Is a 20 minute tempo run to short for college men's cross country?

You can't run fast off that. Maybe he doesn't think you have enough base from high school. Better to run slow but keep improving than to get hurt.

I put marbles in my shorts during my tempo runs and pretend that they are oreo cookies covered in fire ants.

I do this as a sign of my love for you.

full schedule for the entire season?

Bail now. Coach should be flexible. not have a rigid schedule in place.

OP here. He stated that the schedule is open to change but that what he sent is the general outline of things. It's the workout schedule for all years, not just freshmen though.

Do you have an androgenous name like Jordan? Maybe you got sent the girls schedule. No, as an incoming freshman I'd just trust my coach, at least for a season or 2. A good coach will modify workouts to fit the athlete.

20 min is good enough. We had a bi-monthly 20-min tempo to hit 4 mi at 20-min with even split 5:00/miles. Basically, our coach wanted 5:00/mi pace to be quite comfortable but hard. They were always done on the track during xc season.

The definitive definition of a tempo run has always been - 20 minutes at 5K pace + 20 (give or take a few depending on ability) seconds. Not sure what beef you could have with that. And as far as the overall schedule - throw in a 5 mile X-C race every 7 days and you'll have your hands full.

kmaclam wrote:

The definitive definition of a tempo run has always been - 20 minutes at 5K pace + 20 (give or take a few depending on ability) seconds. Not sure what beef you could have with that. And as far as the overall schedule - throw in a 5 mile X-C race every 7 days and you'll have your hands full.

What is confusing me is that we aren't doing a single workout throughout the season that is over 5 miles in volume. Additionally in HS while racing 5k, I would do workouts of 3x10 min tempo, and things of that nature. Additionally, I thought that 20 minutes was the classic definition of a lactate threshold run, not tempo(with tempo being slightly slower and longer in duration).

Turn long runs into tempo runs. First half go out easy and second half push the pace.

You sound like that kid who is going to bring his letterman jacket to college with him and wear it to classes?

Good luck to your coach. You sound like a real gem.

*too

idk what college you go to but it must be a stoopid one

kidding

20 minutes isn't too short for summer

summer should be easy running anyway

Im confused wrote:

Hi all, I am an incoming freshman and am running cross country at the division 2 level. We were just sent out our full schedule including workouts, meets, etc.. The one thing that I noticed immediately was the lack of tempo work we were doing, despite the races in xc being fairly long. We are doing workouts like 3-4x 1mile at 8k pace(4 is the most we do), hills, 6x1k, and then the occasional tempo run that is a maximum duration of 20 minutes. Is this normal at the college level, and can I get fit to run a fast 8k off this training?

what kind of mileage did you do in hs and whats the mileage here?

whats the long run length looking like?

what are your goals for 8k times and relevant PR's (track 2 mile, and cross country 5k times though this is harder to judge because of course variance)

it sounds easy but if the program is higher in mileage with solid long runs and rigid strides after runs frequently it might be a good set up to run well still

If you are doing a half dozen races over the season and add that to the 20 minute tempos...it starts to add up to some good long work.