training at young age

Don't call your mother a spaz.

trackman23434 said:

what do you consider to much to fast? my mother always complains about how she thinks that i stress my self to much with longer rides and she hates how i go out sometimes for the majority of a day for a bike ride. what do you people consider "too much" for 14-15? i need some other peoples comments to show her, so that she isn't so freaked about it. (she's a spaz)

At age 14 I was competing at area BMX races. It wasn't until I turned 21 that I started to road race.

trackman23434 said:

what do you consider to much to fast? my mother always complains about how she thinks that i stress my self to much with longer rides and she hates how i go out sometimes for the majority of a day for a bike ride. what do you people consider "too much" for 14-15? i need some other peoples comments to show her, so that she isn't so freaked about it. (she's a spaz)

Spaz!! LOL....

Tell her you've got a coach and he's prescribed a training program for you......better yet, ring a local club and ask about junior memebership and coaching.

trackman23434 said:

what do you consider to much to fast? my mother always complains about how she thinks that i stress my self to much with longer rides and she hates how i go out sometimes for the majority of a day for a bike ride. what do you people consider "too much" for 14-15? i need some other peoples comments to show her, so that she isn't so freaked about it. (she's a spaz)

My dad tells me that if I ride over 4 hours too often I will damage my growth plates. Anyone know if this is true, or any good studies on the subject?

Yes, training is important, but at 14, just enjoy the bike and riding. I would wait a couple more years, then get really serious. But, that's just my thought.

if you're really passionate about training right now (which is seems you are), explain that to your mom respectfully and maturely.

Perhaps you could politely remind her there are MUCH worse things you could be getting into as a 14-15 year old. That being said, there is something to be said for overdoing it at a young age while the body is still growing I think. I'm no physician so I can't really quantify any of it, but I have long suspected that I did damage to my body with the amount of running I did from about 10-15 years of age. None of that damage bothers me on the bike though. 🙂

Hey there,

I'm 16, I'm still growing as I can see. May I know if cycling will damage my body or something? Or do bad to my growth at this state?

trackman23434 said:

what do you consider to much to fast? my mother always complains about how she thinks that i stress my self to much with longer rides and she hates how i go out sometimes for the majority of a day for a bike ride. what do you people consider "too much" for 14-15? i need some other peoples comments to show her, so that she isn't so freaked about it. (she's a spaz)

Just enjoy cycling now. When I was your age (actaully 12-13) I was doing the same thing - I'd be gone for an entire day at a time. I saw super race results and could have had a pretty good career going in cycling, but just got sick of it and backed down for a while. Since then, I've been able to enjoy everything more and it paid off in the end.

trackman23434 said:

what do you consider to much to fast? my mother always complains about how she thinks that i stress my self to much with longer rides and she hates how i go out sometimes for the majority of a day for a bike ride. what do you people consider "too much" for 14-15? i need some other peoples comments to show her, so that she isn't so freaked about it. (she's a spaz)

How many k's are you doing and at what type of pace? Also, how often are you doing it?

Patrick88 said:

How many k's are you doing and at what type of pace? Also, how often are you doing it?

i usually do twenty miles a day, don't know what that is in kilometers, but i try to do it every day if i can, haven't been out in two days though cause i blew my front tire and banged myself up pretty bad, but just got back from the bike shop so i'm going to go back out in a little bit and make sure every think works right again 😄 but i have a race in two days and i'm not sure if i'm going to be up to it again :o because i screwed up my left leg pretty bad. but my longest is 62 miles which was last year. i average about 19mph usually. over the winter i was running ten miles a day, and my mother wasn't complaining about that, and that can't be much worse than this! but i don't need to remind my mother that there is worse things that i can be doing, all she has to do is look at my sister

Im 15 and i ride everyday and i train hard, and i am fine im not tired of it bc i change it up and i love the idea of that i can go anywhere in the usa on my bike without spending money on gas. But i work but i make it fun. (getting on the mtb hittin up some trails something like that so u dont get burnt out bc its ez at this age)

trackman23434 said:

i usually do twenty miles a day

I don't think that 20 miles a day is too much, but I would take at least one day off a week... When I was in high school I was running track practice then coming home and riding the bike 20 miles... It did not make the track coach too happy since I was tired for the track meets...

trackman23434 said:

what do you consider to much to fast? my mother always complains about how she thinks that i stress my self to much with longer rides and she hates how i go out sometimes for the majority of a day for a bike ride. what do you people consider "too much" for 14-15? i need some other peoples comments to show her, so that she isn't so freaked about it. (she's a spaz)

I am not a jr. coach, but there are some basics that apply to all younger athletes:
1. your ability to handle training loads will very greatly depending on how far through puberty you are, which in turn, can vary a lot between teenagers of the same age.
2. maintain variety in your training; bike on the road, off road, bmx...run cross-country...play soccer...whatever.
3. don't get carried away with trying to develop endurance, your body simply isn't built for it just yet - make speed an important part of your training/riding. For example, a lot of road, mtn. and cross pros did some BMX when they were young.
4. to become an excellent endurance athlete, which takes many years, you need to avoid mental, as well as physical, burn out. note the issues above.

Smartt/RST said:

I am not a jr. coach, but there are some basics that apply to all younger athletes:
1. your ability to handle training loads will very greatly depending on how far through puberty you are, which in turn, can vary a lot between teenagers of the same age.
2. maintain variety in your training; bike on the road, off road, bmx...run cross-country...play soccer...whatever.
3. don't get carried away with trying to develop endurance, your body simply isn't built for it just yet - make speed an important part of your training/riding. For example, a lot of road, mtn. and cross pros did some BMX when they were young.
4. to become an excellent endurance athlete, which takes many years, you need to avoid mental, as well as physical, burn out. note the issues above.

Hi S.RST,

I'm 16. I hit puberty when I was about 14 and half(male). I guess it should be probably 2 years for me now. Can you explain to me abit more deeper on the #1 point u gave out?

N, any idea how long more till my puberty stages ends?

BTW, I'm kindda big eater since I hit it. hmm..

I know u ain't teenager heath doctor or something. But hope u can help me out though.

TQ.

roger89 said:

Hi S.RST,

I'm 16. I hit puberty when I was about 14 and half(male). I guess it should be probably 2 years for me now. Can you explain to me abit more deeper on the #1 point u gave out?

N, any idea how long more till my puberty stages ends?

BTW, I'm kindda big eater since I hit it. hmm..

I know u ain't teenager heath doctor or something. But hope u can help me out though.

TQ.

Sure thing...
Basically, each of us has our own biological clock that initiates the process of puberty. Due to all of the physiologic changes that boys go through during that time, the body's response to training/exercise changes as well; certainly in a positive way in terms of physical performance and adaptation. But since age is only related to when puberty begins, and not the cause of it, you often see large differences in where teenagers are along that timeline of change. Examples of this can easily be seen in school sports: there are always the boys that hit puberty early and are thus typically the fastest and strongest, can train/practice more without getting injured and experience early success in sports. However, keep in mind that when someone hits puberty has nothing to do with their long-term success. You certainly want to be active in aerobic sports throughout puberty, but don't feel like you need to train on a regimented schedule all year round like someone in their early twenties; this often leads to mental burnout since no matter how hard you train, it will take many years to reach your potential (for men, it's usually from their mid-20's to the early 30's).
For boys, puberty typically ends during the end of the teenage years.

Smartt/RST said:

I am not a jr. coach, but there are some basics that apply to all younger athletes:
1. your ability to handle training loads will very greatly depending on how far through puberty you are, which in turn, can vary a lot between teenagers of the same age.
2. maintain variety in your training; bike on the road, off road, bmx...run cross-country...play soccer...whatever.
3. don't get carried away with trying to develop endurance, your body simply isn't built for it just yet - make speed an important part of your training/riding. For example, a lot of road, mtn. and cross pros did some BMX when they were young.
4. to become an excellent endurance athlete, which takes many years, you need to avoid mental, as well as physical, burn out. note the issues above.

I have a question on the third one. What do you consider "speed training." I guess I think of very short intervals when I think of this. I mostly concentrate on MAP/Vo2max and time trial/"functional threshold" intervals. I'm not wasting my time with these, am I?

well ...ask you can prolly tell...i'm in track, so i do a bunch of sprint training and other such things ( 200 meter, triple jump, 400 meter) and i also run cross country, play soccer, swim a little bit, light weight training(note the LIGHT part) and quite a wide variety of other stuff so that isn't to much of a worry really. i'm also well into puberty,couple of years already, so physically i can handle a lot of pain for my age, but is there any thing that you will specifically recommend?

whoawhoa said:

I have a question on the third one. What do you consider "speed training." I guess I think of very short intervals when I think of this. I mostly concentrate on MAP/Vo2max and time trial/"functional threshold" intervals. I'm not wasting my time with these, am I?

Absolutely not: that's very much what I meant. I really should not have used the general term "speed training".
More specifically, young riders should focus on what is often refered to as "quality training" (race specific intensities such as "functional threshold", MAP and up, as well as productive endurance paces) as opposed to just trying to rack up hugh miles as if they were already in the Pro 1,2 field.
For a track rider, trackman23434 has definately got the right idea for maintaining a varied program.

Smart/RST,

I wanna ask u. I'm 16 and the rides I do is on a MTB. I don't ride for miles just like u said a pro or something, instead I kindda ride more on hills. I don't really have high hills around my area but just about 4 small hills that I could find and have a road up. I do it almost everyday, whenever I could. After the rides, I don't think I have any knee problems. Question is, is this kind of training/ride bad for me at this age?

Thanks.