Lab Report: The Young at the Rusted

Training Concessions to Runner's Life Cycles

May 1, 2007

I started running reasonably seriously at age 14 and reached a peak in my twenties. In August I turn 50, and my body dictates the terms of my running. My daughter Annika is now 14 and starting to train and compete for the first time. Currently, we run together for up to 40 minutes. Dad is still stronger than daughter, but the gap is narrowing rapidly. Annika is at that wonderful stage in which she seems to get stronger and faster from week to week. I am definitely not at that stage but enjoy running as much as ever despite a few concessions to age.

Let’s take a closer look at the running lifecycle — what to expect and what to avoid — for young runners on the way up . . . and for the rest of us.

The wonders of youth and inexperience

Coaches and parents have a responsibility to guide the long-term development of school-aged runners. Often this means holding them back, which takes considerable discipline when other kids are training harder and running faster. It is too easy to compromise long-term success by pushing too hard for short-term gains. The following principles are designed to help manage the development of young runners.

1) Recognize differences in physical maturity: During puberty, there are large variations in development and performance between kids of similar ages. While the adolescent growth spurt typically occurs at 12 (+/-2) years for girls and 14 (+/-2) years for boys, many distance runners are relatively small and light and tend to be late maturers. As a result, it is difficult to gauge running talent until after puberty.

Puberty brings a variety of advantages for boys, including greater muscle mass and strength, and increased hemoglobin concentration. The effects of puberty on performance for girls are mixed, with fat levels tending to increase. Also, girls’ iron levels should be monitored due to blood losses from menstruation. When possible, take into account your runner’s stage of maturation and running history when planning training.

2) Build a solid aerobic base: Long-term improvement in races of 800 meters or longer comes primarily from aerobic training, which takes months and years to develop. If possible, try to have young runners begin their base training as early as possible before the competitive season starts to give your young athletes time for aerobic development. By keeping training fun and varied, you can provide solid aerobic training while maintaining young runners’ enthusiasm.

3) Increase training volume gradually: High school runners’ bodies are attempting workloads that they haven’t handled before, and it takes time for bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles to adapt. That is why shin splints and stress fractures are so common in young runners. A reasonable approach is to increase mileage by 10 to 20 percent, and maintain it at that level for two to three weeks before increasing again.

4) Use speedwork in moderation: Hard intervals sometimes lead to quick improvements, but the gains are often short-lived and the risk of overtraining and injury is relatively high. For distance runners, focus on longer intervals at race pace and leave the short reps for the end of the season.

5) Help young runners through setbacks: The strong 14-year-old runner with excellent running form may grow 6 inches and become a gangly 15-year-old who cannot control his body. Sometimes a young runner’s progress will go backwards while adapting to a changing body or dealing with illness or injury. During this time, runners need particular encouragement to maintain their self-confidence and enthusiasm for training.

The joys of self-knowledge and scar tissue

At the other end of the running life cycle, older runners with many years of running experience have powerful cardiovascular systems that avoid many of the age-related declines of our sedentary peers. Most of the decreases in cardiovascular function associated with aging are related to detraining, and by continuing to train a 60-year-old runner can have greater cardiovascular fitness than a sedentary 30-year-old. (That is no excuse, however, to avoid regular medical checks.) Similarly, various decreases in muscle strength, tendon elasticity, and so on, associated with aging can be reduced with continued training.

On the downside, you probably also have accumulated wear and tear from previous injuries. With over one thousand footstrikes per mile, your legs and back withstand a lot of jarring over the years. If you run 40 miles per week, your body absorbs those impact forces over two million times per year!

Past injuries generally leave a subtle reminder behind — a muscle that tightens up more quickly, an overstretched ligament, or a stiff joint. In my case, my body is like a car badly in need of a front-end alignment. If I run too far or too fast, I rattle myself to bits.

The following guidelines can help maintain your performance and enthusiasm when you have passed the peak of your running career.

1) Allow time to recover: Compared to 10 or 20 years ago, our bodies are less resilient. Providing enough recovery time allows your body to adapt positively to training. By increasing the proportion of recovery days to hard training days, you improve your chances of remaining healthy and running more consistently.

2) Increase distance and speed judiciously: The greatest risk of injury occurs when increasing the volume or speed of training, and increasing both at the same time often leads to disaster. Stick to your training plan, and avoid running with faster runners who take you beyond your current limits.

3) Incorporate cross-training: Cycling, swimming, elliptical training and other forms of cross-training are forgiving on the body, while further developing aerobic fitness. Alternating running with other activities can help maintain your enthusiasm for running while reducing the risk of overuse injuries.

4) Minimize road time: Staying off the road and sidewalks reduces the impact shock of running. Running on grass, trails and other soft surfaces also provides more variety for your body, which may reduce the likelihood of injury. With a little advance planning, most runners can do over half of their running off-road.

5) Don’t skip the warm-up and cool-down: Warming up is critical, particularly in cold weather. I can no longer bound out of bed and be running a few minutes later. Walking our border collie before running helps me loosen up so my body is ready to run. Cooling down after a hard run is more important now too, if I intend to get out of bed and run tomorrow.