800m advice - 10 year old

It's great that your kid is excited about running. I think the purpose of "training" for a 10-year-old is to teach them what training is like, not to actually "train" them. The kids that do the best in the long term are kids who have a well-rounded athletic base. The best runners I've coached were gymnasts and soccer players before and even into middle school. I've also seen girls who ran 5ks in the low 20s as preteens and never crack 19 in high school.

Thanks. Yeah, I don't mean to suggest I'm going to want to set something up stringent and demanding for him. I want him to have fun, but he asks to train. If he asks me what I think he should do that day, I just want to come up with something helpful. Ultimately, I guess maybe your point is to let him do what he wants, but I still think it's reasonable to give helpful suggestions that will actually help him run the race faster.

I coach several runners about his age, and here are some thoughts for you.

First, have him run with others if possible. I don't think that any of my runners would want to "practice" running if they weren't there with a dozen of their friends. We keep everything really fun and light and the kids are too busy laughing and having fun to ever realize that they're actually training. Fun is the magic. I don't want these kids burning out by the time they're 15. With that said, many of them are exceptional and they absolutely do not want to be told to go play capture the flag or something like that. They like to train and improve. They like to compete. I have to keep them reeled in.

Most of my kids run 3 or 4 days per week, plus many of them play other sports.

A warmup is usually a half mile - mile, followed by drills and strides. Then one of these:

Moderate effort (tempo's) repeats, building up over time. They start with maybe 3 x 300m and within weeks will do 4 - 6 x 600m with a standing rest recovery. They stop when they feel like it, or I tell them to. I run all of these with them to make sure no one is working too hard. They enjoy running this pace and it does wonders for them. After, we might do some 30m - 50m repeats with the sprinters.

Easy run. We go run 2 - 3 miles easy through a local park. Many of them could go longer, but I don't see the need to push it. they finish the 3 milers happy... good enough for me. Follow it up with some 30m hill repeats.

Sometimes some 150m - 250m repeats around the effort of an 800m race pace. I have them do this as a group off the line to simulate the start of the race and learn how to get out hard and then settle in to the right pace for each of them. Long recoveries.

Occasional race. My strongest 800m runners will regularly race 100m - 3000m for variety. Whatever they want is fine with me.

No gut busting intervals. Nothing too tough. I usually let them help decide what they want to do each day. We always have fun, music going... party atmosphere and they all love it. Ages 9-12 are really interesting... they want to work, but you need to keep it fun or you'll lose them down the road. They're just kids.

Good luck!

A 10 year old shouldn't be running

Cool

Great, thanks for the input. it sounds like he’s mostly doing what he needs to be. The deal with him is that training is his hobby so it comes naturally for him to want to do these things. He wants to run and do squats and pull up’s, etc. he finds that more enjoyable than throwing and catching balls.

This might be controversial but let him race the way he is, as he gets older and fitter he will be able to hold on better. 32 200m speed opening in 37 is just fine, you want to get him in the habit of thinking the 800m is a fast race that needs a fast start, not a jog if that makes sense.

More aerobic strength will help him hold on no doubt though. Have him run a couple 400s where he is looking for 76-80 seconds, with smooth pacing. That could help him sustain 37 second pace better. Splitting a 1:15 and then a 1:25 would be a good step in the right direction.