I would start with walking and hiking. Lets put a modest goal of 2 miles on the board and in these walking sessions work on things you can like form, dorsiflexion, walking on toes and attacking hills. Then after the walk you can do running strides to work on the motion.
I would suggest this as a daily routine for 2 months once you build up to it.
Walk/run with her 30 mins or so 3-4 x a week and chat. Do this for 6 weeks and she will do more running that walking, gain fitness quickly, and she will always appreciate having this time with you.
Years ago - After a bout of injuries, too much alcohol, and general nihilism, i had gained 50lbs and went from running sub 17 for 5k to not being able to run a mile.
I was extremely discouraged in the beginning because i literally couldn't train if i wanted to. If you can't run non-stop you literally can't do a long run.
I found that the eliptical machine became my best friend for building a general base of fitness as i was getting back into it. On the elliptical i would set the resistance to just 1 and just try and keep my heart rate under 170 while going as long as i could. After a few weeks / months i started shredding weight and my cardiovascular strength was drastically improving.
I highly recommend for someone just starting to build a base before shifting into just running.
This post was edited 53 seconds after it was posted.
When I posted this 5-6 weeks ago, she did a mile time trial in 14:xx. After doing 5-6 weeks of track practice twice a week, 3 track meets, and running with me on Saturdays (easy stuff like 200/400/800m repeat jogs with lots of walking in between), she got her mile time down to 10:52 in gym class today. Her goal was 12 minutes, but she smashed it because of adrenaline. Can't believe how quick one can make noob gains. She dad 3 great meets where she did really well in the 100 and 200m distances.
The goals for the next 5-6 weeks are to be able to run 2 miles without stopping and feeling like total sh*t at the end, and getting the mile time down to under 9:30. This 10:52 mile really motivated her.
Just wanted to thank everyone who gave great advice on here. I incorporated a lot of it when running with her.
Basically, do a "couch to 5k"-type approach at first (for 30 minutes -- running mixed with walking with progressively more running until the walking part disappears). As a teenager, she should progress more quickly than an adult would. Once there are no more walk breaks, increase the miles. Don't worry about pace, that will improve naturally. No speed work.
If your daughter can run six miles without stopping by the start of cross country, she won't be Katelyn Touhy, but she will set herself up for a positive experience.
Basically, do a "couch to 5k"-type approach at first (for 30 minutes -- running mixed with walking with progressively more running until the walking part disappears). As a teenager, she should progress more quickly than an adult would. Once there are no more walk breaks, increase the miles. Don't worry about pace, that will improve naturally. No speed work.
If your daughter can run six miles without stopping by the start of cross country, she won't be Katelyn Touhy, but she will set herself up for a positive experience.
I've had freshmen improve the way Ackley described. Girls who initially spent 20 minutes to complete a mile ended up running 25 minutes for a 5k at Van Cortlandt Park. I also remember a chubby boy starting off running 12+ minutes in a mile running under 20 minutes at VCP.
Basically, do a "couch to 5k"-type approach at first (for 30 minutes -- running mixed with walking with progressively more running until the walking part disappears). As a teenager, she should progress more quickly than an adult would. Once there are no more walk breaks, increase the miles. Don't worry about pace, that will improve naturally. No speed work.
If your daughter can run six miles without stopping by the start of cross country, she won't be Katelyn Touhy, but she will set herself up for a positive experience.
I've had freshmen improve the way Ackley described. Girls who initially spent 20 minutes to complete a mile ended up running 25 minutes for a 5k at Van Cortlandt Park. I also remember a chubby boy starting off running 12+ minutes in a mile running under 20 minutes at VCP.
This is some inspirational stuff. Thanks coach and Ackley. We'll start with something like 90s easy jog + 60s walk and see if she can make it 30 minutes intact. If so, the next week we'll increase each run interval by 5-10s and reduce the walks by the same amount, but play it by ear. Also throw in some fun longer bike rides and some long family hikes as well.
One thing I've learned in my 6 weeks of getting a total newbie middle schooler into running is to not push it - once they feel totally gassed and struggling to breathe, motivation goes out the window.
Despite the rep LR has for trolling and low-quality crap, posts like this are why I come back 15+ years.
Here's how I got my two daughters into running, without even realizing I was doing it. A few summers ago, when they were 11 and 14, I asked them if they wanted to go running with me. They both said, "No."
The next day I said, "You want to come with me and run through the huge sprinklers on the golf course?"
They both said, "Yes!"
We made that a nightly thing most of that summer and when fall came they both decided on their own to sign up for cross country. Three years later, they still run.
If it's fun, it's 100 times more likely to stick. Make it resemble fun, more than work.
I'd take a different track and suggest also getting her into other sports such as soccer, ultimate frisbee, basketball etc. If she has no experience with acquiring fitness, a "game" may get her more involved in fitness activities and help her make new friends. Team sports are far more appealing to youngsters than running. Once she develops a base level of fitness, you can introduce her to structured running.
Or you could just leave her alone and let the coach do what coaches do. There are track clubs through USATF and AAU all over the country - pick one. You be a father and let the coach be the coach, a 2:53 marathon doesn't suggest any special knowledge about fitness training that you need to share with her.
if she's not in a very competitive or cutthroat middle school you could try getting her to try/learn a sport before XC/track and use that to get some passive fitness gains so she's not just relying on running.
I'd take a different track and suggest also getting her into other sports such as soccer, ultimate frisbee, basketball etc. If she has no experience with acquiring fitness, a "game" may get her more involved in fitness activities and help her make new friends. Team sports are far more appealing to youngsters than running. Once she develops a base level of fitness, you can introduce her to structured running.
From OP's original post it seems like she is into running. With a decent summer of training she could probably be a solid performer in the fall by simply running 5 times a week. Not necessarily true with team sports which require time playing with a team to develop skills. Sometimes liking something + being good at it is better than loving something and sucking.
And not every youngster like team sports, I was a swimmer from grade 3 thru the end of high school and always loved the 'one man one army' aspect of the sport. Sure, you were technically on a "team" but it had a way different feel than when I played basketball. And even the absolute worst swimmers got the same amount of practice time and everyone got their 2-3 events each meet, much less politics and BS, no benchwarming really bad swimmers, and no cuts.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Here's how I got my two daughters into running, without even realizing I was doing it. A few summers ago, when they were 11 and 14, I asked them if they wanted to go running with me. They both said, "No."
The next day I said, "You want to come with me and run through the huge sprinklers on the golf course?"
They both said, "Yes!"
We made that a nightly thing most of that summer and when fall came they both decided on their own to sign up for cross country. Three years later, they still run.
If it's fun, it's 100 times more likely to stick. Make it resemble fun, more than work.
I agree although OP doesn’t seem like the overzealous type, just wants to help his kid get fitter and fit in, which will help keep her keep going and improving.
The fun aspect is key. I got my kids into running by just getting them into soccer (fall, spring), basketball (winter), and swim team (summer) at the neighborhood pool when they were little. Like maybe 6-7 years old. We also ran some 5ks like 2-3x per year FOR FUN as a family. Never got on “competitive” teams as that’s all money and BS, and all the rec-oriented stuff pretty much ended at 8th grade, so cross country and track was a natural transition. They were instantly good and enjoying it because they had developed a base without realizing it.
OP, it’s great that you wanted to be invested in it, but don’t be overly invested in it. I will say this, if she is showing signs of being really good, make sure you have the high school picked right, because it’s almost impossible to transfer and some coaches really do suck. But if she’s just having fun, carry on.
2 years ago my wife and I adopted a 12 year old girl and this year she is in 8th grade and joined T&F (more of an intramural with a few competitions).
First practice went horrible as she has never been into fitness, but she is motivated to keep going. She probably runs a 13 min mile time and has trouble finishing 800m without walking.
I'd like to practice with her on weekends and maybe another day of the week so she trains 5 times a week. She'd like to join her high school running team in the fall to make friends, so we have the summer as well.
I am a 2:53 marathon runner so I understand running, but I never did track and field as a kid and I was always athletic (basketball, hockey), I have no idea how to fast-track a middle schooler from 0 to decent in ~5 months.
Any help from you guys would be much appreciated.
Hey, didn’t see this post until now, I started my highschool XC career a good 30 lbs overweight for my height, I could run under 7:00 for a mile but I’m a guy and also had SOME fitness from playing middle linebacker/ tight end before joining, but I couldn’t crack 30 in a 5k and often had to walk on our team distance runs and couldn’t finish workouts.
I personally found success doing a decent volume of short intervals, as I could run relatively fast 100s and 200s, so I’d go and run my 16s/17s and 35s/36s with usually a 200-300m walk rest, that helped me lose the weight and started building my mechanics and let me hold on for our team hill reps, longer track reps, and eventually I found myself holding with the guys on easy runs, even though it wasn’t easy for me. On the tempo runs I’d run with the girls and I slowly just kept moving up as my fitness increased and my weight decreased. A year later I was a 19:30 guy and then a 2:25 5:20 guy for track. Still not great but nearing that upper JV zone where I didn’t feel like the team slow kid anymore. Flash forward a few years and now I’ve ran in D1 and some times I’m very proud of.
You just have to be patient, it really takes 2-3 years to really get rolling with running if you didn’t come into it being a lean kid who played sports that develop endurance throughout your childhood. I’m not saying everyone has the genetics to go and run D1 just by training hard, but most kids can be a good contributor at the highschool level with patience and smart training.