Do half milers in college generally have to run XC?

I think 800/1500 types usually do in the lower division teams. If you are going to a major D1 program, unless your coach is turning you into a miler, you might not have to.

Andrew Wheatimg was on Oregon's 2008 NCAA XC Championship Team and finished 75th.

Half ass everything and have a great spring track season.

I'm a coach at a fairly run of the mill dI state university. I would NEVER give a scholarship to a 800 guy who didn't run xc. Not even books. To have a well balanced team, I need some scholarships for sprinters and field, I can't give the equivalent of 5-7 partial scholarships to distance guys, so we don't suck at xc, and then give more scholarships to middle distance guys because our 800 runners can't contribute in xc. Simply put, an 800 guy who can't make the top 7 in xc, at least in some low key meets, or who could replace an injured distance guy without gaining too many points just isn't valuable. Don't be a puss, run college xc. I make walk ons run xc too, I've even made 400 guys run xc before if I thought they'd slack during the summer.

It depends on the school

I had a kid who ran the 400 and went to Coppin State with financial assistance for track. At the introduction for the new year, the coach asked all non-field even athletes to stay behind after the meeting. He then told every single one of them, including 100/200 meter runners they were expected to go to XC practices. Not necessarily run the whole 8 and 10 mile runs, but to get there money, they were expected to go to all XC practices.

Now, another student who was 800/1500 went to Yale and had the "option" to go to XC practices, and ran in 2 races only per year, and had a much lighter workload in mileage than the true XC runners.

You've got ter run xc mucker. wan time me an' dis 10k bloke fintan were runnin' de cross roi through dis farmer's field up ter de craic cossie. den oi dropped a 1:57 8/15 1500 on 'imself roi in de middle av de friggin' cross. it wus at dat point dat wee ole' 1500 guy me knew oi 'ad de race won as we were in englan' an' naw englishman 'as ever club an Oirish paddy in anythin' dat matters. they're alwus stealin' our craic stones.

I was an 800 specialist in college. We ran XC until whenever it was in the first week of November or so where we were officially allowed to start indoor track. It basically amounted to a couple of dual meets and maybe one invitational. It was definitely valuable to track training though IMO.

Sebb Coe ran cc.

Spending the fall developing aerobic fitness is s good thing for almost every 800m person. If you maintain speed with strides and lifting you'll show up for track in great shape. Only poorly designed xc programs cause you to substantially lose top end.

There are very few people who are true 400/800 types. Odds are you aren't juantorena.

Also: championship 800m runners need to make it through heats. This favors runners with good endurance.

The article on Boris Berian says he did 55 mpw.

You can take all the examples and the "type of runner" stuff and throw it out the window.

the answer is yes. here are the reasons:

1. its organized training under a coach

2. its competition. Runners need to be competitive all year around to stay focused

3. It makes track easy. CC runners are tough and track isnt hard after all that work

The 1:45 college frosh didn't run XC during the fall. He picked a school where he didn't have to run XC and he OPENED his INDOOR season at 1:45.

From the UK so I don't really understand the scholarship stuff but, correct me if I'm wrong, but in the US the XC season is pretty short? A few months October- December? What 800 runner would not benefit from mainly endurance work in that period when his real aim should be outdoor track April-June/July?. Even a 400/800 type would benefit. This does not necessarily involve high mileage but plenty of longer, relatively slow reps on a XC surface would surely be OK for an athlete who would spend much of the spring/summer running fast track workouts?

Finally, Snell won the NZ XC title in his time and Ovett was a top class performer in the UK over 7-9 miles XC. Oh, and both won Olympic golds at 800!

mark b wrote:

From the UK so I don't really understand the scholarship stuff but, correct me if I'm wrong, but in the US the XC season is pretty short? A few months October- December? What 800 runner would not benefit from mainly endurance work in that period when his real aim should be outdoor track April-June/July?. Even a 400/800 type would benefit. This does not necessarily involve high mileage but plenty of longer, relatively slow reps on a XC surface would surely be OK for an athlete who would spend much of the spring/summer running fast track workouts?

Finally, Snell won the NZ XC title in his time and Ovett was a top class performer in the UK over 7-9 miles XC. Oh, and both won Olympic golds at 800!

^^this is why US sprint trained 800 guys will never produce internationally.

The US college XC season is Sep - Nov.

And if you are not a very useful XC runner you are done at the end of October.

So yes, it's a short fall season for base training.

And you can do whatever base training suits you and line up for a few 5 mile races.

Perfect for 800m fall training.

Kyle's Killer Lemonade wrote:

Cas Loxom, Drew Windle, and Nick Symmonds are three of the best 800 runners and they all ran cross country. Division 1, 2, and 3.

Run cross country.

Cas never ran XC in college. He did base training which was basically a lighter version of the main XC workouts. Might have raced the first 3 miles of a home meet.

The last American to win Olympic gold for the 800 and the last WR holder in the half both ran cross country

I remember seeing Patrick Rono in some XC meets.

Ha. No kidding. The better question: "Why shouldn't 1/2 milers run CC?" They don't have to be on the travel team or score, but why not use it as an opportunity to train for indoor?

Gnomebe wrote:

Half ass everything and have a great spring track season.

There is a guy in my conference who ran 24:56 in the 8k XC and 1:50 in the 800 in the span of 4 months.