TRAINING ADVICE FOR HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY RUNNERS

Here are a few tips for getting the most out of your summer training:

1. Don’t turn training runs and workouts into races

Training with a competitive group of runners can be a great benefit to your running. A solid group can really push you to run times that you could have only dreamed of while in high school. However, being in a competitive running environment can also ruin your career because, all too often, the competitive nature of a team can turn what should be controlled training runs and workouts into races. This is a huge problem because you simply cannot run 7 hard runs a week. You need at least 2-3 easy days a week to make sure that your body recovers from hard workouts.

For example, if you try to run a track workout on a Tuesday, turn a scheduled easy Wednesday run into a tempo run, do scheduled tempo run on Thursday you are setting yourself up for injury when you try to tackle a hard Saturday race or workout. Try as best as you can to follow a hard day with an easy day even if it means running in the back of the pack on the easy day. Your legs will thank you, and, although your teammates may beat you on Wednesdays, you’ll beat them at the end of the season races.

“Don’t compare yourself to other runners; focus on your own fitness and performance.”

2. Summer Racing

The temptation to race over the summer is hard to resist with all of the local road races and cross country series. When tempted to lace up the racing flats or spikes, one must remember that they are in a base phase for the upcoming cross country season. During the base phase, it is very important to do base specific workouts, which do not include racing. Three main reasons to not race in the summer are:

1) You are in endurance shape, which means that you will not be race ready. In turn, your time will most likely disappoint you. This may take away motivation for the remainder of the summer. Or, it may make you want to run harder and faster during the remainder of the summer, which defeats the purpose of base training.

2) When you race, you need to recover. If you are putting in high miles and continue to do so after races, you can cause fatigue and/or injury. For example, let’s say you ran a 5k road race on Saturday. You wake up sore and tired on Sunday, but have a 14 mile run planned. Instead of running only 10 or 12 (which cuts down your weekly mileage), you run the full 14 and further damage your body.

3) During the cross country season, you will race anywhere from 1 to 2 times a week. You may also have speed sessions 1 to 3 times a week. This is anywhere from 2 to 5 hard runs a week for 8 to 10 weeks. That's a lot of pounding on the body. Why add more to it by racing over the summer?

Remember: The most important time of the year for cross country is, Summer. This is the time of year where you build that foundation which gives you the strength to work out and race hard throughout the fall.

In order to have a successful cross country season you need to keep your training in its proper order: BASE building phase, STRENGTH building phase, SPEED building phase, PEAK - racing maintenance phase.

“The goal of base training is to develop a runner’s aerobic potential before implementing anaerobic training in the form of interval work.”

Submitted by Coach McMillion (07/29/17)