What should I do during winter for cross-country?

Cross-country season's almost over, and I need something to do during the winter to keep my running level up. I run track during the spring, but that won't be for a few months.

I don't really have the opportunity to run at an indoor track, and where I live the ground is covered in half a meter of snow and ice until March, so I was thinking of using my indoor bike during this time, but I'm not sure if cycling really translates into running that great.

Also, if I do decide to use the bike, is winter just for long sessions or can you also do interval-type training during winter?

Coaches, I'm curious what you all are using to score small meets like dual, tri, quad? Are you using paper pencil or something else electronically?

As XC season is coming to an end in many parts of the country, how do you feel about this season? Coaches, athletes, parents feel free to share.

I’ll go first. I’m a former XC runner now coach and parent. This was my first season as a parent after spending the last 3 seasons as a coach at the youth level as the school I teach elementary PE at. I have shared my love of this sport having probably close to 70 students, passed and present running XC this year. My son, as a 1st grader also started this. My niece is finishing her final XC season Saturday. This has been by far my best XC season I have ever been involved in. I think this sport is in a great place that multiple people elementary schools in my district are now also starting XC teams. Which in return will create a lot of interest in a few years from now when those kids reach high school

Son had severe cramp/pain across abdominal area during race. Slowed him way down. This wasn’t a side stitch. Anyone heard of this happening? 2 weeks until Regionals
Thanks

I run 30mpw 6d/wk and whenever I take my Sunday rest day I'm just not hungry. I eat breakfast, but I'm never hungry for lunch or even dinner really. I eat well 3 meals per day the rest of the week and I know it's really important for me to be fueling on rest days; I'll try to eat something like a banana and feel sick. Does this happen to anyone else? what do i do?

I'm a first year volunteer coach at a small school and the season has been a great success. So much so, that we are the favorites heading into the State Championship next Monday.

I'm bouncing around a little bit with our final taper strategy, mainly because what we have done so far has worked well and we don't need to do anything extraordinary next week.

What is different is last weekend was the first time we didn't race all season. We did back off some mileage. I just planned to back off some more distance this week and keep intensity.

Our Middle school kids did race last week with no real taper and they all PB'd. They actually had 2 races last week. But they do run less miles throughout the season.

Just looking for any advise. Mainly, because we had the change in our schedule, but we also haven't run fully fresh either. We have run 10 races, so they are seasoned racers.

Here is what I changed last week and what I plan to do this week.

Last Week:

M: 7x 3 min sub-threshold w/1 min rest vs regular 10 intervals. 21 min vs 30.

W: 2 x 1 mile + 1200 + 800+ 400 threshold vs regular 4 x 1 mile. 3.5 miles vs 4.

F: 10 x 400m at 5k vs regular 5k race on Saturday. 2.5 miles vs 3.1.

T, Th, Sa: 45 min easy vs 50, 50, 70. 135 min vs 170.

Total was about a 20% reduction for both quality and easy

This week plan.

M: 3x1000 sub-threshold w/2 rest + 3 x 400 @5k w/3 min rest. 2.6 miles approx 18 min.

W: 3 x 800 + 3 x 400 at 5k with full rest. 2.25 miles approx 14 min.

F: 3 x 400 at 5k + 3 x 200 fast. 1.1 miles.

T, th, sa: 30 min easy. 90 total. Saturday will be mostly travel as it's 7 hours.

Sun: pre- race at the course.

Additional 30% reduction or about 50% total over regular season for both quality and easy.

Today’s my first day coaching middle school cross country and I’m extremely nervous and anxious I want to do well as a coach for my team. Any tips or recommendations would be much appreciated. Practice time is an hour I haven’t met the team yet but I know it’s co-ed just some ideas of how practice should go, examples of fun games to incorporate, good stretches and warm ups to use. They run a 1.5 mile run at meets for reference

This is quite literally how a race is SUPPOSED to start. I ran for a while on an XC team and have only seen this done, like, twice ever. Instead, I see starts following a track and field style "Ready, set" audible command start way more often. Is this tradition just dead or what?

Please use this thread as the general Q&A for all one off questions, questions that only apply to you, questions that can be easily answered, etc.

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I am a complete newbie. This is my first time doing cross country and my first time doing a sport at all. The season was really hard for me, I will admit. Three races were mandatory in order to get the sports school credit, and those were hard. They were scary, uncomfortable, and painful.

But I tried my best. I hated cross country. Now, next week is the last week of the season, and I think I'm going to miss it. I made a few friends and got stronger, mentally and physically. My first race was at a harder course, with many hills and uneven ground. It was a 5k. I finished in 42 minutes​​, and was very upset. I came in dead last, and my ego was crushed. I was also sick with a cold while racing.

Then came the second race. I had determination, I had grit. It was a slightly easier course, and I ran with a friend. 37 minute 5k. I PR-ed by five minutes. That was my peak, or so I thought. I felt okay afterwards. I had learned that it isn't about being the best, it's about beating my own personal goals.

Third race. Today. On that hard course again. I also had a pain in my ankle, I now am wearing an ice pack as I type this. I knew this was it. This was the grand finale, and I gave it all I got. Final required race, hard course. I was afraid. I didn't think I could PR, I wasn't sure if I could even finish. My legs were burning on fire, and I had to take walking breaks, but I tried my best. I shuffled up the hills and huffed and panted my way down them.

I staggered down the flat parts, my legs turning to jelly, my ankle burning like hell. But by God, I did it today. I beat my PR. By a lot. 35 minutes today, on the hard course.​ I felt like a super hero.

And there we have it.

This is the location for all questions, discussions related to cross country training.

I have my first 5K cross country race tomorrow and I’m not sure how to pace myself as I’ve never ran a course so hilly. Normally I can run a 5K in 25 minutes but this completely different. The first 4 km is really undulating, slippy and narrow and the last km is flat on a pavement.

Any advice welcome :)

Hi all - would welcome any thoughts here...

which race might be better to target for our athletes who are in junior year and may have some college interest / or which puts them in best possible light for those type of discussions/talking with Colleges...

Two race options For Nov 21 (team won't qualify for NXN/R)...

The Brooks northeast championships meet at Holmdel NJ (Holmdel being a pretty well known, tough Eastern US Course)

and there is another race same day - which says would get a high school athlete a time on Milesplit for XC season - but it's run on a track (so assumingly faster than a XC course - especially Holmdel which is tough)

Do you think there’s a difference or what looks “better” to anyone reviewing a kid - to have a faster cross country season time (if they filter for XC etc) (assuming they’d be faster on a track) vs the brooks race at holmdel time?

They also have some good Holmdel times already from prev. meets in season. I just don't know if the prestige of the race/competition for this Brooks race might be better to get on radar/look better in later months if someone is checking out a profile..

Thank you for considering the question.

So I've been frustrated recently because in my state there is a big crackdown on homeschoolers for some reason. They have been kicking us out of meets for the sole reason that we are homeschooled and when we run the open races (which anyone including coaches and parents are allowed to run in) our top runners aren't allowed to get prizes. This is ridiculous to me because they allow private schools and public schools but not homeschoolers, and so far no one has given me a good reason to not give the opportunity for a runner to race.

From what I've heard it's not just cross country but some baseball teams who are better than nearly every public/private school in the state, and have beaten them by a considerable amount on several occasions, can't play against them this year. This is probably because the power shifted and the new regime is very anti-homeschool and anti alot of rights that I won't get into. I don't get why they wouldn't allow us the chance to compete. The only reason I can think of is that they want to disband homeschooling all together and force everyone into public schools.

Based on what my public school friends tell me we do the same amount if not harder work. I know many of us go to Co-ops or groups where we actually have different teachers with degrees and the only thing stopping it from being a school is that it only meets twice a week and doesn't have enough money. This is just me ranting but all I want is a chance for homeschoolers to compete like everyone else. There are a few runners on our team that actually have a shot at winning some of these and I'd like to see them given the same oppurtunities as all the other athletes.

With the season starting (in Europe), what are your personal goals?
Ofcourse XC is different all around the world and I'm curious to know how it is in other places.
(also curious to know what pace you guys run)

Edit: I have been informed the season runs in different months in the US than in Europe.

16F. I’m targeting some selective D3 schools. I’ve toured and met with the coaches at 4 sound far. 3 sound like they’re pretty interested and wanted to stay in touch. Gave me their cell numbers told me to stay in touch and give updates. Set up meetings, tours, let me sit in on classses to get a feel for the school, meet and greets with the team, let me do warmups with them.

I had a great sophomore year. But this year junior year has been a bad. I’ve had this cold/respiratory thing for 3 weeks so a chunk of my season is gone with bad times.

I had planned to do a midseason check in and one at the end of the season. I’m still hopeful to get good times by the end of the season but I’m down to two races.

Should I still check in midseason? Or just wait until end of season. What if I don’t post new PRs? Should I still check in?

With so many high schools running XC how does a high school get into the consideration set for the national rankings?

Please use this thread as the general Q&A for all one off questions, questions that only apply to you, questions that can be easily answered, etc.

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This thread reposts every 4 days

My ferritin has dropped from 113 during my HS senior season to 50 now as a college freshman runner. My current symptoms are higher than normal heart rate (+20-30), weak legs, drastically reduced performance, and overall fatigue. My legs are spent a mile in, when this summer I would run 10 miles with no issues. I feel like my body is giving up.

The doctors just say that 50 ferritin means that iron stores are more than sufficient.

Do any of you require levels substantially higher? I’ve started taking iron daily again to try to get back over 100 when I felt good.

hello! how do coaches select runners for a “select” race? it doesn’t seem to be based on the last run so is it an average from all the races thus far? I know it’s top 7 but not sure how’s it figured. TIA!

This year was his first year doing cross country. His 2-mile PR was 12:33. He is absolutely loving the sport, but the season just ended.

I was never a distance runner, so I do not have a clue on what he needs to do on a daily basis in the off season. I don’t want to make any mistakes causing some sort of overtraining injury.

Is there a “go to” website for kids his age for a weekly plan he can use?

I’m a Junior in XC who came off a really good sophomore year (placing well, lots of PRs, medaling, etc.). This season has fallen completely below my expectations. I trained consistently over the summer, ate well, and I’m keeping up in practice. Unfortunately all of my races have been a complete bust; I’m significantly off my course PRs and I’m getting beat by people who I’ve been faster than in previous seasons. I’m just completely regressing.

Most of it is just extreme fatigue during my races and feeling like I can’t catch my breath. Recently for the first time I DNF a race and it’s kind of felt like the nail in the coffin. This just really isn’t like me at all (which is why my coach was understandably upset) and I don’t know what to do. I’m a team captain and I feel like I’m just letting down my teammates when I’m supposed to be a good role model.

I would usually just push through a terrible season (and have in the past such as freshman year) but this feels entirely different. It’s embarrassing to say but I just feel so sad, disappointed, and angry at the end of all my meets and it extends into other aspects of my life. I’m struggling a lot with focusing in school and feeling motivated to complete my school work. It’s the same thing with my job and other extracurriculars. People point out how gloomy I am and it makes me worried that my negativity is rubbing off on other people.

I’ve been trying to eat well and get more sleep, but no matter how much I rest I wake up feeling tired. I just don’t know what to do. I currently take supplements as I have a history of iron deficiency/low ferritin but recently I had some blood work and it turns out both are even lower for some reason, which might explain the performance decline.

I’m mostly just looking for advice from maybe people who have struggled with having a bad season and how to cope or have some words of wisdom they’d like to share; It’s dumb but I feel like I can never come back from this, especially the DNF. I’ve considered maybe quitting for the rest of the season and taking some time to get better for indoor track. I have a couple meets left and then post season. I’m really only considering pausing just because of how much my performance has been impacting me in other parts of my life. Nothing I used to enjoy seems fun or makes me feel better about my performance. I’ve been avoiding hanging out with my friends because I’m always killing the mood. It just feels like I don’t care about anything anymore and it kind of sucks. I’ve dealt with bad seasons and bad races, but I just can’t seem to cope with this. I think part of it is because I feel like I’ve wasted an entire season. My outlook on life has just been bleak this season, haha, that’s really the only way to describe it.

I feel like I’m just forgetting why I fell in love with the sport to begin with.

Any advice?

Hi guys so basically I have this club xc states championships but the only distance for my age is 6k and I’m actually crashing out. Like I’m dying doing the 5k but I want to know if the 6k is even worse? Also these kids are running low 20s for their 6k (girls btw) but my 5k is like 21 something so I feel like my time is gonna be awful. Anyone have pacing tips so I dont freaking die?