How much mileage can a 9th grade girl safely run?

No!!!!

When parents start interfeering with the coaches plans it turns bad for the athlete, parents, coaches, and team. I've witnessed it firsthand and it always happnes. Let her do what her coach says. What if her coach has them doing tempo like stuff all summer, then what good do the junk miles do. The increase in millage will still lead to incresed times, so just let her do what her coach says. If you don't believe in your coach then you just won't get better.

I know the coach and have talked to her about this. She is nice enough, but seems not to know very much about running or even care much one way or the other what we do. She's not a runner herself and has only coached one year, and the team is small and has never been very good anyway. We're both really just trying to get a plan together for my daughter who we think has a lot of potential.

The most important thing is to let her develop faith in her coach. As a parent the best thing you can do is to let that develop without second guessing her coach. She may run 30 mpw and then decide to run more on her own.

If your daughter (not you) really wants to run a bit more mileage, she should ask the coach in a very non-confrontational way if it would be ok if she did a few short morning runs on her own each week. This would be an easy way to add 10 miles. If the coach says no, don't do it.

Hey I'm an 19 year old female, and I was at about the same level as your daughter when I was in 8th/9th grade. I really kept my mileage at 25-30 mpw throughout high school and it worked fine for me. I just did a lot of quality, no junk miles. Now that I am in college, I do a similar amount of quality miles, but I do like 3 miles warm up and 3 miles cool down so it's like 55-60 mpw total. And I really don't know if it helps that much.

Also, you mentioned that your daughter might improve a lot if she ups her mileage. It's always fun to get faster, but I caution you about having her improve a lot at such a young age. I made great improvements in 8th and 9th grade, and it was awesome, but then I kinda leveled off, got injured here and there, and only recently have been able to perform at the levels I did when I was in 9th grade. It's a lousy feeling to be a senior and be running slower than when you were a freshman.

Maybe I could suggest that she run 30 mpw as a freshman, 35 as a soph, 40 as a junior, and 45-50 as a senior. And I wouldn't really do two-a-days, because those extra morning runs are usually just junk miles that are unhelpful unless you are running 70+ mpw.

Keeping running fun should be yours and hers ultimate goal. Run to the Dairy Queen and get an ice cream cone, do fartlek workouts where you stride out between telephone poles, drive to scenic places to do long runs. If running is fun, the mileage is reasonable, and your daughter doesn't get injured, you can expect some great things. Best of luck.

I'd like to second everything the above poster said. I had similar times at the age as well, and my high school team stuck to the low but high quality miles. I made steady progression. . .

14-5:25

15-5:07

16-5:01

17-4:57

Now I'm 19 and compete for a D1 team. I don't race the mile much anymore but have run a sub 16:40 5k. I'm not elite by any means, but have enjoyed the sport and competition at all times over the last 7 years. Find a good balance between challenging and fun, relaxed and competitive- then stick with it!

"Maybe I could suggest that she run 30 mpw as a freshman, 35 as a soph, 40 as a junior, and 45-50"

This is pretty much what my daughter did in high school. By not starting with a lot of mileage, you have time to adapt to each level of fitness as you increase the mileage over 4 years.

I think your post is great; however I vehmently disagree with your term "junk miles." Granted running in the morning for a 9th grade freshman girl may lead to injuries, but for any mature runner, 70+/- MPW, running is running. Getting out for an easy three or four every morning cannot ever be considered a waste, as I see it.

Does this summer program entail a Sunday run? Are they running 7 days a week? I'd like to see a break down of exactly what they are running. What kind of surfaces do they run on? Fill in the blanks. Where did the coach get her information on how to set up her program?

A fan wrote:

The most important thing is to let her develop faith in her coach. As a parent the best thing you can do is to let that develop without second guessing her coach.

I disagree. If the coach is inexperienced and unknowlegeable, like runner dad said, then why would you want to develop faith in an incompetent person?

Runner Dad,

If your daughter has real potential and is serious about achieving her potential, then please don't subject to an incompetent high school coach. Train her yourself!

If you want her to run well in high school she should run 50 mpw, she will win all around her in high school.

However, if you want her to run well later, 20-30 mpw as a 9th grader is enough. 30 mpw for a 9th grader would be the same as an adult running doing a lot more. If she is doing 50 mpw now how much will she be doing next year and the year after that, how will she up her training when she gets to college. It is not all about high school.

100 mpw is what she needs to be doing to be a champion.Don't let these suckers influence you.Get that college scholarship out of her even if it hurts her body's development.After all she owes it to you after paying for all her food ,clothes, etc. up to this point.(Joking)

Seriously just let her run and have fun.Get off this board and quit trying to live out your short comings through her.If she burns out because of too much pressure or mileage she won't ever know her true potential.So if you truely want whats best for her development,let her be 9th grade girl and run for fun.Read about Obea Moore,Michael Granville,Mellisa Sapa,Jeff Nelson

You said she might improve greatly? How much faster do you want her to be as a frosh? In one year she will be at State Meet. If she has done a 5:17 now she should be at 5:05-10 easy. Then 5:00 as a soph.

If you push her now, she probably won't make it past sophomore year before having problems. If she runs 4 miles on SAt and 8 on Sunday, then 5 or so a day during the week, that would 40 a week anyway. Let her be and she will be better off. Let her find her own level. She will put enough pressure on herself without you deciding that she needs to hit XX miles per week.

Thanks for all the input, especially the college girls who have already been through the process.

Mr. Know-it-all knows what he is talking about. He got me faster by telling me to run more distance at a slower pace.

The question is, should a 13/14 year old girl be training seriously at all?

I DONT THINK SO.

She should be terrorizing the local boys on her bicycle,

eating pizza, not worrying about her weight, staying AWAY

from the TV, staying away from running injuries,

running an occasional local 5km road race and not worrying

about her finishing times.

Then when it comes time to go to college, send her to a

NCAA Division 3 school and have fun racing on the track

and XC.

jason

Do the Kung Fu thing. Go with what feels right and when in doubt take it on the conservative side. If you do she may stick around and run in college and beyond.

Give her a year with the high school coach. However inexperienced, it will teach her the concept of the coach/athlete relationship. Don't expect miracles, but on the same hand, there won't be any scholarship offers to a fresh/soph anyways. After completing her first year, consider getting her more structured/advanced coaching. Inexperienced coach or not, the first year should be about fun, becoming a team. Give her the chance to enjoy the sport... don't give her a reason to loathe it.