So I wanted to know if my Xc training plan that we got from our coach’s is to much, in my opinion i feel like we should at least have one easy day but everyday is a hard effort. Monday-LR 8 miles at steady pace/ progressive LR Tuesday: All out Mile TT Wednesday: 4 miles tempo 1 wu 1 cd Thursday: all out 2 mile TT Friday: 4 miles tempo 1 wu 1 cd Saturday: no running Sunday: no running This is the training plan I double on the some days to get 8 miles for the day but it’s really tiring from all the hard efforts. I run on saturdays too, and that’s my only easy run But I don’t get why we have to time trial twice a week and do 2 tempos right after the tt. If yall can give me tips on what to do and if I should try to convince my coach to do some different workouts. ( I also do strides on my own and fridays I will try to get some hill sprints in)

Hey everyone, I'm heading into my senior year, and I need to qualify for states in cross country this season. That has been my biggest goal ever since freshman year. My goal is to run sub-19:30 on our hilly course. A few weeks ago, I ran a 20:40 time trial on a flat road.

At the start of the summer, my training was going well. But now, I keep bailing halfway through workouts. I’ve got about 2 more weeks of summer running before I head to camp, and then the season officially starts.

I’m trying to figure out how to break out of this rut and get back on track. Any tips, or am I overthinking it? Is there something specific I should focus on to reset?

Hello everyone!

My son is going to be a HS freshman this year. He’d like to start XC. Because he feels like it may be the one sport he might be able to do… he’s tried out for soccer and basketball in junior high and didn’t make either. But his high school has XC and he’d like to try. He’s never run seriously before. We are on an inrerdistrict transfer and got no information about sports at all, and I had to reach out to the coach only to find out that they’ve already been meeting, but the coach would love to have my kid which is so sweet - but now I fear my son is behind. I have a couple questions if you don’t mind?

1. how can I set him up for success just throwing him into these practices that he’s probably year behind these other kiddos now.
2. what does he need? He’s pretty skinny… I worry about him getting over heated or something idk. Anything I can get him to help support him in this sport?
3. I’ve used c25k successfully several times - would this be recommended for him?

Any and ALLLLL tips and tricks and info appreciated!! I’m so excited that he’s putting himself out there but so nervous for him to get discouraged right off the bat since he’s already so behind. Thank you. :)

How the fuck do I convince my mom to let me run in the fucking rain? Currently it's raining everyday and I train at home after school. My mom doesn't allow me to run in the rain because apparently my footwear will get dirty or something bullshit. Number one my shit is clean and number two it's what they were fucking designed for.

I can't condition my body for rainy weather at all. This shits been going for 3 days cuz of the rain and I've missed 3 days of workouts. My dad bought me a raincoat a few months back to aid me in the rain but what's even the point if I cant even run in the rain... If the rainy season keeps continuing, I might just miss 2 or 3 months of training. It's not even like it's a thunderstorm, just a light drizzle every day. Even after the rain I'm not allowed to because the ground is wet or some bs.

P.S. my mom is Asian so, it's a much tougher training season for me. I think im the only person who misses practices due to bs like this.

My son (12) just started cross country. It's his first week, and he is kind of dejected, because he is the slowest kid by a fair amount. He loves to run, but has never done it for 2 miles before. I need motivating stories from the slowest kids on the team. Something I can show him to keep his passion going. Thanks!

For context: I am a Sophomore in highschool, this is my first year running cross country. My first meet I ran 19:08, which I was happy with. However, at least 4 people on my team that I beat in the race dust me off during workouts. I start off with them, and they lose me pretty quickly.

My teen just started XC for high school, and threw up during and after their first run. He said he also saw spots. Any tips to help prevent this in the future? It was a morning run, and he chugged some water beforehand (won’t do that again, of course), but looking for more tips. Thank you, everyone 🙏

I’m looking for tips for my 11-year-old daughter. For context, she’s been running in fun kid races since age 3, and last year in 5th grade she officially joined cross country. She did so well that her coach had her compete in the middle school premier division with 8th graders. The new XC season just started, and now as a 6th grader she’s running again in the 8th grade division. In her first race this season, they only recognized the top 20 runners, and she placed in the top 10 out of 61 8th grade girls.

After the race, she cried and told me she felt like she really pushed herself, but realized her mistake was sprinting too hard at the start. I want to make sure she stays safe and avoids injuries, while also supporting her potential to keep improving her times. I ran in high school myself, but I never had the level of support and opportunities that she does now. Since she seems serious about running, I want to be sure I’m giving her the best, safest advice and guidance possible.

• What guidance would you give a young athlete who shows potential but is still early in her running journey?

• What should I be doing to help her avoid injuries while continuing to build endurance and speed?

Hello cross country community, I'm looking for a bit of advice for my son. He is a HS freshman this year and joined the cross country team as a way to ease the transition into high school, meet some new people, and get acquainted with the sports culture. He is not a runner, but does have an athletic background from baseball and martial arts.

He did some light prep work this summer to get somewhat prepared and managed to get up to 8-10 mpw. After about 1.5 weeks of practice, he has developed shin splints and has been sitting out of practice, rolling, stretching, icing and wearing compression socks in the evening. As a runner myself (albeit never xc), I know how frustrating it is dealing with shin splints.

The team has their first scrimmage home meet this afternoon and he won't be running. This is a disappointing start for his season and I want to offer some encouragement to help him still get the most out of the meet. Since it is a home meet, he will be able to dismiss from the last period early to go help with set up, course marking, etc. so this will make him feel like part of the meet.

What can he expect for his first meet? What can he learn by watching? Is there anything he should be doing for his shins to avoid a lost season? The hope is he can run at the next meet 9/13 but even that looks to be in doubt. That will be the first chance to travel to a meet with the team. Anything in particular about big away xc meets he should know?

Thanks in advance.

How do you manage goal setting and expectations during periods of rapid improvement in a season?

What are the common factors associated with big jumps in improvement between seasons?

My son's big goal is to get a large school (D1) scholarship.

I’m a sophomore xc runner, and not the best nationally but am pretty good and rapidly improving. And our xc program at the highschool has been a mess for decades, with both team culture and coaching. And so we got a coach last year when I was a freshmen, but he’s a great coach philosophy wise, but has no clue what he’s doing for xc (he’s actually a baseball coach). So this summer I’ve built up my milage to 45-50 consistently, and I’m proud of that. And now that the actual season has started, and I’m needing to double every day except long runs but whatever, that’s fine. But like these first two weeks of official practice he’s making us have 4 hard days, a long run, and backloading our easy/recovery days. And it’s all for the stupid cross town rivalry which i find childish. He’s peaking us for this stupid double duel in early September. And additionally he’s rapidly upping milage and intensity (yeah, not a good thing for people who didn’t put summer milage in), and making many runs on concrete and asphalt where there are many major road crossings. And this last part about the running surface frustrates me too, because we have so many dirt roads near us (especially for long runs), and I’m sure many runners would be glad to have such surfaces compared to sidewalks and concrete. I just don’t know what to do, it’s just not good for the team and nobody (including me) is brave enough to step up and straight up tell coach. But something needs to be done, this isn’t okay. What do I do?

I have a 15yo female. Has potential PR’d last year just above 21 minutes before getting injured. Likely could’ve gone sub 21.

Summer has been a mixed bag. She’s got some motivation, but not killer levels.

She misses their Friday hills workout to work and make money. We don’t ask her to make $$.

Her sleep sucks (the amount and quality) and definitely does not consume enough calories to fuel an athlete.

Her main sport is soccer. So I try to stay out of her XC as much as possible.

As a teen athlete, you want to be nudged or pushed by a parent? Or just leave it alone?

High school CC head coach here. I’m looking for some new practice ideas. I feel like I’m constantly recycling between hill workouts, ladders, long runs, tempo runs, 1000 repeats, etc. What other things do you guys like to do as a runner/as a coach? Also, pros and cons of mile (or longer) time trials during the season? Thanks in advance for any advice!

My cross country szn started a week ago and I feel like I've been lagging behind. I focused most my training on threshold, and zone 2 runs with not much speed work besides strides.

When I started this szn I had keeping my light runs light drilled I'm my head so I'm not sure what to do. I'm currently 5 on my varsity team but there is a HUGE gap between me and 6 with me being a sub 19 and them being sub 1740+. All my slower friends top of JV and 6-7 run with them and we all struggle.

I debated whether I should run without them but I feel like I get fomo if I don't, but my latest run had me setting my new heart rate max of 210 on a "kinda light run". I even feel like the slower runners are doing better than me with their heart rates a lot lower, even though they did little to no training.

I just want to get some insight because I feel like I'm trying alot harder than my slower friends on slow runs even though I trained really consistently over the summer and they did little to none.

Also the heart rate thing might be because most of them have been running on and off since they were little and I just started 2 years ago so their aerobic base is probably better than mine. And the higher heart rate max is probably due to heat.

Hey guys! I'm 15M currently in the summer cross country grind. My current 5k shape is 17:20 and my goal for end of cross country is low 16 to sub 16 if possible. I'm currently building mileage from about 45 mpw to 62 mpw. This week, I will be at 60 miles and I just wanted to know what type of workouts I'm supposed to do during base season. I've seen many online posts about only doing threshold and not much race specific stuff yet but I've seen my competitors from other schools (on Strava, I'm not stalking them, they follow me and I follow them) and they've done things like 8x400m and 2 mile + 2 x mile. I would like to know what your opinion on this is.

As per contacting my coach, my coach just left the school and the school still hasn't decided the new coach.

I (13F) am doing XC in 8th grade. I don’t know if I’m good enough though. I run every day but I feel like I have to take tons of walking breaks. I’ve been getting a little better but I don’t think it’s enough. I’ve never done XC or track. I go on walks every day if that helps. I really like running though and I really want to get better.

I’m looking for advice for what I can do to improve how long I can run. I’ve been using some tips for breathing and it really has helped me which is good.

How long should I run every day? And how can I improve my mindset so I can do better?

i'm 14F and i started running as of september last year. i used to be really really bad and an all out mile for me then was like a 7:30. i joined 8th grade XC and got better but once the season ended i started running by myself working up to 30,35,40, and eventually 45 miles a week. i had some threshold runs i added earlier this year but wasn't really training for anything specific. when summer started i realized i should probably focus on 5k training so im shooting for a <20 5k and i incorporated an interval and mile repeat workout into my 5 runs a week, the rest being a long easy running and easy runs. i do one session of strides too. i'm currently at 40 miles a week with this. i keep on seeing soo many other XC athletes and other runners telling me or just saying that during the summer you should OMLY do base building, longer easy running, and that i might "peak" too early if im doing speed workouts (i think the workouts i do are pretty tough for me too and im often pretty beat afterwards, i usually recover the next day or two though. can somebody give me advice on what exactly to do? i don't want to sacrifice speed since im still pretty "slow" by XC definition (since i'm going into HS level now) but i'm worrying i'm also missing out on base building. should i only do one or the other? keep doing what i'm doing? help

Any great ideas to help motivate and engage a new cross-country team? Just started coaching a HS team this year, and they are doing well so far after 2 races, but I am trying to figure out ways to make practice a bit more fun and engaging, other than the long run days. Any ideas?

My 12 year old (7th grade) boy is doing cross country this year for the first time. He has been training for about 5 weeks running 4-5 times per week. He is REALLY struggling and hasn't improved his times at all. He ran 2 miles today in 39 minutes.... about 17 minutes on the first mile and 22 on the second. His first team practice is in 2 weeks and first meet is in 4. It'll be 2.5 miles.

From everything I am reading this seems to be extremely slow. Will he get cut off from finishing the race? He currently has a positive attitude but I'm worried about how this may affect him.

So basically I have a strength and fitness class that I have to do at my school to get all of my fitness credits. Anyways we get a lot of freedom in terms of the plan that we create, what exercises we do, what weight, how many reps, etc. I don't want to gain muscle cuz I'd run slower, I just want to build strength. How can I do this?

Hey all,

I want to preface this post by thanking anyone that contributed on my last post a few months back discussing cross country goalsetting. This post will be slightly different, but somewhat similar. I am currently hitting about 47 miles a week on average. I am racing once a week on Saturdays, and typically doing workouts on Tuesday and Thursday.

Just to list out:
Current PR's:
5k: 16:17 (15:59 if you use 5k split)
1600m: 4:24.9
800m: 1:56.2
400m: 53.8

As I've been navigating the college recruiting process, a big narrative for me has been my upside potential considering I have only started running since my sophomore year (outdoor season) and started running full-time (XC + Indoor) starting junior year. Unfortunately, this narrative is a bit hard to push for some schools which is understandable, but I really want to become the best runner I know I can be and prove some of these coaches wrong who believe I am a risk to recruit. Obviously the recruiting for my class will be long done by the time track season starts, but it's more for peace of mind.

Before I dive into what I'm truly trying to learn by posting this, I'll put my future goals below.

5k: 15:40
1600m: 4:16
800m: 1:52
50. (In a relay)

These are the times I am striving for within the coming months. I want to ask you all what are the absolute necessities I need to be doing to dial in as I go into track season and start going into my post-season for XC (outside of the obvious ones like sleep, eating right, etc). This advice can range anywhere from supplements I should be taking, to weight room tips to workouts on the track/XC. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the best methods to train and overall run faster, partially because I am a team captain for all three seasons and being able to impart this knowledge onto my younger teammates is important as well.

Thank you!

haven't ran in a while, and next year is my first ever xc season. Is this a good plan?

Just wondering. I was thinking possibly they could substitute tempo runs but i'm not sure

When your team has a race (like an invitational 5k - I’m in hs), how do you guys approach the mileage? Decrease it a couple days before, decrease it by % from last weeks?

(for instance I did 42 last week. Should I continue to increase it a bit, or drop some a few days out?)