Run-Down Forums

[Guest]

Hi, I have a question to ask a bout getting my little sister into shape for track. She's 11 years old, and she has never run before, but is very athletic, and I am a state champion highschool miler, so she's got the genes, and she's built just like me (5'9", 95p). She's very motivated, but my problem is that I don't know how to train her. If she just jumps in with the workouts that I do, but at a slower pace, she'd probably get to frustrated, and I'm afraid that if I just made up stuff for her to do, I'd be too hard on her, and I definatly don't want to extinguish her love for running before she even starts.
Thank you
PS. She did a time trial with her school basketball team, and got 6:45, and she says it was pretty easy

[Dan]

At that age, my advice would be to just keep everything fun. Treat it as an activity more than training, and she should enjoy many more years of success. Quite often, the best young high school runners are the ones that actually trained in junior high and earlier, and they're nowhere to be seen by their senior year...

Dan