r/CrossCountry

Yesterday, I made my decision final. I resigned from coaching football and will be taking over XC coaching duties for our high school.

I have been coaching football for a long while now (I think 13 years), pop warner and then high school. It is a blast and intense, but the drama got to me last year (player and parent). It certainly was not fun. My youngest will be a junior and I spoke to him about it. His only thing was "you will still come to my games correct?"

I got voluntold to coach track and field 3 years ago now. It has been great and I love it. We are a small school and I have one assistant coach who is very knowledgeable but older (76). My boys sprint and hurdle, so I have focused on that but learning all events. I recently finished USATF Level 1 coaching.

We have had a revolving coaching door at cross country, so I decided to make the switch. I have a bunch to learn, but looking forward to building a team and hoping adding some distance to my track team.

Small school coach here looking for recruiting ideas for girls teams. We have a hard time recruiting for MS and HS level. our school really pushes Softball and Volleyball for girls so they get the bulk of the girls. They also don't cut players so they have a deep bench of players that ride the bench. Most of our current girls have come from both sports once they realized they will never be the starters. Unfortunately that isn't until 10 or 11th grade but we take what we can have. I have managed to break through with recruiting boys unfortunately what works for them doesn't do it for the girls. anyway if other coaches have ideas I'm open to suggestions.

We're rebuilding a high school cross country program that lost momentum over the past few years — low turnout, disorganized, and developed a reputation for being only for advanced runners. We're starting fresh with new coaches and a new culture.

Our immediate goals: recruit returning students who dropped out, attract beginners and multi-sport athletes who never considered XC, and make a strong impression at orientation and our first team meeting in August.

We want to communicate clearly that all levels are welcome and that we have a real program with structure, a plan, and coaches who show up.

Specific questions:

• What's worked for you at orientation or first-day recruitment?
• How do you pitch XC to kids who've never run?
• How do you reach students who had a bad experience with a previous program?
• Any advice on that first team meeting — what to say, what to show, how to hook them?

All tips appreciated!

Note: Neither of my parents are runners, my dad was forced to run the mile in high school and got DQ’d for walking it lol.

So here’s some background: I’ve had a really shitty XC season this last year because my coach has been horrible to me. My parents agreed that he’s a bad person, yet they will not stop nagging me on how to improve my times. They keep telling me I have all summer to train super hard (and I do, but in my own way). My mom constantly insists that to do well, I need to switch up my routes a bit, run more and just sprint at the end of races. This might work for some athletes, but all it does for me is burn me out.

To clarify, I run between 20-25 miles a week for XC, so I do not need to “run more.” Doing 30-35 got me injured, along with sprinting the ends of races. Plus, racing is for spreading your energy out conservatively, not just sprinting the end. That may work for some, but for me, it’s all about spreading out my energy in between different spots throughout the race. I’ve told them numerous times about what works for me, and have mention that their constant reminders of “how to be good” make me less motivated and struggle to listen. They reply with “I’m just trying to help, to be good you have to train hard.” While this is true, doing their exact suggestions has not been beneficial to me (they know this), doing my own workouts and runs at my own speed and time is what works best for me. They just seem to be piling on more and more pressure of how I need to be good in order to prove my coach wrong. I understand what they’re trying to do, but I’m already training well, and this extra pressure only makes me less motivated.

My times are solid, consistent, and fairly fast. My parents think I’m not doing enough or running fast enough. They never believed in me in high school, always making comments like, “have you been able to keep up with your teammates? I know you’re not the fastest runner on the team,” and “You’re not going to run in college, to walk on to a team, you have to actually be good.”

I am very lucky to be able to run for a D3 college currently, my parents support me a lot more now that I’ve made it to college. However, this constant nagging is driving me crazy. I understand I’m coming off as entitled and rude. But I am a good athlete, and don’t want to lose my enjoyment of the sports simply because of this.

Has anybody else felt this way about their parents? I obviously love them and appreciate their support, but constantly being told I’m not running enough and need to be faster is making me want to quit.

I’ve heard a lot that summer is just for base-building. I’m a freshman that’s going into sophomore season soon and was wondering if I should only do easy/long runs or if i should add in workouts. Sadly my coaches also suck so I can’t ask them for help or anything and i’m not going to their summer practices so i’m gonna be on my own. I just want to know if I should add in workouts in the summer and if so how many.

Super high carb training is all the rage these days and seems to be making huge gains in cycling, marathon running and especially in ultra endurance sports. I’m curious if it’s worth jumping on the high carb train as someone who at max races no more than 45 minutes on the trails. Obviously not gonna be taking in fuel when racing such short distances but would there be a benefit to taking in that much fuel during easy mileage? I already take in fuel during long runs but I’m specifically talking about training the gut and pushing past 60grams of carbs per hour. Do high level mid distance racers use this strategy?
Thanks 🙏

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’m a sophmore wrapping up my outdoor track season with a 6:55 mile. i started off at 9 minutes freshman year and only was just now able to break 7 minutes.

the idea of improving even more excites me and i want to qualify for states (5:30 ish mile) and actually become an asset to my team

but when i look at the profiles of the girls who are running these fast times now, it’s like they’ve never been slow or i never see any starting times as slow as mines which feels a bit discouraging

is this even possible by my junior or senior year if i train consistently through summer, xc, indoor, and outdoor? i can answer any questions if needed

Howdy everyone! Hope track season went well, I just finished up my sophomore year and I want some guidance on how to inform my friend about his over ambitious training goals.

For context, he ran a 19:08 5k this past fall, and he’s convinced that he can get a sub 17 next season

His 1600m pr from this spring is 5:20

Anyways, he is extremely stubborn when it comes to input about his training, despite the fact that his goal of absurdly high mileage, up to 60mpw+ in the summer is something he’s never trained for

My 5k pr is 17:12, and I do a very gradual increase in mileage over the summer maxing at 50mpw, while he wants to bump it up to 50 or so within only the first few weeks, which is a recipe for overtraining and an Injury in his case. (He already struggles with knee pain and hamstring tightness)

He doesn’t know that this could hinder his performance in the process and I don’t know how to approach him about it, I want the best for him

I’ve seen him get weaker in the gym too, he can barely get a single proper push up in, while he used to be quite strong

any help?

Hi—He may get free stuff from companies promoting their products and as a seasoned coach has all he needs for everyday. But is there anything else you can think of an XC/T&F Coach would like, something meaningful but not expensive? Thank you.

I currently run a 15:30 3 mile, a 9:41 3200 and a 4:27 1600. I've been running since the beginning of freshman yr and I'm currently coming to the end of my sophomore track season and headed into summer training. I stopped running for about 4-5 months for vb season last year nd did not do track only xc. I do not do any weight training. My goal for the end of next xc szn is a 3 mile in 14:49. My goals for the end of track season next year is 9:19 3200 and a 4:18 1600. what are the chances this will happen if i start doing weight training and running. I also would like to point out I'm in a very stacked CA HS xc team so i will be pulled up by my much better teammates.

I’m a sophomore boy (16), coming into the last couple meets of outdoor track for this year. I’m varsity on track and cross country, albeit with small teams.

I run a 5:16 1600M, and a 11:22 3200M. State qualifying time for the 16 is roughly 4:20, and 9:30 for the 32 in my class and state. Is it possible by senior year? I’m willing to work my ass off, and I’ve been dropping a lot of time recently, and I think I’ve got a lot more in the tank in these races, it’s just that my legs get tired. I also run an 18:37 5K, if that helps.

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

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.

​

This thread reposts every 4 days

I have the general idea / concept for our high school team - which ever kids do a certain amount of total summer mileage (Strava) they get a special invite to end of summer thing - tentatively called : the breakfast of champions.
(Can vary mileage req based on level of kid at start of summer)

Trying to use it as a way to introduce a “special” event to mark the end of summer before formal coach led practices begin. And encourage / motivate summer work.

Any other ideas for that - or what ideas would make something like this great!
— not a breakfast but just surprise them by taking to an amusement park or something
—invite parents to “serve” them breakfast in like suits etc
—try to invite some fast respected alumni
—they arrive, bus them to secret location
—swag w “breakfast of champions” on it

Looking to create something great this year. But maybe it also becomes like a thing kids look forward to / try for in future years.

Ideas?

Hello and good afternoon! I am looking for guidance,help, and/or training. Sorry for the long message, just trying to give any information that could be helpful.

Here’s the situation if you’re willing to lend some wisdom:

My coach all of highschool is getting a different job at a new school, and my assistant coach, who coaches middle school, is taking their place.

I know for sure that this may have a negative impact on my training because I have seen the type of training she does and it is not as effective as the training I am currently doing.

But, I don’t know if I am just limited by what I’ve been doing and maybe there’s even better things out there. So, I am writing this to anyone who has experiences with past coaches/current coaches that could help me prepare for this upcoming summer.

One thing that I’ve noticed about myself now and in the past is that I struggle with threshold workouts aerobically but feel like myself/perform better during sprints and speed workouts if that gives any important information about what type of training I should target.

Some examples of workouts that I usually cannot hit the pace on: 3 mi. @5:45 (can sometimes do it for 2) and then about 6-8x2s after(if it’s two mile thresh), starting at 31 and going down one sec every rep usually. (31,30,29,28,27,26,25)

During cross, I died on hill Ks and almost every workout I did during that. I hated XC and kind of dreading it this year but I know I have to do it in order to get better.

I am currently an upcoming senior in highschool and I am really looking forward to working hard and trying to get the most out my opportunity. I know it might be late to reach out, but I really want to build a future for myself. Wanting to go into sports med/PT if that gives an idea of where I should reach out college wise also.

PRs:
(I’ve been running since the 5th grade but I dont think my prs are worth showing except for running 4:51 as an 8th grader)

1600: 4:30.01 as a sophomore, 4:37.8 this year on the 20th in April. Been focused on the 800 and only ran the 1600 once this year(4:37.8), which was just me on an island.

I feel like my milesplit doesn’t truly show what I’m capable of either because it doesn’t show relays. Ran at least 3/4 events last year as a sophomore, and this year really only the 8, and sometimes 4x4 and 4x8.

800: 2:02 as a sophomore, 1:59.3 split in the 4x8 that year. 1:59.49 this year in the open 8. So far I’ve been at 1:59 consecutively for the past 3 meets(basically past 3 weeks). .56,.49, and most recently .79(1st of may) on an island by myself after 4x8.

By the way, track is not over yet. If my team doesn’t make it to nationals in any event then state is the 23rd, regions the 11th. Currently preparing to taper.

5k: 17:03 this year
16:59.6 on the track sophomore year
XC: 17:09

Hello! I am a senior D2 collegiate athlete. I do cross country and track. I have dealt with many injuries and I just ended my track career with a tibial stress fracture. However, I have one more cross season. After I heal what can I do this summer to make sure I don’t get injured again and also get faster to have a good last season? Any advice is appreciated ❤️

5k - 18:06

6k - 22:40

3000S - 11:20

1500 - 4:53

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