Cross Training Questions
Track/ XC Off-Season Training?
This year's track season just ended and I'm ready to start preparing for next year's Cross-Country season. My PR from this year's XC season for a 5k was 20:55. By the beginning of next season, I'm hoping to be in the low 20's (and be much faster by the end). Right now, I do a variety of workouts: long trail runs, paced street runs, track workouts, etc. What are your suggestions for training and improving my times during the summer? I`d really love a week-long workout plan with examples of different workouts for everyday of the week. (Ex. Mon: trail run, Tues: track, etc.) And, specific track workouts that will help me with pacing and speed (I wanna stay ready for the 800, 1600, and 3200 in track next year). Thanks :]
Public Comments
- First off its great that u r running so that will defentily help. Here are sum extra tips. 1.When u run carry a stopwatch and time ur self each day try to improve on ur times. 2.Vary ur workouts. for example maybe Mon. and Wed. u do long distance like ur trail runs. Tues and Thur. Work on ur sprints cuz sprinting is just as important and long distance. Fri. do calf exercises, thigh lifts etc. Sat. run with ankle weights and have fun so go sum where new or vary ur run. Sunday u should rest. 3. u might already do this but listen to music. Make a cd/playlist of ur fav. workout songs. Keep updating it otherwise u will get bored. 4. Get good rest, eat right and not too much (although athletes burn calories faster so u probably dont have to worry about eating too much) 5. Always stretch otherwise u might pull sumthing and that would not be good. lol. Do each stretch for like 30 sec. hopefully these tips will help good luck. oh and one more thing remember its mind over matter so at the end of ur runs/races always sprint no matter how tired u r cuz u can always rest later.
- You already have an idea about what to do. The only thing missing is an occasional race to stress yourself and see what kind of shape you are in at the time. You need to run your intervals at the hoped for race pace or a little faster so your body can adapt to that speed. You should also do some lifting and core exercises along with some plyometrics.
- Take a few weeks off. Then, I would suggest starting your training out with some cross-training. Keep running, just split some of the running time up to swim or bike ride. As the season draws near, drop the cross-training and focus on your thing. Your variety of workouts is good. Getting into a couple competitions over the off-season is a great idea in order to keep your competitive edge alive.
- just keep running, one thing that might help is do sprint intervals really hard and fast every once in a while, and it will help a lot...good luck!
- My coach always says to take a month off before you start running again after the season ends
- Start of with taking two weeks off so that your body can recover from the track season. Then print off a blank callender to shedule your running. Your time looks like a Varsity time so I would suggest working up to about 50 miles/week by the end of the off season. - For the first week start off by running a certian amount of miles per day so that by the end of the week you would have ran 10-15 miles. Then add about 5 or so miles per week until you have about 50 miles a week sheduled for about a week before the XC season starts. - When planning each week start Monday off as a hard day then alternate between easy and hard days as the week goes on. One exception of the pattern would be a longer but very relaxed run(recovery pace) on Saturday. -For the hard days I would suggest doing a different type of workout other than a regular run. Some of these workous could be hill workouts, fartlicks(workout with alternations of speed), and track work. - Also be sure to add in days for core workouts such as crunches, steps-ups, push-ups and calf stretches. If you have any questions about the types of workouts feel free to e-mail me at srhsxc@yahoo.com
