Cross country parents- elementary runners

[Rachel]

Does anyone have an elementary aged cross country runner? My 1st and 3rd grader will be participating in cross country this year. They will be part of a team of homeschoolers for meets, but will run on their own for practice. What type of training plan do you use? Do you have any website recommendations?

 

Races will be 2k or 3k depending on the meet. I'm a runner and have a good feel for when I'm training too hard but I don't want to wear my kids out. They have done swim team all summer but that has ended so they are in good shape, just not running shape. The first meet is in a month. Today I went with them and had them run 2 minutes then walk a minute. My 1st grader was pretty tired by the end but the both did great. I will continue to run with them and we will try to do some practices with friends, I just need some guidance.

[MEmama]

Mine started running in elementary. No training plan at that age, just regular practice with the team during season.

 

My only advice: keep it fun and don't overdo. We saw a lot of kids burn out early because their runner parents inadvertently put too much pressure on them. As long as they are averagely active, I wouldn't have them "train" or concentrate it on too much. Just make it playtime, you know?

[Rachel]

Mine started running in elementary. No training plan at that age, just regular practice with the team during season.

 

My only advice: keep it fun and don't overdo. We saw a lot of kids burn out early because their runner parents inadvertently put too much pressure on them. As long as they are averagely active, I wouldn't have them "train" or concentrate it on too much. Just make it playtime, you know?

Thanks! They won't have regular team practices which makes it difficult. It's basically some homeschooling parents that put together a team and found some schools to compete against. I definitely don't want them to burn out and they are active kids. I just need some guidance for how often and how long they should run each week.

 

There are a couple parents who have had their kids participate before that I can talk to, but one is a competitive runner and the other is competitive in sports in general. I want to make sure my kids aren't working too hard but at the same time I want them prepared for the meets.

[MEmama]

Thinking about this more, when my son was that age the races were a mile. It was a long way for the younger ones and just right for upper elementary.

 

Where we live, the middle school races are 3k and high school is 5k. Just to give some perspective on length.

[Rachel]

My 3rd grader is the one where it might be a 2k or 3k, most of the races are 2k though. I think out of 8, 2 are 3k. The 1st grader would only do 2k.

[MEmama]

Thanks! They won't have regular team practices which makes it difficult. It's basically some homeschooling parents that put together a team and found some schools to compete against. I definitely don't want them to burn out and they are active kids. I just need some guidance for how often and how long they should run each week.

 

There are a couple parents who have had their kids participate before that I can talk to, but one is a competitive runner and the other is competitive in sports in general. I want to make sure my kids aren't working too hard but at the same time I want them prepared for the meets.

We posted at the same time. :)

 

IIRC, DS only had practice maybe once or twice a week at that age. Mostly they consisted of stretching (kid style), jumping around, doing fun relays and the like. Fun and games with some light running in the mix. Nothing like "training", though. I would highly discourage that at such young ages (fwiw keeping it fun paid off; he now runs 10ks and competes in triathlons--there's no rush. :) )

[Ali in OR]

My dd runs with a middle school team (6th, 7th, and 8th) and their races are 3K. What I appreciate most is that the coaches stress warm-ups and stretches. Not sure that would have meant as much to me when dd was an invincible elementary kid, but with middle school growth spurts, injuries are much more frequent (based on my experience with dd, her soccer teammates, and her running peers). Practices are 3 days a week and in season there is also a meet day, so running 4 days a week. Practices are an hour and 15 minutes. They do a short warm-up run, then warm-ups and stretches, then a longer run or activity like sprints (they split into groups based on how fast/fit they are here), then a good 15 minutes of stretches at the end. When my dd started getting heel pain last year, I really started appreciating that the coaches were already doing all of the stuff her PT recommended--active warm-ups, calf stretches, etc. And it just instills good life-long habits for runners.

 

[MEmama]

My 3rd grader is the one where it might be a 2k or 3k, most of the races are 2k though. I think out of 8, 2 are 3k. The 1st grader would only do 2k.

I was wrong. In 1st and 2nd grade, the kids ran 1/2 mile. In 3rd and 4th, they ran 3/4 mile. 5th graders ran 1 mile. Middle school is 3k.

 

You might have a look at USATF and see if they list recommended lengths. I *think* our rec program met USATF guidelines but I can't recall for certain.