The way I see it is that she's 14. It is OK for a sport to be a bit under developed as it means she isn't being pushed too hard. At 14 her body cannot handle the training stress that 25 year old who's been in the sport for years can handle. She has years ahead of her to develop. Triathlon is not a power / skill sport where being younger is advantageous. Most athletes are hitting their prime in the mid 20's and beyond.

When looking for a coach, it is best to have someone who integrates with all 3 disciplines. You should not hire a running specific coach who is in their own silo, writing workouts without regard for the other activites.
It is also, incredibly important, to find someone who has extensive experience with kids. The physiological and psychological needs are different from adults.

(I'm typing this, in my kit, about to head out the door to Boulder Junior Cycling Team practice)

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I talk a lot - Give it a listen: http://www.fasttalklabs.com/category/fast-talk
I also give Training Advice via http://www.ForeverEndurance.com

The above poster has eschewed traditional employment and is currently undertaking the ill-conceived task of launching his own hardgoods company. Statements are not made on behalf of nor reflective of anything in any manner... unless they're good, then they count.
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Thanks for the advice, this makes a lot of sense. I signed her up for the tri team for a lot of the reasons you mentioned. I will wait and see during this summer season how she does before deciding on what to do. She will be racing a few of the USAT youth elite races as well as some sprints in the mid-Atlantic area.

Sounds like she may be a good candidate to run x-country in the fall in HS ... a lot of very good young triathletes are running x-country & swim team and manage the cycling when they can. I don't think hiring a specific run coach is necessary ... there is a good chance that socially and athletically a solid distance program (track) and x-country program will cover all your bases

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Dave Latourette
http://www.TTENation.com

Holy smokes at already 3.5W/kg!!

I am kind of undecided about the x-country team when she gets to HS in September; there seems to be quite high injury rate with the x-country and track kids.

These swimmers (she's been club swimming since 7) have huge engines and can sustain for a long time at threshold, and with less than 50kg soaking wet, she's a good climber, certainly drops me easily on long climbs. A lot of her swimming friends are also now into tri and they are all doing pretty well.

College educator writing here, no qualifications re: speed as competitor. But - for a fourteen-year-old, my instincts would say that this is too much involvement re: performance details for parent. Even if you're looking down the road for high performance as collegiate or 20s triathlete, it makes a lot more sense to specialize in one sport at this stage, and also to follow the child's impulses and enthusiasms re: where to concentrate more resources. More important that running is FUN at this stage than that there are any performance goals, especially if she's swimming on a team. If she's a fast swimmer and just loves cycling and running for fun and family competition (like family register for half-marathon), that is plenty to position her to be fast in her 20s - the risk of burnout is a lot higher than the risk of not going fast enough.

FWIW, last year in the youth elite race (15u) at Richmond, only three girls were under 6min/mile pace for the 2.5k run. In the junior elite race (19u), 6:30/mile for 5k would have gotten her the 20th best run split.

She's not slow! She's not going to mow the junior elite field down on the run, but she's got a good chance of doing so @ 6min pace in the youth race. The great part of being a year round swimmer is that they have a huge aerobic base. This translates to good running without doing as much of it as a pure runner. FWIW, I'm a guy, raced junior elite last year in Richmond, I ran about 15mpw leading into the race and ran 17:45 (I'm not a good swimmer for draft legal but was doing a lot of swimming at the time). Longest run was 45min. A few weeks later I ran a 17:10 in a time trial, alone. Now I run ~25mpw and could probably crack 17. I know other junior elite kids who kill themselves to run a good amount (~35-40mpw) and they still only run 19-20min off the bike, while I run 17.5-19 off of 2-3h (MAX) of running per week. And no, I'm not a talented runner, my first 5k was 24min as a HS freshman.

For triathlon, or at least the short stuff, use the swim and the bike to build aerobic fitness, then sharpen up your running by running fast.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

Good stuff. Yeah, she was at Richmond last year racing the youth elite and ran 6:25mm pace. I am hoping she would get under 6mm this year, but I am not sure she would.

Just to update on this thread, we never ended up with a running coach for my daughter and she just trained with her team and upped the mileage a bit. At the Elite Youth race the past weekend, she ran under 6mm for the first time, clocking 9:15 for the 1.5-mile run at 5:58mm, and was 18th for the run leg. The fastest runner finished in 8:14, a quite fast pace.

High school XC running could be one of the best sporting activities she ever does in her life, to deny her this because you're worried she might get injured seems overly protective IMHO. I say this looking back on a life time of competing in endurance sports, now 50 years old, and having competed in the Olympics.

Thanks for the perspective on this. My guess is this is highly coach-dependent. Several of the HS XC runners I know have all quit in their 2nd or 3rd year because a) they are getting injured a lot, b) their coaches are not exactly "coaching" but simply asking them to run a lot of miles, and c) there are a lot of time commitment for a student (season here starts in August, and they are "required" to run 6 days a week). My daughter is a club swimmer and does that year around, so I think it would be very difficult to juggle all that.