My son, at 12,will have a school competition and wants to improve in the 1500 meter run. I think if he can do better in the 1500M, his endurance, explosive power and footwork speed will be better so I encourage him to train and try to help him out. Help: Does anyone know how to improve in 4 weeks times for a 1500M run race? Is there any good programmes to follow if my son is extremely fit now? Thanks.
endurance and explosiveness are orthogonal properties. if you look for pure endurance, have him run longer distance, 1500M is too short. have him run in medium speed for a few miles. being HK, probably safer if it were in a closed track/park instead of in the streets. this builds up endurance. to train explosiveness in the legs, he needs to do interval training. it can also be trained via running. but instead of running a long time at constant speed, have him do run->sprint->run->sprint. run at low speed for a minute, then have him run as fast as he can for 30 to 50 yards. then slows down again for a minute, then sprint again. the sprinting builds up muscles that contains power while the long run builds up the heart's and lung's capacity as well as muscles that can endure long exercise.