How should I train my 13 year old 4:46 1600 runner?

That is a phenomenal time for a 13 year old but not unheard of, especially if he is more physically mature for his age.

Fist thing you have to determine is he distance talent or a mid distance talent. If he can run in the 25 second range for 200 and close to 53 in the 400 right now he is a mid distance guy.

What can he run for 2 miles or 5k?

Why push for any time as Freshman? No one cares about that. Think long term at this point and back off.

If he runs 4:25 as a freshman he is one of the top 10-15 freshman in the nation.

I watched a kid with talent like your son go from 4:54 at 13 to 4:24 at 14. Then 1:55 an only 4:22 at 15. He ran 1:50 and 4:05 as a senior and now at age 23 ran 3:34 for 1500.

He had 50.1 quarter speed as a junior and was moderately trained in high school (usually 45 miles a week).

If you can find it look at the training of Dave Moorcroft who was just a 1:54 high school 800 runner and 10 years later ran 3:48 for the mile and 13:00 for 5000 which was then a world record. The British Milers Club website had all his training from the time he was a youth. He had the same coach and the same consistent yearly training and developed and improved nearly every year.

Focus on his academics. If he wants to run then set short term goals. Junior and Senior years are the big ones. That is insane, 4:10 as Freshman. What are his other interests? Junior High is huge for him making leaps academically. Let him make the calls 100%.

+1

Remember that your kid is 13 and just starting to form his identity. The more importance you put on hitting times, the more he'll equate short term results for his father's love. You really don't want to do that. His talent will never go away but his love for the sport could. Get the help of a professional coach to guide his long term development and a lot of doors will open for him in the future. But trust me, you don't want to push him too hard too soon. Too hard meaning if your son perceives the training as unenjoyable.

Or runs 3:5x senior year for the mile

If he really hasn't hit puberty then that is coming up, and that will change things - rapid growth will impact his bones, particularly if he is running a lot (potential injuries).

Keep it fun and forget about the freshman

Military salut wrote:

He's in 7th grade, not physically mature- as in, he's ACTUALLY 13 years old physically. Want to get him at least sub 4:10 as a freshman without burning out. He's committed.

Who cares about 7th grade? No one should ever.

Lots of 13 year olds are in the 8th grade (my 13-year-old son is).

What you SHOULD do is allow the high school coach (when that day comes) to coach him as he sees fit. Parents are to stay out of it, unless you ARE the coach.

IF you are knowledgeable about the sport, you can give tips on racing strategy, tell him what TYPICALLY the kind of training he might do in and out of season, but ultimately you need to defer to the coach. Now if the coach is completely useless, like he says to run 3 miles a day in the summer or something like that, then you should have your kid run more, but if he's starting a freshman with 40-50 miles a week, building a base, adding hills and/or speedwork more toward the end and seems to know basically what he's doing, then you need to stay out of it.

8th grade progression wrote:

Did all those sub 5 8th graders work hard in high school? i have a sub 5 8th grader and I know he'll be pretty disappointed if he can't eventually get below 4:20 by his senior year. He's somewhat physically mature but doesn't stand out among many of his 8th grade classmates. He started running in 7th grade and currently runs about 15 mpw. I'm curious what makes these kids not improve very much if they are putting in work in high school. As a freshman my son's future teammates typically run about 30 as freshmen and work up from there every year.

So now that I think of it, I supposed that we weren't "littered" with sub 5 Jr. HSers. In my 4 years we had 4 show up as Freshman or Sophomores (transfers) to our team.

We worked very hard as a HS team and so did the sub 5 guys. What I think did them in was that they had a lot of success at Jr HS level but had a hard time adjusting to being not very good on our team (my senior year we had 5 guys under 4:22 for the full mile). When you can do well, i.e., sub 5 on limited mileage, then have to start up all over again I think they just got burned out. Not one of the Jr HS sub 5's that I remember lasted 4 years in HS. So, maybe more mental than physical.

Also, when you think about it, a 4:40 something mile is very fast for 13 but pretty slow for 18. Some of the kids who mature early just hit their peak earlier than others. Physical maturation is different for everybody; you can look very young but that could be the peak of your power to weight ratio or foot speed velocity - in other words - it's a crap shoot.

Better for the Jr High phenoms to show up hungry for HS running rather than full of potentially unrealistic expectations.

New world record holder

militarysalut wrote:

New world record holder

reported

longjack wrote:

forget about times.

you want to develop the aerobic engine.

you want to develop speed.

you want a variety of work.

you want to recover fully.

you want to hit it hard come age 19, not before.

cross train him a lot. hit the weights, see alsal for details. see lucas v for details on the cross training.

have a lot of fun with it.

Do you have links? So basically triathlon and weight room trajning

SO there's a great possibility that he has a stress fracture should i have him continue his training

No keep him going for the record.

Nope wrote:

No keep him going for the record.

What are you talking about? What record?