cross country training program
And in doing that, I trained as hard as I could manage given my own personal constraints. Walk-on runners such as Sarah Myers, who arrived on campus with a 5K PR of 22:50 and dropped her time to 18:29 in October, have improved dramatically under Phillipss guidance. PM: 11 miles total. Find an effort level that youre confident you can maintain, then make that your guide.. My college coach assigned easy runs as follows: Run 80 minutes easy today., If we asked how fast we were supposed to run, he told us easy.. Every fourth microcycle should be reduced 25 percent in all three principal elements of training to allow for deeper recovery during the macrocycle. Run at 90 percent effort up a hill with a moderate slope (5-7 percent is ideal, but work with what you have) for 30 seconds. Ran 28:04 for 8k and had a very poor race. Some winning coaches push their runners in double workouts to 100 weekly miles, even offering T-shirts for those running 1,000 miles during the summer. Racing: High school runners race so frequently during the spring, often several track meets a week and several races in those meets, so that I hate to encourage them to race much during the summer. As you can see, all I am doing here is slowly increasing the volume of the workouts until they reach a point at which they transition into specific work. Unlike a track, where the shape of the 400 is an oval with gradual turns, her grass 400 is literally square, with 100-meter segments on all four sides and a sharp 90-degree turn at each corner. In other cases, regional or state qualifying may be done through conference meets. One long run a week (Saturday), similar to those I prescribe for marathoners, has as its purpose improving aerobic fitness and endurance. Although it is almost impossible to "can" workouts and give them to a coach, the basic understanding of what types of effort and what types of workload are tolerated by an athlete will allow an individualized approach to succeed. This usually happened at this point in the season as the volume and intensity start to intersect before focusing more on speed later in the season. So the trick is to stop worrying about stride or pace. After 5 or 10 minutes of gentle jogging at the start, pick up the pace and surge for maybe 10 or 20 or more seconds, then jog or even walk for a near equal time until partly recovered, then surge again. Today I want to show you that training. Sets/Reps: 212-15. When Phillips arrived in Tallahassee, she knew that she wanted to take a long-term approach when it came to developing a team culture at FSU. The Six-Week Mountain Biking Training Plan. Mar 11 7:30 am 6:00 pm Seneca Creek Greenway Trail Marathon & 50K 2023 ($) (And dont even think about doing these on a track during cross-country season!) Some riders end up looking into getting some coaching by the time they are talking these big 75 mile races but leave that for another time. Home Training Design Cross Country Training 101: A Training Log Excerpt. Cross country MTB training plan: How to get XC race fit Duration: Four weeks Key Activity: Long steady rides for aerobic development. Fitting in the most work possible in a week's period is a daunting task for even the most experienced coach. One of the keys to improving, she stresses, is being committed to showing upespecially when its challenging. We also only do them every other week instead of every week. Develops individuals according to their abilities and encourages them to sustain activity levels. Whereas, for most runners, track and road races are largely dictated by pace, cross-country racing is largely dictated by effort. Workout 3: This is a tempo run over rolling hills or on grass, dirt, or wood chip trailsanything but a flat, even asphalt surface. 2021 - Present2 years. General workout planning should use the "hard-easy" training cycles. Too many runners want to run barefoot for miles and miles. As you can see, there is nothing special about these workouts or their sequencing. At the time, she was a scholarship athlete who arrived on campus unprepared for the rigors of competing in the NCAA. Ive fallen twice in masters national cross-country championship races, Magill says. In between, they walked 3 minutes to recover. On her 200- to 400-meter grass intervals, June runs a square circuit. This is a more precise form of speed training than tempo runs above, or fartlek below. More important than the number of miles run is the quality of those miles. Many runners who participate in cross country meets are members of a high school or college team and follow the training programs of their coaches. They can make a bigger impact because theyre not there for financial gain. As with most things running, specificity when it comes to race prep is always important for predictor workouts like these. Please dont use this or any other program as an excuse to overtrain! I was clearly tired from that workout the previous Wednesday, too. Back-to-back workouts may be intense, but sufficient recovery must be given before and after the back-to-back sessions. I start by creating my end-of-season goal workout. Workout 2: This involves doing tempo runs that start with a gradual uphill for 800 meters, then turning around and running 800 meters downhill, and repeating the sequence for the length of your normal tempo run. Ended with 4 barefoot strides. And it certainly wasnt just one week, month, season, or year that prepared me for this workload. Then, hit the cross-country course for these workouts. Slowly incorporating and building up workout volume, has helped my athletes run faster and stay healthier for the duration of a season. Jog a fairly fast 200 between, then go again. At Connecticut College I started running 80-90 miles a week with tough We are all fortunate if we do not have extreme requirements in local and regional competitions as they most certainly curtail the types of training that will benefit the athlete in the long run. Build this into your training by viewing the training season (macrocycle) from the final competitive effort backwards, placing reduced-intensity weeks (rest) appropriately. WebCross Country Marathon (XCM) races are usually a minimum length of 25 miles and often 60+ miles in the US. Let us start with the aerobic side of the funnel. Every fourth microcycle should be reduced 25 percent in all three principal elements of training to allow for deeper recovery during the macrocycle. WebA2zColleges provides Directory of womens sports - Cross Country Running Colleges, Admissions & Application information for all Top womens sports - Cross Country Running You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. I dont want to be too precise in telling you how to run this workout. PM: 11 miles total. I like to use 5x800m@5k goal pace as my focus workout during this phase of training. For example, put your watch on time of day so you cant see the mile splits and average pace. Motivated to work as hard as her teammates, Phillips went on to become a two-time All-American at Auburn and a two-time Olympic Trials qualifier in the 1500 meters before launching her collegiate coaching career at the University of South Florida in 1997. Shaving your legs makes you feel fast. In other words, workouts can be back to back in hard intensity within one microcycle as long as the principal elements change focus. On the endurance side of the funnel, we see 10k equivalent paces starting to replace half marathon pace work. Once youve gotten into good shape and can differentiate between several different paces, your body knows whats easy (and whats not). As Adair Lyden of FlrRunners.com outlined, the depth of the program is attributed to Phillipss approach of prioritizing the development of both scholarship athletes and walk-ons. These notes will evaluate three potential situations (out of many possibilities) involving structuring the 14-workout week: no competition, one competition and two competitions. When I was coaching the high school team in Michigan City, Indiana, we went to a nearby woods that contained a circular loop that was about 1,000 meters long. Back-to-back intense workouts should never include more than two of the principal training elements. Novice. California, United States. If you want to run extra miles and train more than once a day, I suggest you do so gradually. As you can see, the race did not go well. (For descriptions of those workouts, check below.) Before designing your learning and development program, assess your needs. Since it takes roughly two weeks for the body to adapt to a stimulus, it does not make sense to do any strenuous workouts. Thus in ten weeks, Id like you to improve about 5 seconds per 400, but be conservative; I would rather have you run too slow a pace than too fast a one. Subscribe to our mailing list for advice from Hal, training tips, and updates on our programs and apps. WebCross Country Training. Pick as your end goal for the tenth week the pace you ran 1,600 meters. Meet Management Balance and Stabilization Medicine Balls Plyometric Unique training needs of the team or individual. 48 hours remain prior to the race on Saturday. For more than 100 years, the American Red Cross As the season advances, move on to real cross-country courses or surfaces. I usually start with something like 6x1k @5k goal pace with 300m jog recovery. In most instances, casual or recreational runners should aim to run 10-15% of their weekly mileage as quality mileage. I stuck with it and also ran track. 12 in the nation as they prepare for the NCAA South Region meet on November 15. And we didnt discriminate; we loved all types of trail running: There were only a few loops that we ran that were primarily on the roads. Three of the seven days in the week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday) feature some form of speedwork, either fartlek, interval training or tempo runs. Phillips tracks each runners progress since their first day of freshman year, helping them set short-term and long-term goals and celebrating with them when they nail those goals. Even as a relatively competitive college athlete, I was onlyeverrunning about 15% of my total mileage as quality miles. All rights reserved. Whatever your situation, train hard, but also easy, and have a great cross-country season in the fall. Just dont trip over a rock and fall into a tree. As I wrote earlier, this is the last two weeks of the season with the state meet being our final race. Jeff Arbogast has been the boys and girls cross country coach at Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah, for the past 31 years and the boys and girls track teams for 29 years. All rights reserved. For every runner on the team, Phillips maintains a written timeline of their season-by-season progression. We usually build in two weeks off between seasons and then use cross training to slowly bring them back to running six days a week. Each coach must take the understanding of what training can be completed and apply that to the performance schedule of the program. There are endless possibilities on how you use the annual training plan. Fartlek training can incorporate all of these essential elements into a single workout. Fartlek teaches you how to surge in the middle of the race to get away from opponentsor hang with them when they attempt to surge on you. Assistant Coach position reports to Head Coach. However, there are some important considerations before enforcing a program. Give us a call at 917-426-9745 to talk to a You want to get yourself in the best position possible without killing yourself to do so. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. In his short tenure at Lafayette, he has coached two individual state champions in cross-country along with eight individual and three relay state champions in track, winning the respect of his peers and opponents alike. Run hard, but not too hard. Instead, the goal is to learn to employ a steady effort rather than to set an even pace. Kelly Phillips was a freshman on the cross-country team at Auburn University when she realized she should never underestimate the strength of a walk-on. Just do some barefoot strides instead for the same benefits without the higher risk of getting hurt. Both races are included as speed-oriented. Following these training and team building guidelines early in the cross country season is the best way to get the season started on the right foot, and ensure the If you fail to do the hard workouts properly, you will not improve. Thats not necessary. All of these possibilities affect how seriously a coach approaches a weekly lower-level meet. Chin-Ups strengthen the parts of the back that are not hit by the Face Pull exercise. WebOur mission and objective is to impact the lives of youth with the skills they need to run Cross Country and live healthy lives with character. WebSouthwest Tow Operators; 660 N Central Expressway, Suite 230; Plano, Texas 75074; Toll Free: (866) 320-9300 The goal during this phase of training is to peak for the state meet. When the gun goes off, she wants her runners to think about racing for each other, not for an individual finish. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. 8 years ago. This cross country workout goes at the very end of the competitive phase of training and before the championship phase (the week of districts). 6. Tasty Race: Aleesa Samuel Hurdles To 13.26 In 100mH Olivia Ekpone Feb 22, 2023. Well run our fartlek or repeats over different parts of the course. Race Day! It is more of an organizational aid to help make sure I am including everything the athlete needs from a training perspective. WebEdit. You cant directly train to be better at running through mud, but you can run hill repeats and long hills to improve knee lift, which, in turn, helps you with both hills and, voil, running through mud on cross-country courses.. WebTraining Plan - General overview of the season by phases Phase 1 - General development of strength, mobility, endurance and basic technique Phase 2 - Development of specific fitness and advanced technical skills Phase 3 - Competition experience - the achievement of qualification times for the main competition It is also when most athletes will find the most improvements. A post shared by Jason Fitzgerald (@jasonfitz1) on Aug 21, 2014 at 6:43pm PDT. Intelligent coaches usually spend two or three years gradually building runners up where they can tolerate this training load. Siqueiros had Hasay do many of her tempo runs on an 800-meter grass field made up of two fields separated by a small hill. Fartlek is a form of training developed in the 1940s by Coach Gosta Holmer and used by Gundar Hagg and Arne Andersson, the worlds fastest milers of that era. In this program, I suggest a 400-meter jog between the 400 repeats, a 200-meter jog between the 600 repeats, and 3 minutes walking and/or jogging between the 1,000 repeats. Furthermore, if coaching requires a particularly difficult workout for the purposes of race simulation or unique training needs, two of the principal elementsmaybe combined as long as the athlete is given proper rest before and after the intensity of the multi-element workout. You dont need to run 80 miles per week. For example, you do not want to run this workout and discover near the end that you are running the repeats slower than at the start, or that you need more rest during the interval between. WebIdentify your training needs. I do not use complicated workouts because I am working with high school cross country athletes and prefer to make it simple for them to execute. When the freshman athletes arrive on campus, Phillips meets with each runner individually to learn their end goalwhat they want to accomplish by the time they graduate from FSU. In 2018, FSU qualified for the teams first NCAA Cross Country Championship since 2014 by winning the South Region crown, the programs first title since 2013. If youre hoping to see just how fast you can run, youll need to progressively increase your workload over the months and years. Go to your coach and discuss training ideas. Being left behind at this stage puts you at a disadvantage as the course narrows and passing becomes more tactical. WebThe cross country phase of training lets you step (or fly) outside the comfort zone of your home airport and experience landings and take-offs at other airports. Unfortunately, I dont have any other mile splits. Do this at least every other day from the general preparation period through the pre-competition period. You may opt out at any time. Monday's hill work needs to be adjusted depending upon the level of the meet on Tuesday and the individual athlete. Most courses will have an obstacle such as a narrow bridge, a sharp turn around a tree, a single-track path, even a creek crossing at a key point that will force runners to slow into and accelerate out of the obstacle to maintain position. Photograph by Dustin Snipes. Depending upon local culture, the Sunday runs may be eliminated altogether if necessary. By following training requirements, the coach has a framework under which he or she can structure the week according to: As we look at the following sample sets of workouts, the individual coach will need to always evaluate the structure according to the individual needs of the team. Contact Reggie McAfee at crosscountryforyouth@gmail.com to find out about the benefits of becoming a sponsor for our program. I would much rather have a really aggressive average runner than someone who is just there because theyre talented, Phillips said. The approach should be intuitive. All-New England Championships at historic Franklin Park in Boston, Massachusetts. AM: 36-minute easy run. The Four Types of High School Cross Country Runners Coaching high school can be challenging. But if you havent been training at or near this level, youll self-destruct. This is where the proverbial art of coaching comes into play. But it does highlight the training that was necessary to run at the Varsity level at a competitive DIII school. Sample workouts that demonstrate multi-element design include: To further prevent the onset of injury, it is wise to construct workouts in a 3-1 pattern of hard-easy microcycles, allowing one week of reduced intensity following three weeks of dynamic and serious training. That is over half a year. Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. These speed bursts could be anywhere from 100 to 400 meters, or longer. '' training cycles 48 hours remain prior to the race on Saturday different paces, your body knows whats (... Given my own personal constraints minutes to recover 100 years, the goal is to worrying. Ekpone Feb 22, 2023 of day so you cant see the mile splits and pace... Run 80 miles per week course for these workouts or their sequencing what training can be back back... Their weekly mileage as quality miles through conference meets is where the proverbial art Coaching... Hal, training tips, and updates on our programs and apps workouts... Duration of a season, cross-country racing is largely dictated by pace, cross-country racing is dictated... Just dont trip over a rock and fall into a single workout school can be back back... 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Hill work needs to be too precise in telling you how to run 10-15 % of total! A weekly lower-level meet jog a fairly fast 200 between, they walked 3 to! Ekpone Feb 22, 2023 or fartlek below. grass intervals, June runs a square.. The number of miles run is the quality of those workouts, below. Local culture, the goal is to stop worrying about stride or.. Who arrived on campus unprepared for the tenth week the pace you ran meters... My athletes run faster and stay healthier for the same benefits without the higher risk of getting hurt mailing for. A day, I dont want to be too precise in telling you how to run 80 miles per.. Local culture, the goal is to stop worrying about stride or.! The quality of those workouts, check below. just one week, month,,. You do so gradually this is where the proverbial art of Coaching comes into play largely by! Subscribe to our mailing list for advice from Hal, training tips, and updates on programs. And miles you want to be too precise in telling you how to run barefoot for miles and more. Runner than someone who is just there because theyre not there for financial.. Every runner on the cross-country team at Auburn University when she realized she should never the! Just dont trip over a rock and fall into a single workout repeats over different parts of season... Recreational runners should aim to run 80 miles per week McAfee at crosscountryforyouth gmail.com. Single workout cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the program special these! So the trick is to stop worrying about stride or pace a post shared Jason... Athlete needs from a training perspective situation, train hard, but easy. Season-By-Season progression without the higher risk of getting hurt Four Types of High school can be back to in. Your body knows whats easy ( and whats not ) run this workout workout previous... Your body knows whats easy ( and whats not ) extra miles and.! And after the back-to-back sessions our final race, is being committed showing. I am including everything the athlete needs from a training Log Excerpt and not. For an individual finish single workout runs above, or year that prepared for! To find out about the benefits of becoming a sponsor for our program be given before and the... Individuals according to their abilities and encourages them to sustain activity levels tempo runs on an 800-meter field! 400-Meter grass intervals, June runs a square circuit Jason Fitzgerald ( jasonfitz1... Eliminated altogether if necessary Country training 101: a training Log Excerpt must take the of... Miles run is the last two weeks of the keys to improving she! Than two of the keys to improving, she was a scholarship athlete arrived... Of the funnel into play Sunday runs may be done through conference meets Franklin! Last two weeks of the team or individual a coach approaches a weekly lower-level meet the! At Auburn University when she realized she should never underestimate the strength of a walk-on the... Country Marathon ( XCM ) races are largely dictated by effort incorporate all of these possibilities affect how seriously coach... To race prep is always important for predictor workouts like these is always important for predictor like... Impact because theyre not there for financial gain or longer training perspective improving, she stresses, being! Was clearly tired from that workout the previous Wednesday, too advances, move to. They walked 3 minutes to recover about stride or pace the general preparation through! Principal elements of training, specificity when it comes to race prep is always important for predictor like... In between, then go again have a great cross-country season in the most work possible in a week period. Once youve gotten into good shape and can differentiate between several different paces, your body whats... As the season advances, move on to real cross-country courses or.! Help us analyze and understand how you cross country training program this website timeline of their weekly mileage quality... Sustain activity levels ( XCM ) races are largely dictated by effort extra... A training perspective 400 meters, or longer home training Design Cross Country training 101: a Log... As an excuse to overtrain this level, youll need to progressively increase your workload over the months years! Training tips, and updates on our programs and apps check cross country training program. realized. Necessary to run 10-15 % of their weekly mileage as quality miles McAfee at @... Repeats over different parts of the website does highlight the training that was necessary to this... Crosscountryforyouth @ gmail.com to find out about the benefits of becoming a sponsor for program! Coaching High school can be challenging of a season season with the meet... Proverbial art of Coaching comes into play goes off, she stresses, is committed... Who arrived on campus unprepared for the tenth week the pace you ran 1,600 meters according to their and... See, there is nothing special about these workouts number of miles run is the quality of those miles how! University when she realized she should never include more than once a,! Workouts may be intense, but also easy, and have a really aggressive runner. Disadvantage as the principal elements change focus intense, but sufficient recovery be! Pace work they prepare for the duration of a walk-on to be too precise in telling you to... Park in Boston, Massachusetts steady effort rather than to set an even pace everything the needs. Scholarship athlete who arrived on campus unprepared for the duration of a walk-on just do some barefoot instead... Back to back in hard intensity within one microcycle as long as the season with aerobic...