Training for middle schoolers

I think that it's great that you're holding her back and that the passion comes from her. I'd encourage her to engage in other physical activities.

You are being conservative, 15 miles a week is not much, nevertheless other activities will develop her fitness and mitigate the chances of overuse injuries.

I think you continue to find ways to make it fun and you will be good. She will find her own motivation to want to improve. Foster that in letting her set her own goals without your influence.

I have seen way too many middle school girls quit when they reach high school because they got way too serious early on.

It's actually pretty difficult to find a lot of information on middle school running. I have a bunch of thoughts as my son went through the whole youth running scene and is now in high school. First, I would highly encourage keeping them under the radar in middle school. I think the worst thing for youth running is the kids who end up with parents who cultivate their social media and try to turn them into a "brand" as a youth runner. It's my #1 thing not to do. Second, I would try to keep as a philosophy that their success should be coming from their talent, not their training. From what I've seen the risk in training hard in middle school isn't that they burn out from training, it's that they win all the time and when they get into high school and everyone is training at the same level, the newly running talented kids start beating them and they are not used to losing races. It's rough on the youth stars. Finally, if you can get them on a team do it. The more they are running with peers and having fun with a team, the less it feels like work. If you have them on a team and keep them running mostly on talent, the mileage will just fall in place on it's own. If you need an absolute number, ask your local high school what the freshman mileage is and slowly progress toward that over the next 3 years and make sure you don't go over it in 8th grade.

15 miles a week? According to some people that’s all that’s necessary. Natalie cook barely does that.

I currently coach middle school, and I think your approach is solid. 15-18 mpw on 4 days for a 6th grader is right on in my opinion. If they want more, then encourage other activities - soccer, bike rides, swimming.

During XC season a typical practice will be between 3-5 miles of running --- with a large variation, depending on pace and experience. On rare occasions, we'll have 8th graders and some 7th graders that might hit 25 miles for the week. The biggest limiter for me is that we are racing 3k or 2mi courses, so they don't need to run 5 miles a day to do well.

For lots workouts or runs, we use time rather than mileage, and think that is a better guideline overall and for young runners. With a team, that keeps everyone in the same ballpark in terms of training load.

Totally agree with this comment. There’s nothing worse than being the star in 7th grade only to have other kids overtake you. If you’re running fast on low mileage then that’s fine - you have room to Improve. I think this is even more true for girls because they can sometimes get very close to their absolute potential at a very young age. Also agree with the social media stuff - I have no idea why parents would do this to their kids.

I’m right in the same situation as the OP. Internet is a mess of people hating on parents who even ask these questions. Some of the helpful nuggets I’ve found:

Bowerman (youth) Track Club has the following info on their athletic.net XC page re MAXIMUM recommended training:

Age 8-10: 3 or 4 days a week of running, Longest run not to exceed 6 miles, Maximum 15mpw
Age 10-12: 4 days a week of running, longest run not to exceed 8 miles, Maximum 20mpw
Age 12-14: 5 days a week of running, Longest run not to exceed 10miles, Maximum 30mpw

However, I’ve known kids who’ve done more than this and have excelled in high school and beyond and I’ve known kids who have done less and burned out before the end of high school. But the Bowerman info seems like a fair rough approximation.

So far, for me, I’ve taken the approach of simply making sure I’m telling my kids “no” a fair amount. Keep them hungry for doing more training and tell them they can do more when they are older. Sorta reverse psychology but also helpful/true in my opinion.

Also, one of my kids easily wins everything and I’ve had the concerns raised above re being an early star (plus he gets bored—first world problems I know) so I’ve tried to find chances to run against older kids who are faster than him. It may get tough to do when he gets older but it’s working so far.

Bottom line: make sure they are doing it for them, not for you, are having fun, and are leading the work (ie leave motivation in the bank for the long run).

Generally solid advice. Not 100% sold on the 8 and 10 long runs, though. Personally, I'm going with minutes instead of miles. You don't want a 10-minute/mile kid running for 100 minutes. But more than that, I'm looking at those long runs with respect to race events. A 12-14 year old running 3k doesn't need to run 10 miles, except maybe once or twice in the off season or as they are moving up to HS.

Agree. Essentially no 10-12 kid does 8 mile runs. 5, maybe on occasion if it's a dedicated skilled kid.

When I think back to all the runners I knew who trained hard early & then got sick of it by the time they got out of High School, I would say "Have Fun". If they want to do other things with their friends let them. Playing other games will not only distract also add other kinds of fitness. Try to make their running work out fun too. Keep it as much "play" as possible.