Im a 13 year old sprinter, and im going into my 8th grade, and final track and field season. my problem is, I really need to increase my time in the 100, and 200 m and do it quickley (april 25). I asked my dad about using supplements like creatine, or protien powders, and he said im right around the age when Im going to need them. My pr’s in these events from last year are: 13.10 in the 100m::and 27.09 in the 200 m.
(havent been timed since). how much time will I be able to decrease between now (april 7) and the end of the track season (June 2)? my meets are spread between these dates:
Frontier: April 25 - Time?
Wy East: April 27 - Time?
Covington: May 4 - Time?
Cascade: May 10 - Time?
Shahala: May 11 - Time?
Pacific: May 23 - Time?
DISTRICTS: June 2 - Time?
ps. Im a very numbers oriented individual
You’re 13 years old. You don’t really need any supplement right now besides the good food you should be taking in. Maybe a Fish Oil or Multi-Vitamin, at the most a protein supplement? Anything else is not relevant to be using at your age.
First of all, you’re way too young to be looking into supplementation, especially with supplements like creatine. Wait 6 years then look into it again.
Second of all, the biggest nutritional improvement you can make is in your food diet. Unless your diet is worked out at the macro (food) level, you can forget about the marginal improvements from the micro (supplement) level.
If you’re running a 13.01 (I presume handtime) 100m and 27+ 200m, you need to increase your general fitness (you can lose SECONDS from fitness rather than a couple hundreths from micronutrient changes).
Your saying that I can take SECONDS off of my 200 time, in a month or less?
Also, Im not taking Creatine supplements just soley for increasing my general apperance, but taking it for my endurance. Would Oxygen Enhancers (muscle oxygen) increase my endurance in these events as well?
You’re worried about supplements and you’re eating hot dogs, pizza, and ramen noodles with cokes??? Creatine won’t fix that.
The deal about the SECONDS is more from a bigger picture, but still applies. You will take off much more time increasing your fitness than you will using creatine or something like that. Fix your diet and then worry about supplements.
So what should I change my Diet to, to increase my times? Also, increasing my overall fitness, do you have a time/ or a goal that I should be attaining changing my diet, on top of training?
The blunt reality is that supplements only make a very small difference. Their effects are marginal. At your age most of the increase in performance will come from the normal maturation process. You have to support that maturation with optimal nutrition. That means getting your whole food diet in order. Right now your diets sucks, even by teenage standards. Once you’ve got the whole food in place, you might want to add some simple protein and fat supplements since that is what your body is going to need most at this point.
You also have to get some perspective on the rate at which you will improve. You have to think in terms of years, not weeks. I realize to a 13 year old I might as well be talking in terms of centuries. Benjamin Franklin said a child thinks 20 dollars and 20 years can never be spent. The point is, even though you’re a sprinter, the developmental process is a marathon not a sprint, and you have to learn patience. That alone will give you a huge edge on your peers who will look for shortcuts (which don’t exist by the way) and screw themselves up in the process.
SO does anyone have goals for me to accomplish between the dates of the track meets? I realize I do not need these supplements nor any kind of substance for the next few years, however, I would like to recieve your opinions for some good goals during this time period.
I suggest posting your current training program under the Fundamentals section and outlining your remaining competition schedule for the year. That way everyone knows what you’ve been doing up to this point and can help you fine tune your training for the remainder of the season.
Are you currently training with a coach? If so, how open would he be to you making modifications in the existing training program? For all we know, you might already be on the right track and it’s just a matter of letting the training play itself out.
Just to put emphasis on whats already been said, fix your diet. Hotdogs for breakfast? 1-2 pops at dinner? Eat some cerial and fruit in the morning, and milk or water for dinner, always drink lots of water for that matter.
Again, like everyone has said, steer clear of the creatine for now, especially since your looking to enhance speed and endurance.
As for goals and training, you should come up with your own goals, you know yourself better than we do> what do you think is within your reach? Maybe start a journal here on this site, and see where that leads you.
As well, theres tons of information on this web site, read some threads, flip through some articles, use the search engine, theres a wealth knowledge:) I find myself on here for hours at a time sometimes
You can do a lot from now until april 25 to help improve your results, but don’t try and overdue anything, you have a lot of time on your side, and im talking years here. Take it one step at a time, starting at this web site is a great start.
