Do you think I ran enough miles this summer?

Ehhhh... I'd say that's a fair amount of mileage for a sophomore girl. My girl friends are hitting (at maximum) 55-60 mpw and they're starting their freshman year of XC.

I said "ehhh" before because this generally tends to be a difficult question to answer. It all depends on how much mpw you're used to getting in season, how much your body can handle, and so forth.

If it's more than you ran last summer, you'll be fine.

Half the girls on my XC team don't even log their miles, and they've been in the 5:00 mile and 18-19 min 5ks, so I think you'll be fine.

For the summer, you're in a good place.

ImprobableDreamer wrote:

Ehhhh... I'd say that's a fair amount of mileage for a sophomore girl. My girl friends are hitting (at maximum) 55-60 mpw and they're starting their freshman year of XC.

I said "ehhh" before because this generally tends to be a difficult question to answer. It all depends on how much mpw you're used to getting in season, how much your body can handle, and so forth.

Meant to say *Freshman year of college XC

Young lady, there is no point in pondering about what you could have done, instead focus on the immediate future. Keep up your summer volume and if you can, peak at 40mpw with plenty of easy running. Mostly, listen to your body and be patient. You can add more volume during the winter. Have fun with your training without worrying about what other people are doing. For now, just focus on being consistent and establishing a sustainable routine (i.e. don't beat yourself up).

Last year during XC how many miles per week did you run?

If your answer is 32-35 mpw then your current mileage is good.

As for the 200, well it depends. If you didn't run track in the spring, it could easily be too low. If you ran post season track meets until the middle of June, it could possibly be too much.

We were probably doing around that type of mileage at the beginning of the season from what I can remember, I also would take the weekends off so definitely around 30-35 miles a week in the pre season.

I ran track until the beggining of June as well.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!

Thank you for this. You are very right.

I think you're running about the right amount of mileage at the moment and that is what counts. Keep building until about 1/3 the way through the season if you can though, then sustain and drop the mileage slowly.

Simple questions:

Are you healthy?

Do you feel like you could have done a LOT more, or just a little more?

Did you ONLY run mileage at a fairly slow pace, did you run some of it fast, and did you do anything besides just running mileage?

There is no specific number as to how "good" or "bad" a summer is, as it is all relative to a number of conditions (how much did you do vs. how much you've done before, how easy/hard was the mileage, did you do anything beyond just mileage to prepare for the season, what are you going to be doing during the season to build upon the summer base, how long have you been running and how much more could your body have handled, etc.)

As for a general rule, because you did more this summer than you had previously, I'd say that's a very good start.

1.) What happened in the past is in the past. Leave it at that.

2.) Raise your mileage some more if you know you can handle it.

3.) Do what your coach tells you.

4.) Good luck this cross country season.