FUNdamentals of Youth Running These guidelines are designed to assist parents, teachers, coaches, and race directors to encourage youth runners. Make Running Fun First and foremost, running should be fun. Do not use running a...
Run your run first...then let her participate in your cooldowns at her pace, with you suggesting her to slow down while she naturally sprints, as kids do. As she's "faster than Daddy" her spirit and stamina will go up.
Then after a while, try a run/walk 5k.
She may have already done a fundraising "fun run" at her school as well.
Run your run first...then let her participate in your cooldowns at her pace, with you suggesting her to slow down while she naturally sprints, as kids do. As she's "faster than Daddy" her spirit and stamina will go up.
Then after a while, try a run/walk 5k.
She may have already done a fundraising "fun run" at her school as well.
Run your run first...then let her participate in your cooldowns at her pace, with you suggesting her to slow down while she naturally sprints, as kids do. As she's "faster than Daddy" her spirit and stamina will go up.
Then after a while, try a run/walk 5k.
She may have already done a fundraising "fun run" at her school as well.
What a dishonest answer.
But it's a good one.
You'd race your child, win, call him or her a loser and call it being a good Alpha Dad.
Go at a medium speed (for her): not sprinting, not racing, but also not a shuffling jog-and-slog, which an athletic kid most likely won't enjoy. So maybe 8-10min/mile pace?--whatever pace has her actually running.
Take a break from this running BEFORE she "has to," and do something else: some kind of calisthenics (vary it from break to break), or just a walking break with neck/arm/shoulder mobility stuff, or even a different kind of running: backward, carioca, slide step sideways, etc. You want her to be fairly fresh during her actual running, so you're using the breaks to *prevent* fatigue, not to pay an oxygen debt.
[An eight-year-old who's already 4'10"/147cm is either maturing very early or is going to be very tall as an adult. Either way, she's going to need whole-body development to stay healthy, which is why a variety of variety of exercise, including core and upper-body stuff, is important to include with the running.]
At the end of the run, definitely let her "sprint home" if she wants. This is natural for a kid and she'll be well warmed up by then. Then give her a minute or two of easy walking to get her breath back, rather than just stopping dead.
Go at a medium speed (for her): not sprinting, not racing, but also not a shuffling jog-and-slog, which an athletic kid most likely won't enjoy. So maybe 8-10min/mile pace?--whatever pace has her actually running.
Take a break from this running BEFORE she "has to," and do something else: some kind of calisthenics (vary it from break to break), or just a walking break with neck/arm/shoulder mobility stuff, or even a different kind of running: backward, carioca, slide step sideways, etc. You want her to be fairly fresh during her actual running, so you're using the breaks to *prevent* fatigue, not to pay an oxygen debt.
[An eight-year-old who's already 4'10"/147cm is either maturing very early or is going to be very tall as an adult. Either way, she's going to need whole-body development to stay healthy, which is why a variety of variety of exercise, including core and upper-body stuff, is important to include with the running.]
At the end of the run, definitely let her "sprint home" if she wants. This is natural for a kid and she'll be well warmed up by then. Then give her a minute or two of easy walking to get her breath back, rather than just stopping dead.
After she turns 9 in November, I may bring her to the local high school field and have her run 2 laps around the track with me at a 10 min/mile pace. This is contingent upon parental permission and I'm not sure what they'll think about their 9-year-old trying even the slightest amount of distance running.
Our local 5K fun runs are full of kids 8-10 years old. A couple of years ago I ran most of a 24 minute-ish 5K race with three kids aged 8, 9, and 10. I didn't know them, they were together and just happened to be running at about my pace.
Certainly an 8-year-old can run a few miles, but she needs to build up to it gradually like any other runner and should not feel pressured to run faster or farther than she wants.
I have 8/9 year old daughters who occasionally run with me occasionally. The older one has run up to about 2 miles and the younger about 1.5mi. I generally don't run more than a mile or so with either. They play soccer and do a running series thing in the Spring/Fall that might be fun. They have them in a lot of places around the country (Healthy Kid Running Series). 5 weeks, race distance varies by age/grade. I wouldn't start with a 5k, seems excessive.
