Run Training for the Young Athlete

I started cross country running all the way back in 1985, when my father took me along to the Sunfresh Pakuranga Harriers Club.

I don't remember much from those days, other than trudging through the muddy paddocks on a course that ran us up the hill that the suburb Highland Park is now built on. It's a very different looking hill now compared to how it was back then.

I was 8 years old, had no idea what I was doing, but loved every minute of what Cross Country gave me, and I wanted more and more of it. I knew nothing about run training back then, and other than being fortunate to have a couple of group sessions from the great Running Coach, Arthur Lydiard, all I knew was to lace up my shoes and get out the door as much as I could.

For the first few years my running was going pretty well. I was getting some solid results in the local Cross Country races, and I even ran a 1:29 Half Marathon when I was 13 years old…in hindsight this was a mistake. I certainly wasn’t the fastest kid in the races, but one things for sure, 35 years later I’m still running, and most of those boys who were beating me didn’t make it to the Senior grades due to injury or became burnt out from the training.

I had my fair share of injuries too….Stress Fractures, Severs Disease, Osgood Schlatters Disease, Plantar Fasciitis….all the usual injuries a young runner is prone to without being careful in the training. I feel these injuries came at times that really limited my progression in the sport, and I missed some great opportunities to go on to some exciting races.

Had I known then what I know now I would have spent less time running on the road, doing some sports that required different movements and explosive actions, and more regularly followed the advice of a Coach who knew what I needed. The help I had at the Harriers club was great, but there was always an emphasis on running more and more.

These days when I hear stories of the volume very young athletes are running, and at the pace they’re doing these runs in, I get very concerned. I shake my head like a learned old man, and often wonder if the advice I have given young athletes over my years of being a Sports Podiatrist and Endurance Coach, just falls on deaf ears. The introduction of Strava and other social training apps hasn’t helped either as it’s easy to see what others are doing in training, and it becomes an online battle of ‘who does more wins’.

Young athletes in their pre-teen and early teen years don’t need to be running massive amounts of volume. Instead they need to be doing shorter bouts of low intensity running, some short bursts of top end speed work, technique to improve form, and the discipline of turning up to races fresh, and then perhaps most importantly, recovering well from the training and racing performed. On top of that they need to be partaking in other sports that gives a variety of movements, and has a fun social element, to take from the monotony of the solo endurance runner.

So when a good friend of mine asked me to write a Training Plan for his 12 year old son to race in his School Cross Country I saw this as a great opportunity to help mold a young, super keen lad, who wants to perform well in a fun event.

Funnily enough this plan took me a lot longer to write than I expected it would as I needed to take myself back to when I was 12, what I was running then, and how would I have done it differently….over 30 years had passed so it was a real challenge. But I think I came up with a plan to help this young lad do his best, avoid injury, and most of all have fun.

I’ve added a link to the plan for you to download for free and hand on to anyone you know of between the age of 10-14 years old who may benefit from it.