Cross Country Off-Season Training

HardWorkingAmerican wrote:

Hey,

I was just wondering if anyone happens to have a weekly plan that they use/used in order to build endurance (and speed) to improve their 5K times for next season. This year was my first season of Cross Country and I started at a measly 29:51 and worked my way down to a 22:51 so I want to at least get to sub 20:00 before the start of the next season. I am also planning to do track. Anyways, thanks for the help and ideas for weekly practices.

Thank you in advance!!!

Get out the door and run 30-60 minutes every day. Once you've done that for a few months, come back for more tips.

just run easy everyday and maybe do some fartlek or tempo sessions. You don't need to work on fine-tuning speed or getting faster at your level yet. What you have to work on is endurance so just make sure you run 30-60 minutes each day just like the guy said above for a couple months till you get some improvement in your endurance. You will notice an improvement in your endurance during your tempo and fartlek sessions. Also, make sure you do NOT run fast during your normal easy runs as this will not make you better but instead make you worse.

What mile pace would you recommend me doing? Right now for easy days I would just go maybe 9:30 pace or 10:00. Is that too fast/slow? What are your thoughts?

Go by feel, you should be finishing runs feeling like you could run a few more miles comfortably if you had to.

How will that build my endurance if I feel like I hardly ran?

Easy running should be done at an effort level of 65-79 percent of max heart rate. At this level of effort, you should feel comfortable, you should be able to utter a sentence without straining, but you should still have moderately elevated breathing. When you're training your body at this intensity, your heart, lungs, and legs will get significantly stronger over an extended period of time and coming into the season your aerobic system will be stronger, more developed, and ready to handle the more specific training that will drop your times.

When I started running I could barely run a mile in 7 minutes. After that, I just ran easy and did 2-3 strides a week for 3-5 months, albeit a measly 15-20 miles a week over that period. I time trialed a mile after and dropped down to 6:00. These are noobie gains, but I felt much more fit. And these easy runs were really easy; breathing was elevated but I was comfortable throughout the runs and ran my weekly mileage without getting hurt or strained. The day of the time trial I felt much more fit and way less winded after my first one or two laps which were 20 seconds faster than the splits I had on my first time trial.

TLDR:

This hobby jogger can confirm that easy runs do boost fitness substantially if done consistently and at an appropriate volume over a period of several months. Oh, and virtually all elite athletes at over 800 meters do the bulk of their mileage at an easy pace, so it should be a no brainer that it serves an important purpose to maintaining and stimulating fitness.

Thanks for the helpful insight to all of this. I guess I'll just be working on an easy run probably six out of the seven days of the week. What mile time would you say that I start to incorporate other things into my weekly workout besides just an easy run?

It'd be good to do strides (accelerating to a speed around your 800m pace and holding that pace for 10-15 seconds)- 4 or 5 of them, 80-100 meters each would be great for maintaining and improving your speed) after 3-4 of your regular runs every week.

And after 3-4 weeks of easier running, it seems pretty standard to throw in a weekly threshold workout: 20-25 minutes of running at a pace that's hard but manageable; when you finish it you should be breathing pretty hard, but you shouldn't feel annihilated or like you had a race.

You could even do a session of reps every other week if you want to (eg. 10X200, 8X300, 4X400...etc) at mile pace with full recovery to get even more faster running in but I don't know if that's necessary. It looks like it's just better to focus on building your aerobic strength for now through easier running and tempos

Also, that 7 minute improvement is still really good. Doing whatever you were doing to get there should easily improve your fitness still.

HardWorkingAmerican wrote:

How will that build my endurance if I feel like I hardly ran?

It won't feel so easy after several days.

Yeah, you're all right. Thanks for the plan for working off season. I'll start this today. Thank you all.

How old are you?

It sounds like you don't run track only XC?

Looks like a troll post.

I'll bite on the assumption you are a young teenage girl judging by your times.

First issue...take 2-3 months off with no running but instead cross train (swim, ride a bike, work on your core stability and upper body strength).

You need to let your body recover and also give your body time to grow. Rest and recovery are equally important as running and training.

In February start running only on grass and soft surfaces every 2nd day on your non-running days swim, ride a bike, play other sports. Start at 20 minutes running at a pace you can still talk to someone and gradually increase the length of time to the point that you are running 40 minutes.

This should be by about April. Report back then and you can start some harder runs and speed work

First off I would like to say that sorry it took so long to respond.

Secondly, no I'm not a female. This was my first time doing a sport and yes I know I'm under average but everyone has to start somewhere, correct?

Anyways, I will incorporate some of the things you said like working on core but I will start at 30 minutes instead of 20 because it seems too short. Anyways, thanks for the imput and I'll report back in April.

What ever you do do not take 2 - 3 months off of running. That is quite possibly the worst thing you can do for your time.

Austin Anthony from CSU?