Are intervals even necessary in HS XC?

If the high school runners have been putting in the miles then intervals are necessary for them to run fast. If kids are coming into the season without any base or are new to the sports getting in the miles are probably more important. Don't assume that just because a lot of high school runners would benefit from more miles and less workouts means that they all would. If you have a good program by the time your athletes are seniors they should have a very strong aerobic system. Building this aerobic system is key but you should not forget that basic speed is very important and harder to develop as you get older.

Interval work is certainly overdone, but I wouldn't advocate doing away with it completely. I agree that most young runners need a lot of aerobic work. Intervals can be a big part of improving aerobic fitness. 8X1000m at threshold pace with one minute rest was one of the core workouts in my high school training. This kind of workout was very important to my aerobic development.

It's important to do some faster intervals as well. You won't perform well if you have never run faster than race pace. That being said, most training programs have way too much short, fast repeats. You don't need to be running 300s every week. Nothing wrong with a few 1000s at race pace or some 800s and 400s a bit quicker than race pace every couple of weeks.

Most HS kids will never run past HS. Long term development isn't a concern because the coach & runner want to succeed at during the season.

Telling a kid that if he does nothing but log miles that by the time he's a senior he might place high at a meet isn't very appealing. Going to practice and running nothing but long runs would suck.

I doubt you'd ever see much progress throughout the season, the kids would get stale, bored, and go on to do something else.

Coach: "I know we just finished 6th at Regionals and a our season is over, but you guys built a great base!"

That's not really what you want. You dont train to train, you train to race.

I agree with Quenton above. I think you need a healthy mix of both.

Another thing you have to look at is mental strength. Many HS runners are not invested enough in running to handle the mental aspect of continuous high miles. What I mean is, many get bored. A lot want to show off on the track doing intervals. It's sometimes easier for them to see their hard work and fitness in a more quantifiable way on the track when you're actually running quickly.

Take me for example. I was a great runner in middle school/high school, but could not run the higher mileage my team mates did. I would get injured rather quickly (and I ran at the paces I was supposed to, I was a smarter trainer than many practice-racers). I would routinely outperform the others, but my buildup just wasn't gradual enough for me to handle the higher mileages.

I think with a slower build-up I could have certainly handled it, and I'm continuing on myself to ramp up mileage, but in a safer way for my specific instance.

In the end, it really comes down to the individual. Some kids will get more benefit out of more miles, some will get more out of a slower build up and shorter faster stuff to compensate for the reduction in mileage.

Intervals are necessary to peak performance, but not every week. Once every two weeks is probably more ideal and of course the type of workouts should vary some. Sprints and strides can give a lot of speed. Too often HS coaches think intervals give speed. I'd argue that a coach could ultimately bring his athletes to a higher peak if he focused on more aerobic and threshold running while keeping a healthy dose of strides, hills, and sprints. That athlete at the end of a couple of seasons could easily outperform an athlete who spent so much time recovering every week and staying on low mileage due to weekly intervals.

Intervals most definitely are not necessary as the above poster is trying to say

"That athlete at the end of a couple of seasons could easily outperform an athlete who spent so much time recovering every week and staying on low mileage due to weekly intervals."

Look at what your wrote.. "at the end of a couple of seasons"

WHY would your typical HS coach care about what happens in a couple of seasons when there's a state championship being held roughly 90 days after the 1st day of school?

MOST of your team should be out for Summer XC, but I know we always picked up more kids when school started. If those kids who didnt start until Aug. were given nothing but base work, they wouldn't be worth squat by the end of the season.

Intervals are a short cut, yes I admit that.. but they are a necessary short cut if the goal is to have the TEAM performing well by season's end.

I never did intervals during highschool XC, we did occasional hills but for the most part we just ran about 5-7 miles a day. A lot of times we'd get competitive towards the end of the run and all be pushing the pace back to the school. So it's not like every run was easy, but we never hit the track. We had guys who would run 16-17 minutes off of that training.

Shoebacca wrote:

That athlete at the end of a couple of seasons could easily outperform an athlete who spent so much time recovering every week and staying on low mileage due to weekly intervals.

You only have to run low mileage to recover from weekly intervals if you're running the intervals incorrectly. So, yeah, if you start from the assumption that people who are running intervals are doing so in a stupid manner, then running intervals regularly will seem like a bad idea.

The guy who runs his weekly interval workouts correctly will beat the guy who does few interval workouts.

"The guy who runs his weekly interval workouts correctly will beat the guy who does few interval workouts."

Yes, doing them correctly is a key point, it's not like you can't do mileage incorrectly either.

What Shoebacca wrote above is kind of my take. I understand that some interval is probably necessary but not a bunch of it like 300s and 400s. 1000s-1 mile repeats I think would be good though occasionally. I think build up races probably give a good dose of VO2Max stuff. Strides and hills I would think would give a good dose of speed.

BTW does anyone have information about how Rudy Chapa and his Hammond, Indiana guys used to train? Three guys on same team in 70s under 9 minutes in 2 mile. I think I remember reading that they pretty much just did a bunch of hard longer runs. Maybe I am wrong? Anyone know?

bangalangadanga says

tempo tempo tempo

cruise cruise cruise and execute a controlled kick the last 400.

2 weeks worth of intervals slightly faster than tempo pace equaling 1.5x race distance.

1 week sharpening - 50s, strides, and rest.

run pr

Yeah, but if guys on the team are all doing high mileage, they'll have a better chance of running throughout their college career. Distance runners aren't born; they're made. Mileage is the most successful way through which to accomplish the "making" of a great distance runner. Simply throwing a bunch of Freshman on a track and telling them, "Run 10 quarters at Goal mile race pace!" is like telling a Kindergarten student to explain the Pythagorean theorem before they know how to count to ten. It's true... train to race. One cannot race well in the 800 and up without growing the proper aerobic base.

ArloTheHouseCat wrote:

Most HS kids will never run past HS. Long term development isn't a concern because the coach & runner want to succeed at during the season.

Telling a kid that if he does nothing but log miles that by the time he's a senior he might place high at a meet isn't very appealing. Going to practice and running nothing but long runs would suck.

I doubt you'd ever see much progress throughout the season, the kids would get stale, bored, and go on to do something else.

Coach: "I know we just finished 6th at Regionals and a our season is over, but you guys built a great base!"

That's not really what you want. You dont train to train, you train to race.

the idea that endurance is lacking is often true, but not

universally so. a good coach can defeat a conference or an entire state without intervals training or without steady runs.

ultimately your best will go up against runners with base and speed. to take a HS freshman from 62 to 52 for 400m, is just as important to that distance runner's development as building up stamina to run an hour/day, sometimes at <6 mile pace. a 9:20 3200m runner putting in 60 miles/week, with only 56 400m speed is running into a wall on the speed side. all the miles in the world wont give that kid 52 speed, the speed to compete nationally.

try to see the training elements as connected, not opposed.

[quote]342 wrote:

Yeah, but if guys on the team are all doing high mileage, they'll have a better chance of running throughout their college career. Distance runners aren't born; they're made. Mileage is the most successful way through which to accomplish the "making" of a great distance runner. Simply throwing a bunch of Freshman on a track and telling them, "Run 10 quarters at Goal mile race pace!" is like telling a Kindergarten student to explain the Pythagorean theorem before they know how to count to ten. It's true... train to race. One cannot race well in the 800 and up without growing the proper aerobic base.[quote]ArloTheHouseCat wrote:

Issues with your response:

1. "the team are all doing high mileage, they'll have a better chance of running throughout their college career" 99% will never run in college- why should the HS coach care about whow the kids are running when they are 20 yrs old? His job is to win meets for the school.

2. "Distance runners aren't born; they're made." Just wrong, dead @ss wrong. Just about every top distance runner shows their talent early on.. yes they train, but most have similar stories. "I was playing soccer/baseball/baksetball when the coach suggest I go out for track/XC. I wasnt good at first but by seasons end I was state champion/regional champion/ Footlocker finalist etc.."

3."Simply throwing a bunch of Freshman on a track and telling them, "Run 10 quarters at Goal mile race pace!" Where did I say to do that?? You're assuming that since I think HS kids can benefit from intervals that's ALLL I think they should do- again a very wrong assumption.

HS kids should run long, they should run hills, they should run tempos, but they can run intervals too if done correctly.

I'm an incoming HS senior, and I personally think that speed work should be limited to threshold workouts like tempos or cruise intervals, and 5k race pace repeats of 400-800m. To still work on speed and form, the athletes should run hills, do hill sprints of 8-12 seconds, do strides 3x a week, and do running form drills 5x a week. In addition to this, the kids should run, a lot. After a few weeks of building into it, they should be doubling 4-5x a week and running 6-7 days a week. I'm currently running 80mpw, and it isn't that bad. If you build into it, highschool kids can handle the mileage and form work. Then the threshold work is form stamina, and race pace work is to know race pace like it's 2nd nature. I think that's all thats truly necessary, as well as only doing 2 hard workouts a week and a weekend long run. Usually, HS teams have 3 hard workouts a week and a weekend long run, and thats just too hard on the body. There's just not enough recovery. There should be at least 2 easier/recovery days between hard workouts with maybe some strides or hill sprints to work on form.

HS runners like all runners need a balanced program to develope all systems to run their best. So yes, they should run intervals but it depends on what you call intervals.

First of all you need to develope a base. The amount of base will generally be dictated by the high school runners physical and mental maturity, but should range between 45 to 80 mpw. A long run is necessary, but contrary to the common thought that it should be 25% of the mileage, for HS runners running 5k this should be limited to 12-13 miles at any one time. Additionally tempo runs are needed and they should be approximately 10% of the weekly distance at approximately a 10k pace (5k + 20 to 30 secs). Intervals of 800 to 1200 meters should comprise approximately 8% of the training and should be at 3000 to 5000 meter pace. Then there should be some basic speed work and mile pace but limited to 5% of total mileage, generally run as 200, 300 or 400 meters. The rest of the running should be as an easy pace which would be 1:30 to 2 minutes slower than 5k pace.

Although these distances sound like track work, that does not have to be the case. Many of this runs can and should be done on a cross country course if possible.

Thats my 2 cents for what it is worth.

So, basically you follow Daniels Running Formula.

Pretty much. Developement of all the physiological systems is important. The most significant variable is the physical and emotional maturity of the runner, which will dictate the mileage.