Hey all,
I'm an incoming junior to XC (collegiate) and have been hurt on an off for a few years. In HS I ran fairly quick (9:14 3200) but again, haven't had much success collegiately. I believe I will excel at longer (8k/10k) races.
A friend recommended 4 x 200, a few times a week to help build speed. Has anyone tried this over a summer? Does it help?
Look up the Summer of Malmo (use the search function, or Google).
Probably don't need 200s more than a couple times a week, but you could do just four "a few times a week" without any ill effects, and probably a lot of benefit.
Tips:
Don't time them. Just run them free and easy. Go for a great feeling of speed, rather than a time. There should be no sense of strain on these at all.
Get your breath back completely (or almost-) between reps. Like walk a 200 or more after each.
If it's a windy day, do these with the wind mostly at your back.
Sorry, one more tip: do these early in a training session--after a warmup, probably, but before any medium or long running.
Awesome, thanks for the advice. Appreciate it!