Training high school athletes

Today I'm going to post about someone other than myself.  My post today is about my 16 year old son, who is a junior in high school.  He's always been involved in competitive sports, and we've always kept a very rigorous schedule with those sports.  I'm just wondering if there is a line and how you go about coming back from it with the pressures of getting into college right around the corner.

Here's the lowdown:  He had played competitive ice hockey for 8 years before entering high school.  Upon entering high school, he decided to try water polo.  He knew if he stuck with hockey, he'd have to go to boarding school on the East coast and he didn't want to do that.  So he started a sport he'd never played in his life going up against boys who'd played for years.  He made the Freshman team and enjoyed the lower key schedule.  By the end of the season, he was being pulled up for some JV games.  At this point, he felt like he'd made the best decision ever.  He loved having teammates nearby and loved being home for dinner.  Along with water polo in the fall came the requirement to swim in spring.  Again he'd never swam competitively but he was willing to try.  He wasn't the fastest but found he had stamina, so he swam the 500m.  He was also warned that to advance, he needed to join the local club water polo team.  Being new to club he was on the B team, so the schedule was still fine.

The following year, he made Varsity!  He wasn't a starter, but played in every game including the CIF finals.  On varsity thought the schedule got pretty tough.  He was also on the A team for club, which included 3x/week practices from 6:30-9:00 after having swam from 3-5.  Plus they did weight training 3 mornings a week before school.  He barely made it through.  We allowed him to skip a club practice if he had a lot of homework and somehow he did it.

Now it's his junior year and we're back in the time of year that is overwhelming.  Add to that, we had him go out for the ODP (Olympic Development Program) team and he made it!  It's such a great accomplishment but one that adds all day practices a couple of weekends a month.  His club team is now practicing 3x/week from 6-9 with no excuses for homework.  His schedule right now looks like this:

Mon: AM weights 6:20-7:20
          PM swim 3:00-5:00
Tues:  PM swim 3:00-4:00
           Club crossfit workout 6:00-7:00
           Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Wed:  PM swim 3:00-4:00
           Club crossfit workout 6:00-7:00
           Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Thurs: PM swim 3:00-4:00
           Club crossfit 6:00-7:00
           Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Fri:      PM swim 3:00-5:00

Plus tournaments for club, swim meets for swim and ODP weekend training.  Although right now it's pre-season for swim.  When the season begins he may not get some of the breaks he's getting right now from training.  My question is this, is this normal?  In my opinion there are some really great things he's gained from working this hard, but I've also seen a lot of kids burn out.  So I'd love to hear what you think and if it's too much, where do you cut back?

10k Completed!

Today my fourteen year old daughter and I completed our first 10k!  We'd done a 5k before, but it was a difficult course and didn't leave us feeling very accomplished.  We're signed up for the RNRLV half in December so I wanted to run something prior to that race just to be sure she'd be able to complete the half.  The Beach Derby 10k seemed like a great idea.  They also had a 10 miler, but I was afraid if it was too hard, she wouldn't want to do the half in December.  So I decided to give this a shot.

We headed out at 6AM, arriving in Huntington Beach at 7AM.  We parked about a half mile from the starting line and walked over.  It was perfect timing.

We took a couple of pictures, then jumped in the starting chutes.  A boy from the local high school sang the National Anthem and off we went.  Unfortunately my Runkeeper didn't start when we did.  It turned out to be a good thing, because I was able to let my daughter pace us without worrying about going faster.  She did great!  She had to "pull over" twice to tie her shoes and needed a walk break twice.  But both were brief and we finished in 56:40.  The experience was positive, despite the weather.  I loved that it was a cool 50 degrees, but I DON'T run in the rain...ever.  Luckily it was just cool but beautiful when we began.  Then about mile 3 the drizzle started.  Ok I'm not that big of a wimp, I can run in drizzle.  But by mile 4, it was RAINING!  Hello, I don't run in rain!  At that point, if I'd been alone I would've sprinted just to get it over with.  But my daughter didn't have any sprint in her at that point and was just wanting to keep it at a slow jog.  So we continued along, trying to joke around as we went.  Finally we were close to the finish and were able to give a push to get there.  We were going to wait at the finish to cheer on a friend, but it was freezing.  We grabbed an apple and water and headed the half mile back to the car.  That half mile seemed like another 3 miles!  It was pouring, we were freezing and just wanted to get warm.  We stopped briefly to take a photo and then got to the car and stripped off our wet clothes! 

All in all it was a fun race and I think my daughter was happy she did it.  Now it's the wait for Vegas!  I hope that turns out to be just as great of an experience for her too.  Let's just hope for good weather!!

What did you do this weekend?  Have you run any longer races with your children or parents?  What was your experience?