High School XC Training

Build up to 50-55 on 6 days. Vary the distance and add strides to help add some pop to your legs.

Ex:

Mon: 8miles

Tue: 7miles + 4x100m strides

Wed: 10miles

Thu: 8miles

Fri: 7miles + 4x100m strides

Sat: OFF

Sun: 11-12miles

Do that for about a month and you will adjust. Once you are comfortable at that mileage, in late july you can add workouts. Broken tempos are great during the sunmer. 8x3mins @ tempo, with 1 min jog. 3x10mins @ tempo with 1 min jog. 4-5x6mins @ tempo with 1 min jog. Do one of those 1 time per week until practice starts in the fall.

If you have done 40 -45 in the past, you can get up to 45-50, no need to do anymore in HS.

Be smart, you will continue to develop, no need to rush it. Vary the paces, don't worry about workouts, run hills or hilly courses. It's all about aerobic development.

I coach a girl entering a D1 program this year who runs 10:40 3200m, 17:40 5k, 4:57 1600. She is currently doing ~45 miles/week and building up to 55/week this summer. I am only having her do one tempo run/week in the summer so she can focus on building up mileage without injury. She has never had a "bad" week where she felt tired the whole week or couldn't complete a workout or long run. She has never been injured, and we've never had to back off on mileage Here are some things I think are key:

- Her easy runs are truly easy. She runs on flat ground 7:45-8:10 pace for almost all mileage with zero or near zero elevation gain, and isn't afraid to go slower when it's warm or humid out (she cut a run from 6 miles to 4 and went 8:30 when it was 80 and humid two days ago). I think people underestimate summer weather on paces. I suspect you're still going a little fast on your easy runs. 50 feet of elevation gain is ~15 seconds of time loss over one mile.

- She takes a nap 2-3x/week and always gets at least 8 hours of sleep per night. She doesn't work as she considers preparing for being a D1 athlete her job (and I agree with her).

- She doesn't expend extra energy - no other sports, she doesn't lift (though she maybe should), doesn't hike, etc. Running is 95%+ of her physical activity.

- She does six days per week of running, and still takes a day off after her long run. I think the day off is extremely helpful.

I coach a pretty decent program of girls and train all my kids like this in the summer - focus is building mileage and feeling good. When my kids don't feel good, I tell them they either need to back off on mileage or intensity. So far (though I've only been coaching four years) I haven't had anyone get injured.

Also - get your serum ferritin checked by a doctor's office if you haven't. I won't let my girls build their mileage past 30/week unless their ferritin is at least 50.

Excellent post, thanks.

This guy gets it. Listen to him.

Yeah, this is very good advice. I like Coach Er16’s advice too. OP, you will adapt, but it’s always best to listen to your body rather than “force” a schedule. You can also do a shorter double on particularly hot/humid days where you had planned a long single.

I used to do six days per week as a prep in summer, all in singles and with one long run (I would’ve done more, but I worked all day M-F). But, I only had one planned “workout” during the week like on a Wednesday, which was like an easy fartlek or tempo run. The long run usually turned into a progressive effort where the last mile or two were “tempo” pace, but all other runs were by feel, some painfully easy and some probably too fast. But, ultimately, it worked for me. Striders too. Sunday was always an active rest day.

And, yes, definitely check your ferritin. Doctors may tell you 30 is fine and normal, but the advice to get it to 50 is spot on. It probably should be even higher. 30 is not “normal” for a distance runner.

Especially if you want to add workouts you can definitely slow down those easy days, which should definitely help with recovery. A girl on my team ran 5:25/11:40 in track and is going for sub 19 in XC, so just slightly slower than you, and she does most of her easy runs at 9-10 minute pace.

I was wondering about this too.

The new thinking is that a 9-10 min pace for the bulk of the easy mileage is preferable?

Yep, had a little success with HS girls, looking back, the key was easy days easy. Six days per week of running.