Can a middle distance runner in middle school run 3 times a week, maybe 4, to improve his performances? Also, can running often at easy pace improve endurance for youth runner without overtraining?
Please answer.
Can a middle distance runner in middle school run 3 times a week, maybe 4, to improve his performances? Also, can running often at easy pace improve endurance for youth runner without overtraining?
Please answer.
Yes.
Middle school kids can do almost anything and see improvement from it. 3 times per week will not overtrain them.
My son is a middle school track runner (he's 11) and practices 3 times per week and usually has a meet on the weekend. He runs a 2:26 800 meter and 4:56 1500. Right now I think it's important for him since he just finished 6th grade to work on speed and keep his mileage pretty low so he's ready to really train in high school. It can be hard b/c he is pretty good and kids he runs against are doing much higher mileage but I think we've been pretty smart to stay conservative so far. He runs against a kid running 35 miles a week and right now usually my son wins even on his 15 miles. His mileage does get a bit higher for XC season, but honestly right now he doesn't run a lot faster with more miles.
Mileage by itself is not a good indicator for anything. I have been around a lot of hardcore track parents many of whom were NCAA D1 athletes and none of them "crazies" (sarcasm) do a 35mpw with their middle school kid. All the youth teams in my area have 3 practices per week and often have a meet at the weekend but not always. The high performers do not participate in every meet but instead do another practice which is mostly plyos coupled with easy running. The meet is an all day event and it is full of play for the kids but exhausting for the parents.
Back to the those three weekly practices, one is for speed development, another is mid-high tempo work and the third is technique/slow running. In all cases, the coaches advise to do some physical activity the other days but not intense, tempo running. Those who play soccer or lacrosse have it covered.
If you read these boards, you may think that Overtraining is a Big problem. It is really not. What actually happens is that kids plateau for reasons that have to do with growth not training regimen.
My own kids went thru the youth system. It is practically impossible to get anywhere near to 35 mpw of running unless you count every step they take including those in Fortnite. The 15mpw is very much in line with our experience. The faster ones are usually bigger or pay more attention to the quality aspects when they attend practice. And, often someone who is slower in the spring turns out to be faster in the fall. All mostly related to different growth patterns.
Haile Geb ran 20km a day running to and from school. He ran professionally till his 40s. Burn out is a mindset. A mentally weak person gets burned out from being a pansy. Mentally strong don't.
Structured workouts three times a week is plenty. Our school has three practices and one meet a week, most kids only make it to two practices because they play other sports.
On days they aren't running, they should be playing soccer, basketball, football, etc. Not sitting around playing video games.
zMASTERx wrote:
Can a middle distance runner in middle school run 3 times a week, maybe 4, to improve his performances? Also, can running often at easy pace improve endurance for youth runner without overtraining?
Please answer.
You should read Lopez Lomong's book.
Great question OP. I think the answer is yes, a middle schooler can run 3x week without overtraining.
I think we're STILL afraid of overtraining from the dark 1990s.
We're STILL afraid of mileage for middle and HSers.
Of course you CAN overtrain a youth, with too many intense workouts and too much pressure. Too many miles sure, but 100mpw is too much, not 50 or 60.
I would argue the danger is in the intensity, not the volume.
As has been mentioned already, all the African greats grew up running and much more physically active.
But we should also note that many great whiteys started young, and didn't shy away from lots of work.
Coe started young and trained seriously (though his success ironically led to the dark 1990s! His low mileage was a lie).
The ingebrigstens, especially Jakob, started young and solid volumes (the dads genius is controlling intensity with threshold).
Ryan Hall did big HS volume and workouts.
Dathan ritzenhein trained like a beast from MS on.
I ran in HS during the dark 1990s low mileage days. We weren't any more "preserved" for college than any previous generations--we were just slower!!
If anything we were MORE injured in D1 track trying to jump from 35mpw in HS to 80 or more in college.
Also: My brother and I were hot shot MS basketball players; I stopped in HS for track, he played bball in HS and college--we worked out like dogs 6-7 days per week getting good at basketball, long hours, high intensity, constant AAU tournaments. There is no such overtraining hysteria in other sports. Sure, don't torch kids in any sport, but this idea that MS and HS have to keep miles ultra low is absurd.
I didn't even really train in middle school and my mile performance improved almost every meet. Our training would consist of a few sprints or maybe a short jog.