[Closed] Kids fitness and speed progression

I’ve got no idea but I feel like you might be over thinking this. She is 7, will develop in her own time, and should just try and enjoy it. That is what I’d be reinforcing. There is always someone faster and more proficient. Enjoy the ride.
My 5yr old pesters me every day to ride the trails. My 9 year old daughter has decided she’s fair weather only. No pressure, she’s 9.

My lad doesn't mind a bit of riding, but he's a ball chaser really.

Despite being a baby the size of George Dawes, he's been smaller than his peers since primary school and he's struggled with this. The only thing he's been able to do is stay on top of fitness, which hasn't really been enough. What it has done is make him a tough little bugger willing to put the effort in and keep trying.

But yeah. She's 7 and still a small child, a developing human and not really anything like a small adult. She'll get there in her own time and develop resilience along the way.

Could she keep up or even beat them playing the W/Kg game, cycling up a cat4 climb for ~10mins? 😉

The thing that really pushed my lad on at that age was XC Racing. We had a series here, Southern XC where the ages Cats start early and by 7 he was at 'win or bin' stage of racing, but i think the real trick to it is simply more time on the pedals, trick them into racing sections, "race you to the next lampost/tree" , by the time he was 11, my lad was kicking me into oblivion on certain hills, only short but power based hills. It does help that his build is more Chris Hoy than it is Nairo Quintana. You lass is a small skinny kid, so she's always going to have certain aspects about her that are suited and unsuited to certain riding styles.
TBH from what i've seen, you're doing everything right... Not a lot else you can do matey.

My daughter was very similar, my wife wasn’t keen on getting her into mountain biking as she had seen my injuries (some mornings wife has to help dress me so she has a fairly constant reminder)....
Anyway, I played a canny long game. At about 8 we got her involved in an athletics club, this is initially all about doing multi sports, running, jumping and balance improvements. She was better at distance running so as she progressed that became her focus. She continued riding for fun but the athletics was about ensuring her fitness improved. Her running is to a high standard but just before Xmas she asked if she can start focusing more on riding. With the strong endurance background she has I think that’s really helped her cycling fitness. At the moment she can only race on Zwift, she does OK, she’s a C currently. Her low weight (49kgs) helps her on climbs but her low power on flats can see her get dropped.
Off her own bat she zwifts twice a week and runs 3 times a week, her track running club starts again at the of March, be interesting to see what happens with her cycling. (We’re going out together this afternoon on road bikes, her first outdoor ride this year)

If it’s really cycling for her as opposed to other sports, mix road and mtb (and track if that ever reopens). CX too.
They build strength, fitness and handling in ways that are complimentary.

There will probably be a club with a closed road circuit somewhere nearby and at 7 that Hoy is fine. And there will be other 7 year girls (there are at ours). As she gets older she might want a road bike and an MTB. N+1 is for kids too 😉

Also check her saddle height. Too low a saddle with affect her power and speed, and she won’t know it’s low. Because they keep growing a monthly check is probably about right - more for some kids at sometimes in their development.

PS velominati rule one applies, but rewritten as “it’s meant to be fun”.

If it bothers her sort it, if not who cares?

PPS girls develop earlier than boys so at some point in the next few years she’s probably going to be bigger, stronger and faster than those boys.

Also check her saddle height.

The photo made me think that too.

Could shifting the focus of the rides away from speed/distance to something else work? It sounds like your main worry is her losing motivation, so finding other outlets for her competitiveness might help. Stuff like slow races (basically a track stand comp) or bottle-swapping challenges spring to mind, but I’m sure there’s lots of other stuff you could do if those don’t suit.

Join a club with coaching if possible, progression for kids needs to be done safely. She might be able to kick ass and win trophies against girls her age even if she can't beat all of the boys.

But she's only young. Support her with what she wants to do but you can't force her growth or her fitness.

Join a club is good advice - she will meet a much broader group of kids, coaches etc.

If you do find answer to the competitiveness and someone always being faster let me know. I've one who is slowly drifting out of riding - he loves it, but every 'friend' he rides with is typical testosterone fuelled teenager - they're faster, jump further, hold better Strava times, have Insta followers and ride shinier bikes.

Difficult, as the group are lovely kids, there's just a competitive culture when they ride bikes.

It's heartbreaking to see him wrestle with it and now just start to give up riding. Thankfully there is one lad who he does not get the same attitude from - I think we will put in effort there.

BC advice is no training until in early teens. Before that it is fun, skills and maybe a bit of "core" which is basically playing out, climbing trees, doing other stuff.

Local winter cx leagues have kids races which have a big mix at her age and good opportunity to make friends. Same for clubs with a decent kids section. Look up the results pages and see which clubs have lots of kids doing cx - they will probably also do mtb in summer.

Any outdoor cycling circuits near you (eg Preston, York, Shrewsbury have good examples). They usually have a coached kids skills / group night where she'll meet other similar kids and probably find she is stronger than some.

Or move to Peebles 🙂 - they seem to have zillions of biking kids and all kinds of clubs.

I cheated when my son was that age and built up some super lightweight wheels and tyres. With those he went from the back to the front in a couple of rides. Kids have low wattage so tiny weight differences really matter.

If you think about it, her mindset is positive.

Wanting to keep up with people faster and stronger is great. Just always make her sure it's fun, which I'm sure you do.

Thanks for the replies. She enjoys the riding but doesn’t enjoy being beat and I can see that takes some enjoyment away. So long as she keeps wanting to ride we’ll be out. Once covid is ‘over’ I’ll look into a club or a race series as she’d enjoy riding with other girls as few of her girl friends ride and those that do don’t go off road or can’t keep up.
There’s no pressure on her and as commented it may be me over thinking it but as dad that’s my job to some extent. 2 wheels has been my life and it’s great she is showing interest too 👍

e-bike? just kidding.

Don't make it about all about the cycling. Practice skills, session stuff, eat some cake, throw stones in the lake, have an adventure. Blasting round will just come with time if they enjoy and want it.

local BMX club.
allows for competitive progression.

Any outdoor cycling circuits near you (eg Preston, York, Shrewsbury have good examples). They usually have a coached kids skills / group night where she’ll meet other similar kids and probably find she is stronger than some.

The guy who coaches the younger kids at York is rubbish. He seems to think it’s all about fun and a life skill and nonsense like that instead of winning races. 😉

If you do join a club and it’s a very good direction to go, buy some warm clothes for yourself.....it gets very cold stood watching them for 2 hours! (3 times a week in my case, it’s sooo cold!)

Or running shoes and run while they’re riding. No need to leave them - running can be done in quite a small area.