the 800 following in about half an hour. After the 800 the 1600 is called up in twenty minutes. The thing I'm worried about is that 20 minutes isn't a whole lot of time to recover from a hard race. Also hope this makes it easier to understand!

Unless it's the last 2 months of the season:

-3 easy days per week: build to maybe 30-40 minutes easy, followed by a few light strides with full recovery. Do these days on soft surfaces: grass / dirt.

-1 day of sprint work: 6-8 x 60m at nearly full speed, focusing on good form, with full recovery (3-4 minutes). Maybe time a 100 or 200 once a month to evaluate progress. Precede these days with form drills (high knees, butt kicks, etc) done correctly. I can't stress developing good form early enough.

-1 day of hill work, varying lengths and speeds. One days it's 15 x 150 uphill at mile pace, one day it's 8 x 400 uphill at two mile pace. This will build the right kind of strength and improve form.

-1 day of aerobic development: cruise intervals at a tempo like pace or 5-6 x 600-800 at 2 mile pace with 200 jog recoveries. Change it up a lot.

With warm ups etc, this amounts to 25ish per week.

Save the hardcore anaerobic for the last 8-10 weeks. You can do 200s, 300s and 400s at race pace and faster when he's getting ready to race.

Race some 400s, race some 1600s.

For strength training, it really depends on how far he is into puberty. But for most 8th graders, lots of core work and real light weights is sufficient.

So no indoor season? Just a peak for end of April? First to answer your question about doing the 1600/3200 every meet or 400/800/1600. Though you say he didn't burn out i would not advise this. I wouldn't never have an athlete run that many hard races. At conference or states would i do it? Yes but no all season. And if your thinking about winning regular season meets who cares! Its about who wins the last one. Depending on the athlete type i would have an 800 guy with good speed run the 800 one meet plus the 200 and/or 4x4 and then the next meet the 400/200/4x400.

But you have what 6 months til April so you should have four phases and shouldn't hit specific work until May. Start to early peak to early. First you need a base as in miles, hill sprints (8-10sec), plyos, drills, strides etc for a couple months after break from xc. I would run 5-6 days a week. Mileage based on experience etc. But i would suggest something like this which is around 30-35 miles per week.

Mon 45min PRR (start run slower and build to MP/T by the end by feel)

Tues 30min Easy run plus hill sprints

Wed 45min PRR

Thur 30min Easy run plus plyos or circuit

Fri 60min LR

Sat 30 Easy run plus strides

Sun Off

Karma Police wrote:

spokeaboutballs. wrote:

Its speed endurance you are looking for.

Eventually, but improving top speed will improve both speed endurance and speed reserve, plus this is a 13/14yo kid, and you need to train them to run fast with the right work.

G .

He's 14. His top speed is years away. The advice you are giving is more confusing in script. It needs a coach's eye on him.

He has a lot of growing and lot of sleeping to do. He just needs to keep up his interest and find a good group.

spokeaboutballs. wrote:

Karma Police wrote:

Eventually, but improving top speed will improve both speed endurance and speed reserve, plus this is a 13/14yo kid, and you need to train them to run fast with the right work.

G .

He's 14. His top speed is years away. The advice you are giving is more confusing in script. It needs a coach's eye on him.

He has a lot of growing and lot of sleeping to do. He just needs to keep up his interest and find a good group.

I thought it would be obvious I meant his top speed now, at his age.

I don't wholly agree with a good group - because he needs two groups. He needs a sprint group and a distance group. He needs to train with both.

Did you know that until a boy is a good way through puberty, medical evidence says you should NOT train speed endurance? That's why Canada doesn't have 400 races until the ages of 13/14 - it's bad for them.