Discussion: Kids Training

I'm currently 13 years old so I'm still growing so training daily would be very bad for me. I've heard a couple of suggestions on how much i should do and they all vary. So does anyone know how much training i should do without affecting my growth?

G'day Todd, the best thing you can do at your age is to get involved with a range of activites and sports. You should not focus too much on just running or orienteering. What other sports do you like doing?

I wouldn't recommend doing any more than 3 or so runs a week but you could certainly do some swimming, cycling or team sports on top of that.

I would say, based mostly on personal experience, that 3 to 4 training sessions a week (including the weekend competition) for less than an hour each won't hurt. I don't think speed training is appropriate at 13, so I would suggest easy/medium-pace runs for up to 30 minutes complemented by a small amount of stretching, some strength exercises, and soccer/basketball.

Hey Todd i'm in the same boat! I just turned 15 and i have no idea how much and what kind of training i should be doing. anyone have any ideas?

I remember i wasn't doing to much 2 years ago. I think one weekend competition almost every week, and at that point i think i was dancing twice a week (i stopped somewhere around there) and i walk a mile to and from school almost every day. I don't think that was enough i think i should have been running more, I'm very slow now. Do you have a cross country or track team at school you could run with? as i think that would help a lot.

I've asked Albin Ridefelt, the 15-year-old in my club, who won the Swedish 15-under orienteering champs this past year, about his training. In the winter, he does a long woods run on tuesdays, night orienteering on wednesdays, intervals thursdays, at least one orienteering technique training on the week-end, and plays innebandy (floor hockey) fridays and one of the week-end days. Adds up to 8-10 hours of pretty serious training per week. Don't know if you can extend that to all 15-year-olds, and I also don't know how this will work out for him in the long run, but it sure seems to be working right now!

As I've been training this age group for many years, here is some of the advice I give athletes who are interested in training on a regular basis:

Up until the year you turn 15 (i.e I mean in this year) you should train as and when you feel like it, but no more than 4 times a week (running) - other sports are great and more than welcome. You may add some structure if you feel like you want to, but it is not necessary. Do all the club trainings and races (OL I mean) that you can. If anything hurts where it shouldn't, talk to your folks or a trainer you know as soon as possible and STOP running until you know what the problem was / is. Take every 4th week or so off (i.e no running) - this is a general rule and applies to most junior athletes! No one single run over 60 minutes.

In the year that you turn 15 you may start structured training, but as a general rule of thumb not more than 5 times a week in the first year. Try and find a more experienced athlete or trainer who can give you advice and help with some basic training plans. Try and find a group of friends who would also like to train and make plans to train with them 2 or 3 times a week. Your longest run should not be more than 80 minutes, but this is also just a rule of thumb. Take every 4th week off (or so)! Run faster and shorter (i.e. longer runs in the younger ages are not very useful), go to the track if you can once a week at least. OL is a hill sport, so hit the hills once a week if you can. Do all the club trainings and races. Keep up the other sports as a fun balance. Keep the quality high and the quantity low. You should not be running more than 4 - 5 hrs a week!

Generally every athlete is different and what works for some will not work for others. If you are serious about it, set yourself some goals, get a personal guide / trainer and most importantly HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS POSSIBLE!

I don't know what the peer-reviewed research (if any) shows on this issue. But I've heard from some youth running coaches that youth should focus more on leg speed (because supposedly, fast-twitch fibers can only be developed young) than endurance and avoid doing too many miles, due to the risk of repetitive stress injuries and the possible negative effects on growth.

I suspect there are different limits for teenagers than for younger kids. It is common for 13 and 14 year olds to run 7 days a week on high school cross country and track teams, and I'm not aware of any epidemics of stunted growth among these athletes. I started training pretty seriously (4-7 days and 20-50 miles per week) when I was 13.6 years old, and I'm 5'11.4" (181 cm) tall. Maybe I would have been another inch tall if I hadn't trained hard while I was still growing in high school, and some would say I'm immature in other ways, but who knows if that's even credible, never mind related to training!

Anyway, as is true for everyone, good nutrition and sleep are important. I also think that youth athletes tend to be more driven and may neglect to back off when an injury comes on and could benefit from proper care early on, so that's something to exercise some discipline about. Always remember to introduce any changes to your exercise regimen gradually, and intersperse plenty of easy days and weeks. That's the way to avoid injuries and get the most physical benefit from your training.

Good luck and have fun in your training!

Thanks guys

yep thank you!

When I was around 10-12 I used to train every day for cross country/track and in the winter speed skating.
At you age there is no harm that can come from running 5-10km.
I would not suggest running more then 10km because at your age it would just not be benificial for you.
It might be good to not focous on just one sport.
When I was training a lot I ran, did bike racing, speed skating, and basketball (until I was too short).
So just go at it, when you are younger will will be suprised how fast you can improve if you try hard.


Also me being too short was not from training a lot, I have celiac disease so that was what afected my growth.

I started training reasonably seriously (as in 5 days/week or so) at 13. With hindsight I think this was a year or two too early, as I had some injury problems in the first year (although none thereafter for a long time) - and I've seen a lot of injured 14-year-old distance runners in general.

The advice to do a range of things is good, I think. It was something I never took a lot of notice of myself because I wasn't much good at any other sort of sport (as evidenced by my alternate lives as a three-runs-per-hour opening batsman, or a soccer player whose chief function was to run around a lot in the vicinity of the ball and hope that no-one noticed that I couldn't do anything with it once I got it), but if you've got interests and abilities elsewhere those are well worth keeping up, at least for the time being.

Remember that the ground is pretty hard in southern Australia, particularly in drought. Have a talk to the younger locals who have developed shin problems in the past few years... clara, ilks, big ev, Bryan. Its obviously a serious risk here. Those pine needle covered forests around Macedon look soft. Not much of that up here in Bendigo.

Jorgen Martensson once told me that at 13-16 he was an average orienteer, he ran a bit, but also played soccer. At 15 he started attending an orienteering school, and from 17 he really built up his running training over the next 2-3 years to over 12hrs a week (mainly LSD in the forest). He maintains that this was the basis for his success - once in his 20s he could easily sustain a high workload without injury. Seems to me that Hanny is following this same model, and I'm confident she will continue to be successful.

I ran 30-40 miles a week as a pre-teen and it didn't stop me from hitting 6'1". I didn't get my first overuse injury until I was in my 20's. I wasn't really training for anything - I just liked to run. That said, I wouldn't recommend my regime to anybody else. The risk of permanent injury is too great at that age.

As you get into your late teens and early 20's, you can start experimenting with longer and more frequent training and see how your body responds. Everybody is different and you really don't want to lay yourself up when you're young.

One thing I did do a lot of in my 12-14 years was pacing. I used to try to run loops as evenly and consistently as possible. This has served me very well later in life as I rarely run into serious problems with misjudging effort. This is the sort of thing that anybody can get good at and it doesn't hurt you body at all (assuming you are dialing in a modest pace).

For any kids (or anyone else) who may not know, "LSD" in Simmo's post is a runner's nickname for "long slow distance".

I didn't have much success with team sports in school & wasn't a particularly fast runner, but about 15 I started to get pretty serious about long distance bicycling. I was never real fast at that either, but by the time I was mid-way through high school (maybe 17), I could easily do century (hundred mile) rides. I think I did my first double century (200 miles in under 24 hours) sometime around my senior year.

When I started college, I also started to do a lot of hiking, but I didn't learn about orienteering until a few years later. Actually, from the time I was 10 or 11, I could spend all day in the woods, but I didn't really start hiking long distances until college).

Thanks guys, sorry for the mistake i think its actually that my joints and things aren't fully developed rather than how tall im gonna be though
:D Can't believe how many people are writing here