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Message
Anyone here trained a kid for middle distance track?
Posted on 3/15/23 at 1:59 pm
Posted on 3/15/23 at 1:59 pm
My son is in the 8th grade and a decent 800m runner… but his coach (and me) has no real clue what they’re doing.
Just trying to get some training ideas/tips/recommendations if anyone has any.
TIA
Just trying to get some training ideas/tips/recommendations if anyone has any.
TIA
4
Posted on 3/15/23 at 2:06 pm to lowspark12
I ran the 800 m in HS
I feel like all I did was ladder workouts (100-200-400-800-1600-800-400-200-100) and 400 repeats
Poor kid, BTW, the 800 fricking blows
I feel like all I did was ladder workouts (100-200-400-800-1600-800-400-200-100) and 400 repeats
Poor kid, BTW, the 800 fricking blows
Posted on 3/15/23 at 2:26 pm to Salmon
quote:
I feel like all I did was ladder workouts (100-200-400-800-1600-800-400-200-100) and 400 repeats
This
Posted on 3/15/23 at 2:35 pm to Salmon
I second everything Salmon said
If you want, I can send you a PDF of Daniels Running Formula 3rd edition. It's not the newest edition but they have a chapter specifically on 800m training.
If you want, I can send you a PDF of Daniels Running Formula 3rd edition. It's not the newest edition but they have a chapter specifically on 800m training.
Posted on 3/15/23 at 3:31 pm to lowspark12
quote:
My son is in the 8th grade and a decent 800m runner
What are his times and where will he be going to HS?
quote:
Just trying to get some training ideas/tips/recommendations if anyone has any.
Have him do cross country if he hasn't already done it yet. I will try not to overload since he's so young and doesn't need to burn out by junior year of high school.
Middle distance runners should have a moderate amount of mileage in their bodies but shouldn't go as far as 5k runners would train. My big jump in the 800m came when I started focusing on active recovery between repeats. Jogging vs. complete recovery between repeats can be very helpful. There should be some emphasis on speed training between 400m-1200m.
A lot of 800m guys can run a solid 1600m, so I'm not sure what your son's 1600m is. That's why I mentioned putting some emphasis on mileage.
Lots of our Monday workouts featured higher intensity repeats, Wednesdays featured longer distance repeats. Tuesday/Thursday were long run/fartlek/tempo run & weight training days.
Don't overdo it with weights. Make them simple. Body weight and core exercises are extremely helpful.
Have several different pairs of shoes. 3 pairs should be able to get you from fall to spring no problem. Changing between shoes will help prevent injury.
Posted on 3/15/23 at 4:01 pm to BilbeauTBaggins
He’s had two meets… first was 2:38… second was 2:32. This is without any real organized training… hell, I just bought him spikes two days ago. With some decent work, he has room for improvement.
He’ll go to a Nashville public high school.
He’s run middle school cross country… it’s 2 miles. He will prob do xc in high school, but we’ll see. His mile time is 6:15ish.
Thanks for the info
… he’s only really done body weight exercises to date… not sure he’s ready for weights just yet (tho he thinks he is).
He’ll go to a Nashville public high school.
He’s run middle school cross country… it’s 2 miles. He will prob do xc in high school, but we’ll see. His mile time is 6:15ish.
Thanks for the info
… he’s only really done body weight exercises to date… not sure he’s ready for weights just yet (tho he thinks he is). Posted on 3/15/23 at 4:28 pm to lowspark12
Get him a Garmin or a watch that can track his runs
Garmin - Forerunner 45 GPS Smartwatch 42mm Fiber-Reinforced Polymer - Black
He should be running 5-6 days a week when high school rolls around. Summer time should be spent building mileage while also incorporating some speed stuff every now and then.
Tennessee has some fairly athletic distance/middle distance teams. Davis Bove is an LSU runner from the area. I would also recommend seeing what you can find on LetsRun even though it's the TD version of running communities. It can be wild on there.
You'll probably have a major jump when puberty really starts to hit. It benefits male runners immensely.
As mentioned in another reply, ladder work outs are helpful too. I would not go as low as 100m, because distance runnes will not benefit a whole lot by running that low, even 800m runners.
100000% get him to do XC in high school if he wants to do track. I did football in high school and had no idea what I was doing on the track, and pretty much wasted my time by competing in football.
Garmin - Forerunner 45 GPS Smartwatch 42mm Fiber-Reinforced Polymer - Black
He should be running 5-6 days a week when high school rolls around. Summer time should be spent building mileage while also incorporating some speed stuff every now and then.
Tennessee has some fairly athletic distance/middle distance teams. Davis Bove is an LSU runner from the area. I would also recommend seeing what you can find on LetsRun even though it's the TD version of running communities. It can be wild on there.
You'll probably have a major jump when puberty really starts to hit. It benefits male runners immensely.
As mentioned in another reply, ladder work outs are helpful too. I would not go as low as 100m, because distance runnes will not benefit a whole lot by running that low, even 800m runners.
100000% get him to do XC in high school if he wants to do track. I did football in high school and had no idea what I was doing on the track, and pretty much wasted my time by competing in football.
Posted on 3/15/23 at 4:33 pm to lowspark12
I think Leto over on the Auburn board is a track coach IRL. May want to hit him up over there.
Posted on 3/16/23 at 9:08 am to lowspark12
One of my 8th grade sons friends is asking that he run cross country with him in high school next year.
They’re both baseball players.
Is it common for xc runners to play other sports or is that something that requires specialization. I wouldn’t expect him to be competitive in xc, just wouldn’t want it to hurt him in other sports. Obviously I know nothing about xc.
They’re both baseball players.
Is it common for xc runners to play other sports or is that something that requires specialization. I wouldn’t expect him to be competitive in xc, just wouldn’t want it to hurt him in other sports. Obviously I know nothing about xc.
Posted on 3/16/23 at 9:23 am to Earnest_P
quote:
One of my 8th grade sons friends is asking that he run cross country with him in high school next year.
They’re both baseball players.
Had a teammate at LSU who did XC/Track/Baseball in HS. It's doable, but he was also pretty talented. I believe he had to mix up his training because baseball & track occur at the same time. I also think he was a pitcher, so he wasn't needed all the time.
Cross country is just long distance running over grass/fields/dirt/etc. In high school (outside of LA) you run 5k.
Baseball has more explosive play than cross country. There's very little endurance work in baseball. If he can do both, cool. If you want him to excel in a sport, I would have him pick either baseball or do track and XC.
I quit football in HS when I realized 1. I wasn't great at it, 2. XC would be better for me to get better at track, 3. I didn't suck at track and wanted to do it in college. I ended up walking on at LSU and was happy I made the decision to train in XC, but annoyed I wasted the first two years of HS doing football.
This post was edited on 3/16/23 at 9:27 am
Posted on 3/16/23 at 2:08 pm to Earnest_P
quote:
One of my 8th grade sons friends is asking that he run cross country with him in high school next year.
As for the OP, go talk to the high school track coach in your area. I'm sure they would be happy to give you some advice.
They’re both baseball players.
We had several basketball players that ran on my HS CC team to build endurance for BB, a couple of them made the varsity top 7 in CC. One also was top 3 in the Texas state tennis tournament. I was worried that guy would beat me if he had concentrated on just running.
This post was edited on 3/16/23 at 2:10 pm
Posted on 3/17/23 at 1:29 pm to Zappas Stache
I cant remember if we had a specific training program around the 800. All of us who ran the 800 ran the 1 mile and/or 2 mile in high school.
Salmon pretty much hit it on the head, ladder work outs.. The 800 in my opinion is the hardest event at a track meet.
My stomach hurts thinking about
Salmon pretty much hit it on the head, ladder work outs.. The 800 in my opinion is the hardest event at a track meet.
My stomach hurts thinking about
Posted on 3/17/23 at 3:37 pm to HamCandy
quote:
The 800 in my opinion is the hardest event at a track meet.
Yeah, you basically run a 400 and forget to stop. 300 hurdles is another contender in toughest event.
Posted on 3/18/23 at 5:51 pm to lowspark12
I’ve coached track and xc collegiately, currently coach high school xc and middle school track (got out of college due to travel/recruiting).
Would strongly reccomend focusing on building some aerobic capacity right now (typically the 800 isn’t super aerobic but given how young he is it will only help him in the long run). Doesn’t have to be anything earth shattering just 10-20 minute runs 2-3 times a week with some 100 strides during two of those runs.
Mark 2 days as hard workout days and have one “easy workout” day where he’s maybe not pushing himself as hard but focusing on things like form and race strategy. Have one of the workouts be short intervals (300 repeats, 200 repeats, 400 repeats, etc.) can even do some mixing of 2 x 400, 2 x 300, 2 x 200, 2 x 100 etc. To mix things up. The other workout would be things like the earlier mentioned ladder (or pyramid as I call it) type workout or broken intervals (I like these a lot for middle distance runners), which consist of like 4 x broken 800 (600/500 at goal race pace :45 off then come back and hit a hard 200/300 then take 2-3 minutes and do it again).
Have the easy workout day be something where he runs 10 minutes comes back and does a “conversational hard” 800or 1200 or even 1600(harder than easy but still easy enough that he can respond to questions without difficulty) to focus on his form and thinking about where he needs to make his moves during races.
I would also say not being scared to throw him in the occasional mile for endurance work or 400 for speed is good advice as well. Both will only help him become a better 800 runner.
As far as racing goes I like breaking the 800 in to 3 parts. 1 the first 200 meters should be relatively hard you’re fighting off the line for the breakpoint the first 100 and the next 100 to get a good position on the rail. The next 300-400 should be a solid stride focus. Not all out sprinting but not letting yourself settle into a jog either. The last 200-300 should be a gradual build into your finishing kick the last 50-100 meters.
Big thing I would recommend more than anything right now is not pushing him too hard. Let this be his thing and enjoy it. Definitely don’t not push him at all but only push him as much as he responds to (if that makes sense) he’s still super young and has a lot of time to get faster. I’ve seen a ton of kids that could have been phenomenal athletes get burnt out on running from being pushed way too hard way too fast. I just love this sport and hate seeing kids grow to hate it for reasons other than it just not being for them.
I hope your kid crushes it and if (5 years from now) he’s looking at colleges I have connections all over the place and can help y’all out with finding a good fit for him.
ETA: if he’s not planning on doing another fall sport would definitely recommend xc. That will be a huge help to him.
Would strongly reccomend focusing on building some aerobic capacity right now (typically the 800 isn’t super aerobic but given how young he is it will only help him in the long run). Doesn’t have to be anything earth shattering just 10-20 minute runs 2-3 times a week with some 100 strides during two of those runs.
Mark 2 days as hard workout days and have one “easy workout” day where he’s maybe not pushing himself as hard but focusing on things like form and race strategy. Have one of the workouts be short intervals (300 repeats, 200 repeats, 400 repeats, etc.) can even do some mixing of 2 x 400, 2 x 300, 2 x 200, 2 x 100 etc. To mix things up. The other workout would be things like the earlier mentioned ladder (or pyramid as I call it) type workout or broken intervals (I like these a lot for middle distance runners), which consist of like 4 x broken 800 (600/500 at goal race pace :45 off then come back and hit a hard 200/300 then take 2-3 minutes and do it again).
Have the easy workout day be something where he runs 10 minutes comes back and does a “conversational hard” 800or 1200 or even 1600(harder than easy but still easy enough that he can respond to questions without difficulty) to focus on his form and thinking about where he needs to make his moves during races.
I would also say not being scared to throw him in the occasional mile for endurance work or 400 for speed is good advice as well. Both will only help him become a better 800 runner.
As far as racing goes I like breaking the 800 in to 3 parts. 1 the first 200 meters should be relatively hard you’re fighting off the line for the breakpoint the first 100 and the next 100 to get a good position on the rail. The next 300-400 should be a solid stride focus. Not all out sprinting but not letting yourself settle into a jog either. The last 200-300 should be a gradual build into your finishing kick the last 50-100 meters.
Big thing I would recommend more than anything right now is not pushing him too hard. Let this be his thing and enjoy it. Definitely don’t not push him at all but only push him as much as he responds to (if that makes sense) he’s still super young and has a lot of time to get faster. I’ve seen a ton of kids that could have been phenomenal athletes get burnt out on running from being pushed way too hard way too fast. I just love this sport and hate seeing kids grow to hate it for reasons other than it just not being for them.
I hope your kid crushes it and if (5 years from now) he’s looking at colleges I have connections all over the place and can help y’all out with finding a good fit for him.
ETA: if he’s not planning on doing another fall sport would definitely recommend xc. That will be a huge help to him.
This post was edited on 3/18/23 at 5:55 pm
Posted on 3/18/23 at 5:54 pm to HamCandy
I fucjing hate the 800 more than anything I could never put together a good one. I raced it a few times in hs and did somewhat ok (think I topped at 2:10). Did it once in college coming off of my 1500 PR. Opened the first 500 meters in like 1:10 and felt like a damn animal. The last 300 meters were the most miserable experience of my life and I finished in 2:08
I could never put together a good one. I raced it a few times in hs and did somewhat ok (think I topped at 2:10). Did it once in college coming off of my 1500 PR. Opened the first 500 meters in like 1:10 and felt like a damn animal. The last 300 meters were the most miserable experience of my life and I finished in 2:08 
Posted on 3/18/23 at 8:15 pm to Pedro
I never got the chance to run the 800, my track coach only let me run the mile and 2 mile. Hated the 2 mile, the mile wasn't so bad. I think my best times were like 4:50 and 10:09.
Our best 800m runner would run the mile, 800m, and then one of the legs of the 4x400m. He would be easily under 2 minutes on the 800 and hover around 4:25 on the mile.
We both ran cross country in the fall so the mileage cross over to those middle distance/long distance races for track definitely helped.
Our best 800m runner would run the mile, 800m, and then one of the legs of the 4x400m. He would be easily under 2 minutes on the 800 and hover around 4:25 on the mile.
We both ran cross country in the fall so the mileage cross over to those middle distance/long distance races for track definitely helped.
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