Training for teenagers

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CumbriAndy Jun 2012 1:35pm, 1 Jun 2012 731 posts	0 CumbriAndy Probably best to start with a bit of background. We have a fifteen year old son - he's pretty active (does conditioning work before school three days a week, plays rugby for Kendal U16s during the season and respresents both his school and the South Lakes at discus and 400m during the summer) and has recently decided he wants to come to races with me. As a point of principle, I've no problem with him running and we've recently taken part in two local 10k races. He's done very well - 45/46 minutes - but, and here's the concern, on both occasions he's ended up feeling sick for hours afterwards. Obviously, we'd like him to be able to race without it making him ill. I suspect, based primarily on intuition, that the nausea is down to the fact that he's asking his body to do something it's not really used to (i.e. running hard for an extended period) and that the problem can probably be solved by some better training/conditioning specific to running distances. I don't want him to end up overdoing things so don't want a specific 'maximise your potential at 10k' plan at the moment but do feel that he would benefit from doing a bit more distance a little more regularly. I propose to encourage him to get out two or three times a week for about 20-25 minutes and to throw in a longer, about 40 minutes, run every couple of weeks. I'll encourage him to run at a steady, conversational, pace leaving all his speedwork to the athletics club at school and the sprints/fartlek he does in his conditioning sessions. Our aim is for him to be able to replicate his recent times without making himself ill initially with increased speed hopefully following naturally as he goes on. Does all this make a degree of sense? Thoughts appreciated
CStar Jun 2012 9:38pm, 14 Jun 2012 760 posts	0 CStar Sounds a simple an straightforward approach. I'd love to get my 17 year old out once a week.
HellsBells Jun 2012 10:03pm, 14 Jun 2012 12,117 posts	0 HellsBells my almost 18 year old runs a bit, but has started feeling really ill after hard efforts, like races. He's skeletally thin at 5'10" and a bare 8 stone and it seems to be a low blood sugar thing with him. I've discovered that as long as I stuff food into him as soon as he finishes, even though he says he doesn't want it, he's much better. The only problem is that he finishes so far in front of me that I'm not there to make hime eat and he's not very good at making himself!