Five cross country practices per week - my 'new to running' kids cry 'too much' - what should I advise them to do? (Read 1246 times)

As of now, school ends at 3:30 and practice starts at 5 and ends at 6:30. So it does really take up their after school time.

What are they doing between 3:30 and 5pm?

When I was in high school (and still at the local school today), if you miss a practice without a valid parent and/or doctor's excuse, you are out for a meet; if it happens often, you're off the team. I'd check on that policy before allowing them to skip practice... It seems really silly that practice is from 5 - 6:30. Our school did morning practices instead of after school ones if there was a conflict in practice location (like the use of the track), but the cross country team almost always ran on the city sidewalks or on country roads, so there were no conflicts! Not to mention that it seems to invite kids to possibly get into trouble in the time between 3:30 and 5pm (not that all kids would get into trouble)...

team practice is every day. if you are on the team, you practice. If you dont want to practice, then dont be on the team. Stuff isnt usually negotiable unless you have a conflict like another school activity (band, a second sport) or something else that is negotiated and agreed on with the coach. Hanging out with friends...not usually in there.

Ennay said it right; work it out with the coach. Going to practice is a privilege.

This is a reply from my 16-year-old son, a junior who started XC preseason yesterday: I would recommend that they go to all of the weekly practices because they made the commitment to train when they joined the team. They should be aware that it will take a little bit more effort to begin the sport since they've never done it before. Part of the excitement of running is realizing what your body can do with some training. It may be that I'm not the typical runner, but when I started, I kept pushing myself even when every easy day felt like a workout. As disheartening as that sounds, my body adjusted after a while and I made varsity cross country my freshman year, so the work did pay off. If the start of the season does feel too difficult, I would probably just slow down on the recovery days in order to keep the easy days easy knowing what I do now, but your sons should make the transition to five days a week because it will better prepare them for races (It is much worse to run a race without quality training and easy recovery days). On my team, people who miss practices without a legitimate reason miss the upcoming race, but the five-day week and the long practice hours are required if you want to be prepared for races. The people who skip practices are usually the people who never really get that much better unless they have massive amounts of natural ability. Even if the people with natural ability do well with apparently no effort, I have found that there is no substitute for consistent training over time. Half the excitement of cross country is knowing that you trained hard and that your effort is going toward something. I'm not saying that a four-day week won't lead to improvement, but highschool coaches will map out an entire training schedule before the actual season, so it really is necessary to attend practice for the full five days if you're interested in gaining the full benefits of that training plan. If the intensity or the distance is the problem with the step jump increase in training, then I have two responses: If the intensity is too great, run slower on the easy days; workouts on the harder days can only get so hard, and the harder they feel, the more strength you will gain from them. This concept is not true on the easy distance days. Faster days are important because the muscles that you use when you're running faster are being exercised, which is good for faster races. However, recovery days are equally important because you can gain strength over a longer distance, which is beneficial to your endurance, but if these days don't feel somewhat easy, then you aren't getting the maximum benefit of the recovery run. If the distances seem impossibly long, then I would look at your current level of fitness and the weekly mileage that your coach recommends. Since your sons are just starting, they shouldn't have to do more than thirty miles per week approximately. The maximum amount of weekly mileage that they were doing before cross country was about sixteen miles (4miles/day, 4 days/week), so in the beginning of training, they probably shouldn't be doing more than thirty miles a week. Since sixteen miles a week is less than the mileage that beginning runners normally do, the preseason workouts with the increased mileage probably would feel too difficult, but if your sons are running less than thirty miles a week for the first week or so of training, there isn't really an excuse; sure it's hard in the beginning, but they can handle it (as long as they have appropriate nutrition and hydration every day, 1 mile = 100 calories, drink the loss of water weight during the run). Cross country is time consuming, but it is rewarding if you put the effort into it. I hope this helps, and I really am 16. This is just a small part of what I have learned throughout my running experiences.

If the intensity is too great, run slower on the easy days; workouts on the harder days can only get so hard, and the harder they feel, the more strength you will gain from them. This concept is not true on the easy distance days. Faster days are important because the muscles that you use when you're running faster are being exercised, which is good for faster races. However, recovery days are equally important because you can gain strength over a longer distance, which is beneficial to your endurance, but if these days don't feel somewhat easy, then you aren't getting the maximum benefit of the recovery run.

That sounds so familiar.

I guess I'd say, take it from the 16 year old above. I'd not condone skipping, but if they decide XC is not for them, let 'em drop it - especially if they give it the old college try. It seems like they know the commitment thing from other activities and life's to short to stick with stuff you don't like. Maybe find out why they joined if they seem lackadaisical. As for "the other kids do it" you could always ask them the old "if the other kids were jumping off a bridge, would you" question. Or maybe kids aren't jumping off bridges anymore.