It sounds like one CV workout a week is recommended, and you assume that most weeks you have at least one race in hs during a relatively short XC season. I can't imagine a CV workout a week is enough to make someone great or improve their times though. I'm actually more curious what you prescribe the other days, the non recovery days that is. Not much is ever clarified in your threads about the other training days. Are you adding a tempo run a week? Are you varying speeds of the non recovery days or doing some form of fartlek/pickups? Please expound on these. As a coach, I can't imagine CV once a week and higher mileage is enough. Also, you tend to work with kids who have a reputation for being fast already, so holding them back during non-important races makes sense, but I often hear about them doing big workouts after a race. Please clarify your thoughts on this too.