Does a 400/800 guy need to do xc?

1. You are not a 400/800 guy unless you run sub 46.5 (fully trained). The 400/800 may be your best events now, but they probably won't be in the future.

2. The need for cross country for middle distance is a myth. Of course, it is very helpful for building aerobic strength and a great way to push yourself, but there are other ways to do that.

If you are still in high school and playing soccer over the winter I wouldn't worry about it. Try get some hard running efforts in every now and again, and don't forget to do drills/strides/basic plyometrics/sprints routinely.

Hates xc?!!

How much do you love track?

So duck xc but do longer stuff on yr own on trails and roads. But do longer stuff. Or forget being a top 800 guy.

Running easy 3-4 weeks for the fall is not going to help your 800 or 400 like doing XC. I have coached sprinters or more sprint like athletes in XC and I just have them doing lover volume. Makes them tougher and keeps them in shape.

Running XC to build fitness - good

Running XC to get into ideal 8-10k shape - bad

lamplight wrote:

1. You are not a 400/800 guy unless you run sub 46.5 (fully trained). The 400/800 may be your best events now, but they probably won't be in the future.

2. The need for cross country for middle distance is a myth. Of course, it is very helpful for building aerobic strength and a great way to push yourself, but there are other ways to do that.

If you are still in high school and playing soccer over the winter I wouldn't worry about it. Try get some hard running efforts in every now and again, and don't forget to do drills/strides/basic plyometrics/sprints routinely.

"You are not a 400/800 guy unless you run sub 46.5 (fully trained.)"

Uh, the OP said he is a student. You have no idea what his age or times might be. If he got to 50 flat fully trained and then concentrated on the 800 and got no faster than 2:05, would you still insist that he was not a 400/800 guy?

If you are HS frosh/soph and not sub-51, I'd say run XC. It's only 5K. Just do it for the workouts; you need development and this is a great way to do it. Don't worry if your 5K times are in the 17-19 minute range; XC is all about preseason from your perspective.

Here's a generic summer/fall approach for HS 400/800 guys who are NOT running XC, and who are frosh/soph sub-51, or junior/senior sub-50:

5 days -

3-5 miles easy (depending on your previous mileage), pick up the pace to threshold effort for the last half-mile. 3-6 x 50-100m strides at mile effort, not faster, with good form as of running 600m. 4-12 x 50-100m drills.

1 day - warmup, 8-12 x 200m hills at 800m-1K effort, walk or jog down, 2-3 min recovery. Lunges (forward, side, diagonal), single-leg calf raises / heel drops, squat-jumps.

1 day off.

Do that all summer/fall to build strength and aerobic fitness. 4-6 weeks before track season, replace the weekly hill session with a track workout. 4 x 150m with 5 min rest. Smooth unforced accel on the curve, blast down the straightaway up on toes full speed with good form; try to sprint "fast relaxed" with good arms and upper body posture. Then jog 4-8 laps on the track, on the straights hop left-left-right-right or if that's too hard take 2 steps between left/right. It's light plyo work that builds leg strength.

This preseason plan should bring you into early track season with decent stamina, strength, and OK speed for that time of year.

Good luck, hope this helps.

For college guys -

If you are D3 and sub-50, ask your coach but I'd say my above suggested off-season plan may be fine, no need for 8K XC . If 52+, then go run XC.

For D1, heck ask your coach. They probably have a more complex plan in mind for you.