Hey everyone. I'm recently got a position as the girls middle school (7-8th grade) track coach. Right now I have the training phased out into 4 phases.
Phase 1 - base (3 weeks)
Phase 2 - Speed, LT, VO2max (3 weeks)
Phase 3 - VO2max, speed, LT (3 weeks)
Phase 4 - "sharpening" (2 weeks)
* Phases 2-3 are structured based on Daniels with the first emphasis (speed, for example, in Phase 2) being quality 1, second quality 2, and third being maintenance; obviously I won't have them doing 3 workouts each week since they have meets twice per week so it would end up being one workout per week with the remaining days being easy runs
Is this too structured for middle school track? How would you structure the season?
Also, I've been unsure on how much to make them run each day because I'm afraid on starting them out too fast. The first week I've had the distance girls do two 10 min runs with a 5 min rest in between. Everything has been easy runs. I want to start adding striders in the 3rd week. How would you increase the amount of time each week? Any feedback would be appreciated.