RunningAHEAD - Topic: cross country to track

nrrunner09

posted: 1/25/2008 at 6:04 PM

i am a high school junior. i am a cross country runner and i struggle with the shorter distances of track. i was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions to anything i could be doing outside of running to help me out, like form running, strength training, or strides.

Mr R

posted: 1/25/2008 at 10:14 PM

Everyone has distances to which they're suited. You might just be a pure distance runner, which can be rough for high school track, since even the 3200 is really a middle distance race. However, there are things you can do to be more comfortable in shorter races. Spend a lot of time at race pace or faster, with full or almost full recovery. (You don't want to be limiting your recovery at this stage of your training--save that for later in the spring.) The only thing you need to worry about is the total volume of speed. Just get in lots of it. It will make you a more efficient runner at those speeds. You'll feel more comfortable and waste less energy.

What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. How could they be expected to understand that? -John Parker

Tyler S

posted: 1/26/2008 at 12:55 PM
modified: 1/26/2008 at 12:56 PM

Try 400 meter repeats, they can become tedious, but they really help with speed and endurance training. My track coach has us run 8 with a 400 meter recovery jog between each one (One 400 fast, one 400 recovery, repeat). Depending on your goals for your events try for the 70-80 second range for each. Those times may sound slow but four 70 second 400's is a 4:40 mile. Just be sure to recover after each lap.

cross country to track (Read 356 times)