Son's potential: perhaps a running talent?

Forgot to mention: he's 16.

25bananas wrote:

So my son plays soccer and I had already witnessed some time ago than he's a quite decent runner. One day I went to my usual workout track and asked him if he wanted to test himself to see how quick of a runner he is. I suggested him to do a 5000m and he was fine with it. He ran 16:25. I was very pleased to see my boy running such a decent time so I asked if he wanted to train with me for an upcoming local 10 mile race that was a month away. After doing a few weeks of 50-60km with me he went on to run 1:01:40.

So what do you think guys, could this be an above average talent?

If he ran a 16:25 for a 5000 meter time trial on just soccer training at the age of 16 than he has exceptional talent.

The dead giveaway that you are lying is that 16:25 is MUCH better than 1:01:40 which might make sense since he is young BUT he did the 1:01:40 AFTER doing some training so of course the story is fabricated.

No, it is actually true. Perhaps he's just better at shorter distances? He has good basic speed, I think (didn't time it), so maybe the longer stuff is not is his thing? Perhaps the 800 or the 1500 are worth a try for him?

25bananas wrote:

No, it is actually true. Perhaps he's just better at shorter distances? He has good basic speed, I think (didn't time it), so maybe the longer stuff is not is his thing? Perhaps the 800 or the 1500 are worth a try for him?

I am not too interested in the 10 miler time because he didn't really have long enough to train for it.

The 5000 is more pertinent, and even though soccer training isn't the same as distance running training, depending on exactly what he did, it is enough to get a moderately talented 16-year old to run 16:25.

It's enough to build on if he wants to, and obviously there are some soccer players who have gone on to be great distance runners. On the other side of the coin though, I have seen many soccer players just not get much better as runners. Depends on a lot of things including how into it they are.

The best high school runners run 16:25 and faster as 14-year-old freshmen...just as a measure for you.

So, yes it's good, but he didn't just roll out of bed and run that. See if he's interested and if so, he should give it a try.

You’ll never know unless he trains properly for three years. When did he hit puberty? Early? Late? That’s generally a good indicator if he’s only 16 and ran that time. If he hit puberty before 14 then it’s not as good as a smaller less developed runner.

Soccer is great training for distance running anyhow. But yeah train him properly for three years and see. Goodluck.