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My 13 year-old son just finished his second track meet. He is in good shape from basketball, but I was surprised when he ran a 5:48 1600m last week. He is 6 ft. tall and fairly awkward, faster than an average kid, not can't keep up with his smaller basketball teammates when running the lines. This week he battled with another big runner throughout the race, passing and repassing, until they both started sprinting on the backstretch. Both kids showed alot of guts and strenght and fought through the end, finishing in 5:40. My question is how should someone who is strong, but not fast , run this race? His coach is more of a meet facilitor rather than a teacher. What would a good split pattern be? Should he go out hard and try to get a big lead to demoralize the others and avoid having to kick? Thanks for any guidance you can share.
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Re: 1600 race strategies
a. congratulations on an exciting introduction to track competition
b. now is the time to learn how to train for even splits, because the most important thing he can do at the beginning is run his own race. If he can win at the end, so be it. If he has no big kick, obviously he needs to maintain the maximum tempo he can from the start in hopes of making competitors fall back far enough so they can't catch him. That is best done with an even pace. Going out too fast will only make him even more vulnerable to the others.
Most of all, I suggest you find a coach now. -
Re: 1600 race strategies
Thanks, for your response. Now he has something to go on.Comment
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