For a 14 year old training for the 800 is it better to do lower volume but higher intensity on higher volume lower intensity. What will help him more if he's aiming for a 2:12 this track year while still looking at long term improvement (hs and college).
Goodrunner5678 wrote:
For a 14 year old training for the 800 is it better to do lower volume but higher intensity on higher volume lower intensity. What will help him more if he's aiming for a 2:12 this track year while still looking at long term improvement (hs and college).
1) Have him run cross country this fall.
2) Have him do what the other 800 runners on his team do. (Someone who is hoping to run 2:12 next spring isn't good enough to even consider being a prima donna.)
3) Keep open the fact that he may find out the 800 isn't his event. Could be the 400. Could be the 1600. Could be the 3200.
/thread
if i cud do my teen years over again, i wud just go for low volume.
gradually build up to morning + evening runs of slow steady pace. around 5 km.
maybe once a while i wud do sprints, say 60 meters bursts. and maybe hills once in a while. and sometimes 10 x 200 m with 1 min recovery. thats it.
and learn the basic strength training. 4-5 exercise /session, ca 45 min. once a week
thats it.
imagine the Engine/base such a guy wud have if he can keep that thru his teens.
and then if he decides to - he can make a serious effort with more avance,intense training work outs. and if he doesnt he will be thankful for the conditioning
He should be running at least 100mpw.
adfadsfasdf wrote:
/thread
Not /thread.
No one even asked what his current times or training is. He may be running high miles and racing 10ks every weekend or concentrating on 100-400m sprints. Let's also assume he plays football and not xc.
Volume. Think of all the Kenyan kids who run to school and back.
Well he ran low 12's for the 3200 and high 5's for the 1600 on ten miles a week (running 2.5 miles 3x a week at practice plus another day of running or so at home). His endurance is good especially for running 10 miles a week. His speed however is dismal. He was never fast- in sixth grade he did 17 seconds for the 100 meter dash. This year I didn't get a timed result but at one meet at the end of his mile he closed with a 15 second 100. I'm thinking that it would be better to put more effort in improving speed as that will be very valuable for his entire running career.
You have to build the basics before you get to the more specific work.
Basics being motor skills and athleticism; specifically running economy, raw speed, endurance and a sufficient amount of general strength. Specific being interval training with specific goal paces.
In the classical sense, this would mean less intensity and more volume, though it's obviously not strictly so - you need some anaerobic work included, and you can't just start out running high mileage.
HRE wrote:
Volume. Think of all the Kenyan kids who run to school and back.
Or Wilson Kipketer who lived close to school, and walked there every day.
I ran 2:12 when I was 14 during my freshman year of HS track. I did XC the prior fall solely to get in shape for basketball in the winter. That winter my fitness only consisted of basketball. I had planned to still be a 100-200-LJ guy in track as those were my events since 5th grade. Track starts and I slowly move up in distance from the 400 to 800 as I realized that was more where my talent was.
Never did much volume and focused more on quality. I was also 5'1" and about 95 pounds so puberty hadn't even started for me.
In my opinion the two biggest mistakes a young runner can make is too much volume and not easy enough on easy days. It's very easy for a teenage runner to just pop out of bed the next morning and go out and hammer every day because of how quickly they recover, but there is serious damage happening to their long term development while doing so.
Focus on a few quality workouts a week and don't spend much time worrying about weekly mileage. Less is more for a 14 year old.
Sign him up to a summer soccer league. Forget about summer base yada yada...
My kid ran 2.01 at 14 1/2 on no more than 10 miles a week. But:
- he had good speed - mid-52, 23.7 both FAT
- the work he did was high quality. He traied 5 days a week. 1. longer run either a 35-40 min progression run or cruise intervals, 2. speed development becoming special endurance 1, 3 and 4 fartlek/interval workouts a week (speeds and volume depending on time of the year), and 5. one easier day - about a 10 min warm-up and a 10 min tempo. He was probably 5'5 and 110-120 pounds at that point.
So personally lower volume and focus on speed development, and you can still get improvements at that age. Gradually build up volume. If you want more aerobic work, swim once a week as well. Need to take the strain off the achilles, knees etc at that age.
Yikes, pretty formal training for a 14 year old. How did he do when he was 18, how about 22?
Speed endurance work
Ignore the 100mpw idiots you will just end up injured and remain slow.
800m is a long sprint so work on that aspect
don't worry about it wrote:
Yikes, pretty formal training for a 14 year old. How did he do when he was 18, how about 22?
He's only 16, and is national champion, and probably about to belt the national record.
Thanks for asking.
I was careful as to what he did at that age - maximum benefit from minimal impact, plus playing other sports. I was trying to keep the load off, hence the controlled training. Seems to have worked. He loves the sport too.
HRE wrote:
Volume. Think of all the Kenyan kids who run to school and back.
Volume for a 14 year old doing the 800?
Maybe when he stops growing? He has plenty of time to run volume. Right now, learning how to run fast and race are more important.
Wow, the national record for 16 year olds? Who holds it now? Who cares?
Will he still love the sport when he is in college and at an age where he can get the real national record?
I would advise at that age he should focus on speed development, running economy, sprint mechanics.
I would add volume very gradually.
Being efficient means being faster at shorter distances so you're more efficient and smoother at a longer less demanding speed. For instance having 21sec 200m speed will make 45/46 feel pretty smooth and then coming thru 50 in an 800 isn't is a breeze. By then an athlete of this caliber (1:44-46) has a solid volume base behind them.
I would also work on his strength with weights, plyos, core.
Lunges, squats, box jumps, hurdle mobility, bounding drills, etc
Thanks to advice given. Also if he's been in the sport since a young age and continued there's no reason to think that he won't improve. And all the good runners at college where running fast in high school. Drew Hunter brought home two state titles when he was in his junior year of hs. Grant Fisher ran a 4:47 1600 in 8th grade and he's still running with great times. A kid I personally know ran 5:18 in 7th grade and in 9th grade he did a 4:37/9:52 double. Too many people worry too much about long term devolpment. There's no point in purposely trying to restrict a runner from what he can reach now because you're worrying about 5+ years from now. Some kids who run fast will quit, others will continue and improve. Training does need to be controlled so they don't burn out and injure themselves but there's nothing wrong with running fast young.