Cross Training Questions - How do I go about training for Cross Country?

How do I go about training for Cross Country?

I am 16 and XC season starts in August. I am not fast, but commited. How do i go about becoming fast?

Assuming you're in good shape, just start running. Run a half-mile or something. Work your way up a little at a time and back off a little from time to time. Within a month or so, a 16-year-old ought to be up to running a good distance comparable to the length of a cross country run...like 3 miles. By August, you should be testing yourself with a good fast three-miler every week or so. Also...it's not just the even-paced three miler. Do some reading on speed training and work in a day each week to do a few sprints, intervals or other speed workouts. This once-a-week speed workout is where you try to improve. The rest of the week is sort of like maintaining what you've achieved until next week.
try going to your scxhool track after school every two to three days and have a stop watch and run around the track 2-3 times at once as fast as you can and time it and then try improving you time by 2-4 secounds each run practice this running trchneic for about an hour each time make sure you dont go to the track every day and make sure you take a break in between runs or you will ware yourself out and you wont want to go any more.
I will leave it up to the 2 other people to tell you how to train. As for getting faster when the season starts, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to be committed. You are already halfway there, and if you don't give up, you WILL get faster, and have fun doing it! Good luck I definitley think you will get better! :)