College Coach haves us run 1 easy day a week in the buildup for XC. Is this normal?

Why no intervals, repeats, threshold and hill sprints?

I’m just as baffled

I don’t think any collegiate programs train that way anymore.

Pretty obvious you don’t trust your coach. If They’ve had many all-Americans take the leap of faith and follow the plan, or admit to yourself you don’t trust the coach and then why tf are you wasting your time running for them.

How many All-Americans have you coached?

And here we have it. brand new to a program and instead of speaking to your coach to get an answer you are here questioning the training on a message board. you’re off to a great start. Good luck to your coach. You’re a peach.

you don't think it's normal to bounce things off other people before going to the source?

I have talked to my coach and my teammates I just wanted to discuss it with other people because i thought it was an interesting topic

Steady means many different things to many different people. How fast is steady relative to your 5k pace?

1 min - 1.5 min slower than 5k

While I think that a more optimal plan would also include some faster stuff (strides, hills) thrown in a few times a week, I don't think this is necessarily a terrible base plan. If you're not doing major workouts, it is easier to run a bit faster so doing steady runs like this isn't as risky as long as they are reasonable in length. From experience, I would say that longer than 90' running at this pace does take a decent bit out of you. 60' or so is quite manageable. I usually give myself a short 5-10' "warm-up" at normal easy run pace since I'm old, which also helps bump the volume up a bit. Running easy days too fast becomes dangerous if you're doing it on top of workouts because then you don't recover from the efforts properly.

Although this type of running seems less specific, I find it to be very useful for building aerobic base without being too stressful. As I said, I'd recommend doing strides to keep in touch with faster paces if your coach hasn't instructed you to do so. Otherwise you'll feel a bit shocked/mechanically off when you try to start running more race specific paces in workouts.

Ok thanks

I do trust my coach, he is a smart man. I am just a little hesitant and unprepared because I’m jumping from less intense high school training to more intense collegiate training and I’m a little nervous. I hope you understand that.

The steady runs I assume are lower than LT? I like this kind of training while building volume.

I agree with others about the need for strides as some way of keeping in touch with some speed. Short hills being good for you also.

When I was being coached I did everything my coaches told me to do. It's the only way to know if their system works. If he is open and easy going and you were able to ask him if he wants you to do short hills or strides he would tells you and hopefully explain why.

Be careful how you form the question if you ask.

Example:

Why am I not doing strides?-Bad!

Do you want me to do strides? - Good

Did your coach ever ask you how much you ran in college, talk to your HS coach about your training? How much time did he really take to get a feel for what you have done in terms of training in HS? Did he send you a questionnaire, have a discussion? Curious if he took steps to understand your background in training as an athlete.

Is everyone prescribed the same “steady” pace? If so, that’s bad coaching. The extreme talent will find it easy and perform. Others will get ground up and spit out. That’s typical old school college training though.

My suggestion is to get into heart rate training. Keep it below 80% of max for most runs. Rate around 70% is best. Although once or twice a week let it go up to between 80 and 90% (Tempo). Also, do 10 second hill sprints with full recovery once or twice a week. Consider that weight room injury prevention.

I'm calling BS on this. No way you're going to college when you don't know the correct usage of 'haves' vs 'has'

The coach should "haves" you attend class to learn English!

What is a rising freshmen anyways?

This is a bad plan. It's just under 5 months to the NCAA regional meet. You are going to be burned out by then.