Forums >Running 101>Kids running - how much is too much?
Overweight per CDC BMI
With my 5 year old son getting bored at home every day, I am trying to get him out on a run with me for exercise and he is more likely to be satisfied with the iPad or a movie if he is physically worn out. My wife and I are trying to both work remotely with a 1 & 5 year old so it is getting crazy. If I have him run 2-3 miles per day, is this too much day after day for 5?
He has run several 5k's before with a time of 38 minutes 6 months ago so I am not worried about the distance but so many consecutive days. Riding his bike for 3 miles doesn't seem to wear him out enough. Before everything shut down, he was doing swim team 2-3 times per week where they have them swimming laps for 50 minutes straight. Because of this swimming he has great cardio/stamina and I don't want him to lose that.
Memphis / 38 male
5k - 20:39 / 10k - 43:48 / Half - 1:34:47 / Full - 3:38:10
My son started running not too long after age 5. I would say 2 rest days a week would be fine- nothing over 4 or 5 miles.
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
Ditto what KSA said.
I coached age group Track and XC for about a dozen years. I saw some little kids on other teams get burned out before they were 10 because they were doing a lot of miles.
Keep it fun, like frisbee golf running between throws to finish the course as fast as possible, trails, some sort of game that involves running, different types of runs every day. If it's just "run 2 miles" then they will get turned off pretty fast. Also keep competition distances short. 5k is the longest race in high school (XC), and if they are already doing that in elementary school, they will have no distance to move UP to. Try to find some all-comers track meets this summer and have them try ALL events!
60-64 age group - University of Oregon alumni - Irreverent and Annoying
I agree with the others.
Take a step back and look at this objectively. I have no doubt you are great parents, but, when you say you are concerned about your 5 year old losing cardio fitness that is a little troubling.
It's ok to go for a run every now and then for a couple of miles. Structure the runs and they will be less likely to enjoy it and more likely to steer away from it once they get older. I have seen it many times before when the child was simply seeking their parent's approval and not doing it because they enjoy it.
At another level I have a friend that was part of an Olympic distance development team from his home country as a child. He was the biggest success from that group having been the only one that ran past the age of 17. And even at that he peaked in his performances at age 18. He has taken a different approach with his own children because of that program's failure.
Kid's exercise physiology is different than adults. That's why workouts designed for Olympians down-sized for kids don't really work as well as workouts designed for KIDS. SO MANY coaches out there just take, say, Centrowitz' workouts, and shorten the distances/times by 20-50% thinking it's a great way to go.
When I was coaching, one of the fathers was concerned about our workouts, and said "when I was in college running the 400, we did...". I told him that his daughter was 12, and that collegiate workouts would be excessive and likely counter-productive. To back it up, I gave him my folder of photocopied studies and surveys of training kids for athletics. After he read through those and others, he was totally on board.
The main thing is overall fitness and agility. Activities that use all the muscle groups and involve coordination as well as a bit of cardio should be at least half of the exercise young runners get. We did ultimate frisbee sometimes, and a lot of fun relays that are kind of like what they do for crossfit and bootcamp gyms these days. But yeah, actual running workouts like the weekly long run and some running strength like 2:00 hard, 2:00 jog alternating for 10-20 minutes, too. And we always had a 1/2 mile jog warmup at the start of practice, then about 15 minutes of stretches. I'd totally change that warmup routine with what I know now (ballistic stretches and form work after jog instead of static stretches).
RIP Milkman
This entire thread is disturbing. A 5 year old running multiple timed 5Ks, with a parent worried about him losing his "great" stamina due to lockdown?
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Thanks for the constructive comments.
I posted this question to make sure I wasn't doing something stupid by pushing my kid too much. I didn't post it to try to get someone to encourage me to push him further.
We have made it an objective to get him out of the house each day to get physical activity. We took off his training wheels and he is now excited about going on bike rides for 2-3 miles while I run. At the beginning of lock down he was excited to go run 2 miles with me 4 days in a row but that didn't last long before he wanted to do something else. He has run 6-7 miles per week the past 2 weeks with bike/scooter rides mixed in.
I see no issue with running a 5k race with my son who is asking to do it and having fun but then I happen to record his time. I mentioned the 5k times and what he does at swim team to give context that he is very athletic already. When a 5 year old in a Captain America costume flies past overweight people the last mile of a 5k, I'm not going to stop him and the pace is up to him.
Also, the cardio endurance is real when he swims laps for an hour straight and fights with you about getting out of the pool when practice is over.
Some kids just get a lot of personal satisfaction and pleasure from doing endurance stuff. As with (almost) anything your kid is interested in, encourage and support it. If you're not pushing them into doing it, I don't see a problem.