Coach for 14 year old

I can with great confidence propose coach JS . A very competent and experienced Swedish online running coach.

Why can't her HS coach or team captains provide her with a training program?

The suggested training by her coach was to train for 40 minutes a day. That is not going to get her through until March.

She's welcome to follow along with any of the training guidelines I set out for my team. I publish them to my Google classroom weekly. Send me your e-mail and I can e-mail you a link or share the document with you...

Hi CCB,

Our site is free. There are training plans, core exercise videos, weightlifting videos, articles by medalists, Olympians, and educators - and many links to help you grasp training principles. My number is on the site. Feel free to call if you would like any details explained.

https://www.coloradotrackclub.com/training-plans

Hello there! I am 14 years old (male) in the case of mile training, here are some things that worked for me:

Base Phase

Do a 20 minute warmup and cooldown!

Long run (once per week): ~20% of weekly mileage

Tempo run (1-2 a week): start small, about 2-3 miles, and work up to 4-5 miles at tempo pace

Intervals(1-2 a week):

1. 6-8x400m with 2 minute recovery at current mile pace

2. 3-4x 800m with 4 minute recovery at slightly slower than mile pace (focus on relaxation)

3. 5x1k with equal recovery at 5k pace

Easy days(fill in the in-between days with these): 30-45 minutes at an aerobic pace, should not be super slow

I would do the base phase for quite a while, perhaps 6-8 weeks. Take every Saturday or Sunday off for recovery, it's not very healthy otherwise. The long run is the fastest way to build aerobic fitness, the tempo run is very good at increasing VO2max, and the intervals are good to get used to running at mile pace year round. Do the long run at the very end of the week, or the very beginning.

I will only give a base phase for now, feel free to write again if you would like more information (I am not the best at the sharpening phase).

Hope this helps!-EGF

CCB wrote:

The suggested training by her coach was to train for 40 minutes a day. That is not going to get her through until March.

Gotcha but first, I would love to know that a young kid I was about to coach had been doing easy 40 minute runs for the last 6 months. But I understand why you'd want more.

The reason why I asked is because you want an easy transition to training when her season begins. It's never good when coaches seem to have such different philosophies and methods. You don't want your daughter to go from one extreme to the other both because it might be tough on her physically and she might doubt the training methods if it is different than what previously made her successful.

There are many ways to become successful; I dont know what her coach does day to day but please dont put doubt in your daughter's mind about her coaching.

You got a couple of great responses and coaches willing to help you out. Good luck.

Thanks so much for these workouts ! She did a one mile time trial in 6:37. She did it alone and on a hot day.

Should she do your workouts based off the 6:37 or based off her p.r.?

You make some great points. After doing nothing but base runs all summer she is getting bored and wants to add in some workouts. Likely just once a week. She likes doing speed on the track.

I agree, though, going into March having comfortably run 40 mins runs for the past 9 months would be good but I’m afraid she will be bored out of her mind having to do all runs alone.

Hey Coach B-

How do I find your email?

So, my daughter and I did a workout today. It was 6x400 with 2 mins rest. She averaged about 1:28, fastest was 1:26 (last one) , slowest were 1:30.

Considering she time trialed a mile in 6:37 (alone , hot day) about three weeks ago and her best mile is about 6:05 from a year ago, did she go too fast on today’s workout?

Does this indicate she could run about a 6:00 mile?

I dont like to predict race times based on 1 workout.

We don't know what type of speed she has, what type of mileage she does and at what pace etc...

if this is the only quality work she's done I'd say she's not ready to break 6:05 as she only did 6 reps. Whether she went too fast or not is dependent on what method and protocol you're using.

I hope shes enjoying the process.

Maybe Pat Riley or John Wooden

An interesting thread. I coach numerous females here in Australia and a few have achieved at a respectable level including one of my athletes placing top 50 at WXC in Denmark in 2019. I currently have a great group of young females distance and middle distance runners between 18-12 years of age that have run between 17:30's for 5k and as fast as sub 60 seconds for 400m. Currently I have a 13 year old that has run 3k XC in 10:30 and 5 other girls aged 12-13 that have run under 12 minutes with 2-3 days of training per week.

A few things that I try to stress with 14 year olds that are fairly new to the sport.

1. Find a group or squad with a knowledgeable coach

2. Make sure there is lots of easy running with bits of fast running on the flat and over hills.

3. Increase their volume slowly.

4. Most of their running needs to be on grass or dirt

5. During track season we only train once per week on the track.

6. When doing intervals include alternations. An example when running 400m's like you stated run it as 100m fast 200m easy 100m fast. You can do this for a variety of distances in training.

Now what does our training look like? Here is a sample week during our winter.

Monday OFF or other sports training

Tuesday 1500m warm up with dynamic drills and strides 3x4x 50-60m short hill sprints with jog down recovery 2 min btween sets finish with 1500m at 4:30k pace

Wednesday 30 minute easy run

Thursday 1k threshold which for your daughter would be around 4:45-5min k pace + 3-4x600m as 200 easy/100 fast 100m walk between efforts.

Friday oFF

Saturday 35-40 min run over hilly course

Sunday rest

Hopefully your daughter has a good coach and you are in an environment that is conducive to endurance training.

Good luck!