Run-Down Forums

[Scocon]

I currently have two kids (13-14 year olds)who are currently running 2:21 and 2:22 in the 800. They are able to run the 400 currently in about 59. We have been training about 3 1/2 weeks doing 200 and 400 workouts at around 37/74 and have been slowly decreasing these times. We have approxiametly 2-3 weeks left in the season. (middle school seasons are short) Within those 2-3 weeks we will be competing about 2 days per week. What do you guys feel these guys can reach time-wise by the end of two weeks and what should we do to get them to the lowest possible time with what we have to work with?
Thanks

[Distance_Guru]

I like what you're doing so far. As far as what these athletes can do in two weeks, your guess is as good as mine. The older an athlete gets the more predictable they are, and at 13-14 that makes your athletes really unpredictable. But hey I'll take a stab at it any way. It just so happens when I was in the 8th grade I was running times very similar (2:20 consisitantly)to what your guys are runnig in the last meet of the season I really went for it and ran 2:13! As a matter of fact I think that race is still one of my top 10 all time 800's (I'm a 10k guy). So what does this little story tell us about your kids, nothing, but if you keep up the steady decrease of times in interval workouts and they have a good race my guess would be 2:15-17 with a pretty big margin for error. Good lick.

_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

[Hammer]

A lot may have to do with the motivation of the runners. I was reminded by one of my friends last night that: "Believing that you are fast is often more important than having the best strategy."

You are doing a good job. Just make sure you sell your kids on the program. Make them believe that it is the right thing and it will have positive results.

[Dan]

Question: As good as those kids are in the 800, I think they might be even better in the 400. Any reason you're not testing them further in that event?

Dan