" My 14 year old son runs track for his middle school. He runs the 100 and also the 4x100 relay. He’s very fast at the start but can’t keep the pace. I feel with proper training, his stamina would increase. Any advice on helping him train for these 2 events?"
I’m asking here because she got frustrated with the answers she got on the training bulletin board of runnersworld.com.
Tell her that she needs to be patient first off. Development of the far end of the 100m (50-100m) is not something I focus on with young athletes (not much anyways). Second, enroll him with the local track club and talk to the coach there.
First off, the word ‘stamina’ sets off red flags. Stamina to me implies lots of CV work to build up endurance. This is not a problem for sprinters. The work needs to be on speciallized speed endurance, but this will not be fruitful until there is a solid basis in top speed.
While it could very well be that the 14 yo actually does have good speed and “can’t keep the pace” I would guess that it is more likely that he actually has good early acceleration, but his top speed is lacking thus making it look like he is slowing down when it is simply that the others accelerate for longer and reach a higher top speed.
The best advice is what Herb said, find a good track club/coach and be patient.
I copied and pasted those replies on the other board. 