Children excercising/Running

[milly143]

My 10 year old nephew has asked to join me when I go for a run from now on. He plays a lot of football already so is generally quite fit I think but I wondered how far he should actually be able to jog comfortably?

I'm no Paula Radcliffe but I don't want to push him too much and he might not want to say if he is struggling.

[ummmm]

How far do you normally run?

[joggerjayne]

He might surprise you.

Kids of that age are bundles of energy, and you might tire before he does !

[milly143]

At the moment I do between 3 and 8 miles, depending on how I feel and I don't run it all. Have to slow down to the occasional fast walk every now and then. However the route I usually go is on a footpath along a busy road with no lighting at all and I'm not comfortable with him doing that so will be taking him on a couple of laps around the village - not sure how far a lap is though.

It had occured to me that it might be him showing me up :oS

[Hopkirk]

He could probably run for miles, but might perhaps suffer next day.

I would do a couple of short runs first.

[Hawkwalk]

at 10 years old I would not get him to do more than 3 miles as it is not good for children to run long distance due to stress on a growing body. Also if you are pounding pavements, that is not good for bones and joints. Check with your GP or a qualified gym trainer to get acurate advice.

[joggerjayne]

You don't know how far a lap of the village is?

Here ... play with this, and it works it out for you!

http://gb.mapometer.com/en/

[ummmm]

Hawkwalk - that's a bit OTT don't you think? Kids are known for running about. They could easily clock up 3 miles.

[johnk]

Make sure he has proper trainers and wear reflective tabards at night, 3 miles should be OK but don't push it.

[joggerjayne]

I'm sure some cross country courses are more than 3 miles.

(or maybe it just felt that way)

[milly143]

Thanks for the answers. We went out last night and I used the Runkeeper app on my phone to get the distance. Turns out one lap is 1.5 miles so we did two laps and he seemed ok. Didn't want to push him though. He wants to come with me again tomorrow so must have been ok.