The posters above can't appreciate the times or possible potential of a teenage runner without a backlash?
In concurrent threads, others are hyping Masciarelli's accomplishments. Is it okay to exalt her, but no one else?
The posters above can't appreciate the times or possible potential of a teenage runner without a backlash?
In concurrent threads, others are hyping Masciarelli's accomplishments. Is it okay to exalt her, but no one else?
Thucydides wrote:
Now a question for Indoor? and other actual experienced coaches -- how much is too much? I am especially interested in the management of freshman/sophomore girls who are 14/15 and have started the early stages of puberty (irregular periods, some development etc) but clearly have more to go. The truth is that many coaches want to do the right thing, but just don't have the experience (e.g., they coach small teams where many of the girls are not very serious, have a few good runners and mixed success developing them).
If a girl in that age range is doing 20 / 30 miles per week, running CC/indoor/outdoor (with intensity changing within each season and a taking a week off periodically) and not getting injured or overly tired, is that fine? Might they be delaying development, setting themselves up for injury in the future? Should they be running low intensity stuff all summer, or taking more time off? Every girl is different, but since the impacts of over-training at this age are manifested later as opposed to simultaneously, you can't only rely on the old "listen to your body" as a guide. One needs some kind of overall ceiling.
Great questions and ones I am still trying to figure out! I am grateful that I live in a state where indoor is not an official season. Our kids typically run XC, take a week off and then 1-2 weeks of light/partial running. They run all winter, but we don't have an official indoor season so must run about 1-3 races between December and March (local road races or hop in an indoor hs meet hosted by regional colleges). Track is March-May and then kids take another week off in June (usually right after track, but sometimes we have them wait and take that week off if they have a family trip scheduled). Freshman/sophomores would run anywhere from 5 to 7 days a week, between 20-35 miles. Super motivated and healthy juniors/seniors that are fully through puberty have run as much as 55 mpw in our program, but the norm for varsity upperclassmen is 40-45.
Indoor? wrote:
You asked about that early stage of puberty and I'm not sure but I think the early stage isn't as bad as the middle or the end. The early stage girls might have grown some and gotten the energy boost and that might be where you see that sharp peak for some of these girls and then the quick crash. What we have found is that usually for about an 8-12 month span somewhat centered around sophomore year things just suck for a while. Runs that were easy are now hard, races, especially longer distance ones get slower. This was true for our girl above and several others we have had. It usually ends up hitting 2 seasons, so could be a freshman track to sophomore xc or just both seasons sophomore year or could stretch into junior year even. It seems to be their energy systems just get way out of whack and they get tired super easy. In my opinion the worse thing you can do is to keep doing what's normal and piling on the mileage. It takes a good relationship with the kid and parents but being honest and talking about and having a plan has seemed to help. This is 100% a physical thing but if you don't handle it correctly it can easily become just as much of a mental thing. It's important for the kids to believe they can come out better. So we really highlight our kids who have done well as freshman, maybe not done so well as sophomores but then rebounded junior or senior year. Certainly puberty can happen to some girls in a way that they don't have much chance, but we've found if you work hard, stay positive and believe in yourself things normally work out. Training wise during this period we back off, work in a lot of bike and racing go lower, race 400s/800s, work on speed (sprints) as these things are as effected so way easier to stay close to normal level or still improve even.
If you ask me the problem with a lot of these high profile kids is that when they get to that point the backslide is such a shock they(parents, coaches, kids) react to it in the only way that makes sense which is to work harder, or drastically improve diet(which sometimes leads to calorie restriction). This most often leads to injuries or at the very best just frustration that this harder work isn't helping. That's when you might hear things like "Oh we just treated that race as a workout" or "There's some minor sickness going on" trying to mask or have a reason for the kid who had PRd for 3 straight years to be running 20 seconds slower. Can they overcome it? Certainly and hopefully but you may have to deal with injuries and mental struggles to do that.
I agree wholeheartedly with this! We notice challenges when girls hip shape change, mainly because they start dealing with little aches and pains as a results of the growth. We tend to back off mileage and have them use that extra time at practice to do additional strength/prehab work. Almost every 4 year athlete has a season where they are impacted by this, so we talk openly about it and they know to expect it and that we'll handle it. Most seem to have that growth sophomore year of track, but it does vary.
For girls that are having more extreme changes, we have also changed up their events in track significantly so that it's harder for them to compare and/or put blame on themselves. A season devoted to the 800 where they get to run some 4x400s and only the occasional 1600 can be a fun challenge and I like the emphasis on speed helps their long term development anyways.
I also think coaches have a responsibility to help athletes set realistic long term goals . We try to set short term process based goals rather than long term outcome based goals. For example, our goal this summer is focused on the long run. We want our newcomers to be able to run for 60 minutes by the end of the summer and our returners to be able to run a specific 8 mile long run route at our July team camp. Kids have way more control over that than running a specific time at a specific race.
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