The Development of a Young Marathoner



Wow, what a controversial title. Now before I get a ton of negative feedback, I am not advocating young runners to run marathons. But rather what I am talking about is how can we help some younger runners develop , if their interest and goals ultimately lay in the longer distances, before they ultimately step up to the marathon.


In particular, this question as arisen for me as my daughter, Alana Hadley’s, long term goals and interest center around becoming an elite half marathon and marathon runner. Because of this I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about, researching and talking to other coaches, researchers, doctors, physiologists and kinesologists about how best to help a young runner develop into an elite marathoner. Then applying what I have learned in coaching and guiding my daughter.

In this blog entry I want to share a little of what I have learned, about what path I believe is best and then use her as an example how that might be executed and how it’s going so far.

First and foremost I do not believe you can or should push any young runner down this path, they have to want it and be driven internally (intrinsically motivated) to want to pursue this. A continued love of the sport and desire to run, and run a lot, has to be a given. If that love and desire is ever not there, then things have to change and everything re-examined. The mental and physical health of the youngster is paramount. But assuming that everything is good and the young runner wants to pursue this path and has a passion for it, then below are some of my thoughts on how to proceed. Alana truly loves the sport and is passionate about her goals, so I think it’s ok to talk about the path she is on as an example.

I believe the early path of a young runner with longer distance aspirations, is comprised of three different co-existing objectives.

1) Fundamentals: You want to establish good fundamentals and foundations in the sport. This includes establishing good warm-up and cool-down routines and habits; learning the proper ways to think about and execute each workout type (when they are introduced); working on form and strength drills to develop a good, strong and efficient running form; and establishing a training pattern that ensures proper stress sessions are always followed by adequate recovery time. Additional training fundamentals that are important to teach include topics such as proper nutrition and good sleep habits. These fundamentals will ensure the runner has a solid foundation in the sport which will be critical during their development, and in their ability to successfully handle the rigors of marathon training later on.

2) Increasing Capacity: You need to begin a slow and methodical building up of the young runners work capacity. This means that slowly over time you want to increase the frequency of their runs, the duration of their runs/workouts, and begin to work in the other ancillary items (strength and core work) that are important to their training. This must be done slowly! I believe the best way to do this is to make your changes small and then wait until the runner’s body has fully adapted to the new work level and had a chance to gain most all of the benefits it can from it, before making another change. One of the keys to doing this is consistency in weekly routine, so that the body can better adapt to stresses of training as well as any growth changes their bodies are under-going as young people. Since we are talking about young people here, I also think it is best to plan out what the next steps are in their progression but not to put a set start date for each, but rather leave that decision to be based on when they are ready. If they experience a growth spurt or have others stresses in their life, the movement to the next step in their progression may need to be delayed or revisited. Side Note: all plans should be written in pencil when dealing with kids, because they can and will change.

3) Workout Balance: Follow a balanced mixture of workouts, so that the young runner begins to develop (as evenly as possible) all the things they will need in order to be successful in the long term. In older runners, I call this even mixture of workouts a Fundamental Phase in their training cycle. I believe that our young runners should be in an extended or perpetual Fundamental Phase, so that they can grow and evenly develop as a runner. In this Fundamental phase of even development, weaknesses are addressed and progressions can be made on an on-going basis. This means that speed, stamina and endurance must all be worked on, on a regular basis. A weakness in one area will retard the development of the young runner so it is addressed immediately. One of the great side benefits of this approach is that because of this even development and balanced mix of workouts. the young runner is able to race very effectively over a broad range of race distances.

So in review, we are helping the future marathoner/half marathoner prepare by giving them the foundation in the sport that will help them be efficient and stay injury free, we are slowly helping them build the work capacity they will need in order to handle marathon training, and we are making sure they are evenly developing all the skills in running needed to make continual fitness progressions and enter marathon specific training as a fitter and evenly balanced runner.

Now, as an example let’s take a look at how I have handled each of these three co-existing objectives with Alana.

Fundamentals: The last 8 years has been about teaching Alana good training habits. She has set warm-up and cool-down routines that she does that have been engrained to the point of it feeling weird if she doesn’t do them. She slowly learned the right way to approach and execute each workout type as they were introduced into her program which took many years and is still on-going. For example, we just introduced wave workouts (stamina) into her training mix in the past year, after 8 years of running, as she was finally ready for them mentally and physically. I have established a drill/strength session as well as a core session that Alana has learned and progressed in under the watchful eye to make sure all form elements are properly executed, which has gradually improved the strength, reliability and efficiency of her form. And she and I have talked extensively about the need for proper efforts (i.e. not too hard) in her training routine in order to ensure a good stress and recover cycle. Alana is also very good eater in terms of quantity, quality and variety, and in addition she takes certain supplements to ensure she gets all she needs. She is a Hadley, she likes food. 

Increasing Capacity: As outlined in a recent Running Times article, Alana’s increase in capacity has been slow and steady since her beginning in the sport. Because of that and the fact that she has been running regularly for over 8 years now, her weekly capacity for work has grown to a significant level and one beyond most any runners her age. But because we have taken it slow and made sure the changes were small, her body has adapted very well to each change and has she has gotten stronger and faster and has never experienced any injuries. People often marvel at the fact that she can handle a 75-80 mile training week (on 11 runs) on a regular basis. But given her slow and consistent progression to this point, it feels normal to her and isn’t any big deal. While 75-80 miles a week is a good workload, it isn’t a big deal when worked up to consistently over an 8 year period of time. Alana has grown regularly and steadily over this period of time and we now believe she is nearing her full grown height (she is just shy of 5’4”) and has experienced the normal physical changes young people go through at this age. At this point her training is broken-up into 2 training cycles per year, with small increases in capacity added in with each new cycle, and with a 1-2 week Regeneration Break taken at the end of each training cycle, so training changes/increases only come once every 6 months or so. As I mentioned Alana has never had an injury in her 8 yrs as a runner, and her muscle and ligament strength, joints and bone density are outstandingly good.

Workout Balance: Alana remains in a perpetual Fundamental Phase with a balanced workout mix year round. After building up slowly during the first five years, Alana now does 3 stress workouts per week, in a normal training week, with one focused on Speed, one focused on Stamina and one focused on Endurance. Because of this balanced mixture of work, her development has remained even and she can do workouts in each category at the same equivalency level as the other two categories. Additionally her twice weekly form/strength drills include multiple 50 meter sprints at top speed. The result has been a balanced runner who has seen good and on-going progressions in fitness and race times across all distances

Racing

I believe in regular and diverse, but not too frequent, racing for young runners on this path. Alana races once every 3-8 weeks on average or about 8-10 times per year. Alana regularly races a variety of distances ranging from 5k to the half marathon. For example, so far in 2011 Alana has raced 9 times including 4 - 5k’s, 1 - 6k, 1 - 10k and 3 - half marathons, and has 1-2 more 5k’s scheduled.

As I mentioned earlier, the even mixture of workouts allow her to race very effectively at a wide variety of distances (5k-HM), a hallmark of the Fundamental Phase of training.

One of the thing that I believe has been a major part of her continued success and progression, and is something I suggest to all runners on this path, is the fact that my wife and I do not allow her to race a new distance until we believe she has progressed to the point in her training where she can race at the new distance at the same equivalency level as her other races. This means that she was not allowed to race a half marathon until this year (and won her first one) and it will mean that she will not be allowed to race a full marathon for several more years. But that when she finally does race a new distance, she is able to compete at a high level in it.

Results So Far

So given everything I have described above what results have we seen? Alana has made a remarkable progression in the sport both physically and mentally. Her progression in race times has been:

Age 6: 5k in 29:13
Age 7: 5k in 25:36
Age 8: 5k in 23:53
Age 9: 5k in 21:07
Age 10: 5k in 19:17
Age 11: 5k in 18:14, 10k in 40:08
Age 12: 5k in 17:32, 8k in 29:37, 10k in 38:081
Age 13: 5k in 17:09, 10k in 37:26, 15k in 58:07
Age 14: 5k in 17:06, Half Marathon in 1:16:58 (36:10 10k and 58:33 10 mile en-route)
(early January birthday – she turn 15 in January 2012)

What she has found, and what I suspected for some time now, is that she has excelled in the longer races. In particular the half marathon seems to fit her very well mentally, personality wise and physical talent wise. This is a validation in her eyes, and mine as well, that her goals and interest in the longer races makes sense for her.

During the fall of 2011, she has twice broken the national and world age record for 14 years old females in the half marathon; first with a 1:17:15 performance at the Virginia Beach Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon in September (where she finished 10th overall) and then most recently with a 1:16:58 performance at the Savannah Rock n’ Roll event earlier this month (where she was 3rd overall).  And all of this from a fundamental phase with no specific phase to peak for a race.  With a specific phase she would have likely gone lower, maybe even significantly so.

But perhaps the best sign that this path is working has been her mental outlook in all of her 3 half marathons this year. She really enjoyed and remained positive throughout each. On her most recent race (her half marathon record in Savannah) she offered this insight: “I was happy and optimistic the whole way, I don’t think I had a negative thought the whole race.” In my eyes that is quite the statement to make in such a demanding race and one at which you are setting a world age record. She enjoys and excels at this type of race (half marathon) and seems to like, handle and is more confident and consistent at it than the shorter races, even though her training indicates she has equal physical ability at each distance in her range (5k to HM).

Next Steps

So the logical question is “where does Alana go from here?”

The answer to that is - more of the same. She will continue to stay in a Fundamental Phase in her training year round, with a good mixture of workouts to stay evenly developed, and she will race a variety of distances, from 5k on the track to half marathons on the road. Her training will continue to progress slowly in capacity and it is very likely we will see continued development all around.

Just as has happened this past year, as her times continue to progress she will have the opportunity to run in bigger and better races so that she has good competition and gets much needed experience. She enjoys and welcomes these opportunities; it gives her a glance at the future she hopes for.
Then at some point off in the distant future, when her training has slowly progressed to the point that she is ready to run a marathon at the same equivalency level as her shorter distance times, we will allow her to try that distance as well.

Then if all goes well, from that point on she will follow the 3 phase training cycles that I described in my last blog. Each training cycle she would go through a Fundamental Phase of balanced work and racing at shorter distances, to improve her all around fitness and progression as a runner, and then enter a short Specific Phase where she will peak for a goal half marathon or marathon, and then take a Regeneration Break before beginning again.

No major changes from what she has been doing the last several years except for the addition of a Specific Phase before big races to maximize readiness.

She is happy and excited about this plan, so regardless of how good she gets or doesn’t get, that is her likely course for the future as it stands now.

But as with all things involving kids, we are leaving the door wide open for changes. We will take each milestone as it comes and make each needed decision as we get to it.

Unconventional Path

We realize that this path is very unconventional. Most young runners take a different approach. But given Alana’s talents, desires and skills, she and I believe this is the right one for her. She has such a love for the sport that watching her embrace each step has been a joy. She is happy with what she is doing and obviously it is working for her very well.

I have been cautioned by many people to make sure that her speed continues to develop along with her endurance and stamina. Absolutely that is part of the plan. She regularly has speed workouts and if anything her basic speed may be one of her greater strengths. I am a firm believer that a balanced runner is the one who is most likely to continue to progress. In fact my 3 phase training cycle is centered on that, with the bulk of the training cycle (the Fundamental Phase) centered around promoting even development and shoring up weaknesses.

I believe the current high school and youth track/XC system in this country works fine for 98% of the runners it serves, which is a pretty good success rate. But Alana is in the other 2%. She does not desire to race as frequently or at the shorter distances mandated in that system. But that is fine, that system is not geared towards developing longer distance elite runners, which is what Alana wants to become. The path we have chosen we feel does that much better.

A few people have expressed concern that this path may not include running for a college/university team.  That is something she will not make a decision on until later on down the road.  But rest assured that Alana is a very smart young lady (straight A’s in her first quarter of High School) with a lot of academic talents and will be attending a top college whether or not she decides to run for them.

Questions
Well there you have it, my thoughts on helping a young runner develop into an elite marathoner. Your thoughts and questions are always welcomed.