Taper Madness

[e]

Be still my heart. My youngest, Molly, is forsaking volleyball and has decided to run cross country this fall. I know absolutely nothing about helping her get in shape and browsing the net has yielded not much.

If anyone out there can give me some advice to guide her. School starts in about 7 weeks. She was just given the OK for sports from her ortho and is raring to go. (She suffered an ankle stress fracture playing soccer in April). So her soccer conditioning is gone and she is basically starting from scratch. She is a rising high school freshman.

TIA!
_________________
Marathon Maniac #712
28 marathons
9 ultras

[Ehof]

It sounds like this is starting with no previous running experience.

Mostly easy paced runs for most of the summer would be fine. The most important thing is to build up mileage and get used to distance running. A specific structured training plan is probably not neccesary, but consistency is key.

[1L]

I start my middle school kids here with 2 miles every other day. Most of them will not be able to run the whole distance at the begining, but I try to teach them about "pacing" and let them know that walking is ok, but I also try to teach more of "gallowalk" approach isf they need to walk i.e. start running again easy as soon as you feel like you can.

I know that Molly with be a freshman, but we don't want her to hate running by the time school rolls around. Since she was/is pretty athletic, I'm betting those 2 milers will seem easy in a couple of weeks, and then she can smartly increase the distance or no. of days. I, personally, think that the 10% rule is key here especially with young girls since they tend to err on too much too soon, and get injured. Keep it fun!

I've never been able to get my daughter to stick with it (she has her Dad's sprinter's genes), but I have had many kids go on to successful high school careers.
_________________
-Miles of smiles, M i c h e l e

They are the sandbaggers, we are the sandbags - No Twitch Muscles 11/17/07

Marathon Total: 36; States: 22; Provinces: 1; Countries: 2

Maniac #795

[Judy Denver]

No advice, but a big Woohoo for this latest development. I hope Molly loves running as much as her mama does.
_________________
"Through the years, I have learned that there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration." - Steve Martin

Marathon Maniac #835. Check out my 50 states progress at: MarathonGeeks

Current Tally:
52 Marathons, 2 Ultras
40 States, 1 Province, 2 Countries, 1 Continent

[Rita]

check on runningtimes.com... I think I saw something about this subject titled 'the way to a fast fall is a steady summer' or some such... and a big 'woo hoo' from me, it's one of my favorite sports...

" no time outs, no substitution, no bench... a REAL sport"

alternately

"trample the weak, hurdle the dead"
_________________
"We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves..." Sir Roger Bannister

freerice.com

[Scuba]

Not much to add, but I don't suggest doing what my cross country coach did on day one of our season. He drove us 3 miles out of town and dropped us off with the instruction to run back to school...he wasn't so skilled in cross country coaching.

Good luck to Molly! I loved cross country!
_________________
Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are...Nkosi Johnson

[e]

I remember those days Christine. My high school was on the outskirts of my hometown in Iowa. We were so "blessed" to be able to go out and run a nice 4 mile square out on the back country roads for track practice. We knew our coach was having a bad day whenever he told us to just go run the square. We carried no water and no one ever checked up on us. I bet they don't let kids do that any longer!

I took it easy on Molly the first couple days. Had her run 2 miles with me easy and then I went and ran the rest of my workout. Today we did a warm up mile and then I had her run hill repeats on a nice steep hill close to our house. I think it's about 200 meters. Let her walk down. She did 5 of those. Tomorrow I'm taking her and 3 of her other runner friends to run some trails. I'm sure we'll be doing a lot of walking.
_________________
Marathon Maniac #712
28 marathons
9 ultras

[KRob]

[goober]

[e]

Thanks for the article links KRob. I look at where she is right now and wonder how she's going to last through 2 hour practices in August heat.

And Goober...you are a bad boy. We also had tracks running through our route and nice tall corn but being a Catholic girl attending a Catholic high school I never would have thought of cutting through.
_________________
Marathon Maniac #712
28 marathons
9 ultras

[GBN]

2-hour practices? I seem to remember most of that time being spent fooling around rather than actually running.

As long as she can hang with the other kids by the start of the school year, she'll be fine. Its the kids who get dropped on those initial training runs who lose interest and quit the sport prematurely. 3-miles comfortably would be a good summer goal. I wouldn't recommend she run the Rattlesnake 50K with you this weekend.