College Runners--How does your team structure easy runs?

It's a very individual thing. Some days are "on your own" so you just run whenever/wherever. Some teams still meet every day and run as a group. Other "cliques" will form in a team and you'll run with the people you like more often. Just depends on the program.

Divides runners into groups based on speed

When I ran (albeit at a JC) we only did workouts as a team. All long and easy runs were on your own. I wasn't a big fan of only having practice 2-3 times a week.

Usually start together for the first mile then groups break off depending on how fast they feel like going. Some guys do low 6min/miles others 7min/miles and some even slower.

We go the same route everyday so there are no other places to choose from.

Back in my college days, our entire team would start easy runs together. After awhile typically when we got to our first intersection (whether in some trails or out on the roads) whoever was in the front of the pack would decide which way to go. It was the other runners choice as to follow or go a separate route. As for pace everyone ran how they felt. I can remember on occasion the first runners done weren't always necessarily the fastest on the team. Nobody ever went to use the dreadmills. Those things suck.

Most easy runs are on our own, the coach gives us an idea of what kind of mileage we should be hitting for the week. When we run together we run where we want at the pace we want. I'm sure if we are running 10 minute pace or hammering 5:30s everyday, the coach would want to know.

Way back when, my experience was similar to this. No one ran on treadmills, but there were tunnels under our campus that some folks would run in (1000m loops). Usually coach would have the distance for each day up on the board in the locker room, and we would all take off and choose the loop based on the distance to be covered, with a few historical loops dominating the selection. Everyone started off together and people would usually stick together in groups, sometimes just one group, more often 2 or 3 groups depending on where we were in the season and who was going what distance..

Five years out now but:

We had scheduled practice for long run (Sunday) which was treated as an easier effort except in off season and earlier in the season. We also had scheduled practice Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for harder workouts. Wednesday AM we would meet for a pool workout.

For Monday AM&PM, Tuesday AM, Wednesday PM, and Thursday AM, we were assigned distances (in minutes) to run. We would meet up with whoever was free at the same time we were and get it done.

I thought it worked pretty well. Lots of guys had pretty tight academic schedules and it wasn't easy getting everyone free for Tuesday/Thursday afternoon, let alone more workouts a week.

Run behind the girls team.

Actually though, especially in cross country when we double on easy days more often, I'll do my second run of the day with some of the faster girls on the team to keep myself from going too fast/slow.

BeenThere wrote:

Run behind the girls team.

Whatever we want as long as we're out of the coach's sight for 40 min or however long it is scheduled for.

We do run every time. There's a kid we don't like who we ditch and another kid we don't like who can't keep up for more than 2 minutes.

The team generally meets together at the same time for practice. Based on peoples mileage goals, how they feel that day and where people are interested in running we break into smaller groups. Sometimes it could be almost the entire team doing the same easy run or sometimes its just me and one other guy doing the route. I like the freedom it gives us in structuring our training.

I ran on a very good D1 team. We finished in the top 10 at NCAA Cross Country Championship once, made it there one other time, and missed by one place at regionals twice in my years. We NEVER had solo runs. The team met every weekday at 3:30pm and early morning on Sat/Sun. I don't recall the coach being there always on the weekend, but there was a meeting place and time. Morning runs were on your own or with whoever you made a plan.

Structure: Easy runs were typically based on time, like 75min easy followed by strides. Workouts were usually on a bike path with distance and rest given (ex. 8x1000m, 1min jog). On easy days, some guys could run 6:10 miles, some more like 7:00 depending on the recovery need.

This was 25 years ago.