Will running XC benefit a sprinter?

Woman or man

Male

Your coach seems very accommodating and the type of XC work he describes sounds like excellent pre season conditioning for a 400m runner. Michael Johnson would do this type of work during base, and even 100m runners under Bud Winters (who also ran well at 400m) would have a short XC season during the the off season/ buildup.

From the look of it this could benefit you, or at very worst it won't hurt you and allows you to receive your full scholarship

What he is describing is what your pre season should be anyways.

Just dont forget to lift hard throughout all this and strides/hills/drills will keep you in shape to sprint

It might not help much, but your coach seems smart about this and I don't think it'll hurt. Go for it.

It will benefit more than sitting on your butt all fall, which is what you're going to do if you don't run XC.

fadsfdsfdsf wrote:

It will benefit more than sitting on your butt all fall, which is what you're going to do if you don't run XC.

So true. I feel as though with the large roster sizes already, if coaches really wanted to be smart about it, they could require the sprinters to run XC and have the sprints coach as a "XC Coach." Then they could get a lot of extra training in with their sprinters and get a head start on indoor and outdoor seasons.

When I was a senior in high school there was this junior at rival school who was a 400m guy and ran XC. He was a solid XC running about 16:45-17:00 for 3 miles. In track he ran 48.6 for 400m.

your coach is tricking you into moving up to the 800. Just kidding, maybe :)

You're very similar to me. I've run a 3 60m races two of which I remember were 7.30. I've run between 10.99-11.18 but they all had wind between 2.4-3.1 making them illegal. The only legal 100 I've ran was 11.40 but I know I could have run a legal 11.2x. I've ran 22.47w and a legal 22.74 200m. Also, one 300m hand timed in 36.3 and a 400 in 49.42.

Anyway, that was after my first season of not running XC because I wasn't going to run XC in college so I did all the sprinter stuff in the fall. Only reference I can provide is that my senior year of high school I ran 11.5 and 51.6 both hand time my senior track season or the summer after after having XC in the fall and training for the 800 every track season.

xc could benefit a sprinter. We had a girl in my state who was good but never made state, her coaches told her to to go out for xc her senior year. She was slow for a girl like 25s for 5k. But her track times improved quite a bit and she managed to win district and get top 3 at state in both the 100 and 200.

Idk if she's a rare case though. You should talk to your HS coaches, they should know you well enough to know if it'll help you or not.

Also, in addition to the Lee Evans example for 400m you listed, Kirani James did xc the fall before his breakout 2011 season that culminated in gold at the world championships and he cited xc as the reason for his improvement as it gave him the strength in the 2nd half and allowed him to better hold his form.

David Klech- 300h God and national champ in the pentathlon did XC in high school, his career kinda got derailed after that but whatever.

Kerron Clement did XC in high school and was actually pretty good.

with the accommodations your coach is offering I would say definitely go for it.

Utter waste of time. It is better than doing nothing, but worse than numerous other alternatives. You'd be better off playing rec/club basketball and volleyball and lifting weights. Even better, train for sprinting with a decent club coach.

joel przybilla wrote:

David Klech- 300h God and national champ in the pentathlon did XC in high school, his career kinda got derailed after that but whatever.

Kerron Clement did XC in high school and was actually pretty good.

with the accommodations your coach is offering I would say definitely go for it.

Strange that I never saw him (klech) at a single XC meet...

You are incorrect, although he of course trained in the fall

Also none of the top multis do the indoor pent, they do the hep.

It's okay if you do some occasional easy miles in the off season, but not a whole XC season, cause eventually your teaching your muscle fibers to go from fast twitch to slow twitch and you don't want to do that

BrandonAthey wrote:

I am more of a 200/400 guy. Best times in my events are 6.92 in the 55 F.A.T., 7.29 in the 60 F.A.T., 11.24 in the 100 (converted from 10.94 handtime) and 11.40 F.A.T., 22.44 in the 200 (converted from 22.1 handtime), 37.79 in the 300, and 22.99 F.A.T., and a 51.77 in the 400 F.A.T.

51.77 for 400m is weak taking into account your other PRs, given your 100/200 you should be a 49.high or 50.low guy. That said, endurance work will definitely help, you just have to be careful to keep up your speed and focus on quality workouts over slow mileage.

I did quite a few XC races (no training) in 7th, 8th & 9th grade and ran 12.76 and 12.9 for 100m in 8th grade (hand-timed). My start was great, which you'd think to be impaired the most by XC racing.

I can't compare the above with other seasons due to injury, but to err on the side of caution, I personally would do up to about a mile at a time, if any distance training/racing.

Little knowledge to back that up, but mile running is quite quick-paced (though it might train slow-twitch fibres?), with anaerobic components during a sprint finish. Repetitions of a mile or less seem enough for conditioning and endurance.

On balance, I think it was Ato Boldon who said he never ran more than one lap at a time.

E-Baller, word, that's just what someone told me long ago on dyestat, thanks for correcting me, second hand information is often spurious

he won the pent at Nike Indoor in HS...

Those are solid times for a high school sprinter. I like to echo what others have said and do not run xc. I coach both track and xc at my high school and as a rule once a kid shows promise in field events or sprints. I change their training the following xc season if they insist on coming out to benefit their track and field season. I only let these kids continue doing XC training if the show success at the 800meters or longer.

Sprinting is something that has to be stimulated all year long if you want to make improvements. Unlike training for distance running, sprinting takes a longer time to make improvements. Power and neural drive takes a long time to develop. You cannot complete change fiber types (research not conclusive on this) but data is pretty conclusive that training can force fibers to take on characteristics of what your training stimulates. Simply put if you train slow you run slow. If you train fast you will become faster.

www.elitetrack.com

www.speedendurance.com

are other good websites you should take a look at for training advice.